Prepare the students to read the story Goldfish (PM Readers, Orange 2).
Bring a goldfish to the classroom if possible. Ask students:
Build on the students' vocabulary, for example fins, gills, tail, goldfish tank, goldfish pool, fish tank, snails, air, colours.
Model descriptive sentence structure, such as generic nouns and simple present tense verbs (goldfish have/ do not have - note that 'goldfish' does not follow the general rule for forming plurals). Do a KWLchart (Word 34KB) exercise on goldfish, writing the knowledge and questions on a chart, or on the board for students to copy.
Read the story. Model how to answer the questions at the bottom of the pages before turning the page to find the answer. If the students answer incorrectly, direct them back to where they can find the answer. During the reading refer to the questions on the KWL chart and confirm their prior knowledge. After reading, together write the answers to any questions on the chart that were answered.
Give the students a picture of a goldfish with four boxes around it. Put a fact about goldfish in each box, as you do this explain what a 'fact' is. Do this together as a model for more independent work. In pairs label the parts of a fish.
Describe what the term labelling means.
Review the facts about goldfish. Read a big book such as Spiders by Colin Walker (Wonderland). Photocopy a short part of the text (remember copyright laws) and give the students practice in highlighting the facts. The students read the text again and record their facts, completing the reading tasks:
Provide a wealth of other reading material appropriate to the ESOL students' reading level. It is very useful to play an audio version of the books, especially the more difficult texts. For example:
Published on: 09 Jan 2018
