Learning task 3
Expected time frame: 2–3 lessons
These post-reading activities are designed to enable students to understand and think about key events, setting and participants in and beyond the text. They also enable students to follow a lexical chain, understand how pronoun reference works and identify some verb processes in a historical recount.
Providing many opportunities for academic language use with a focus on using authentic language
- Ask students to read the text again and complete the
3 Level Thinking Guide (Word 23KB)
. They should do this on their own and then compare their answers with those of a partner.
- Ask students write a one sentence summary of the origin of the idiom "D Day". Students read their summary to a partner.
- Ask students tell a partner about one event in their life that they could describe as "D Day".
Give learners many opportunities to first notice then use new language
Lexical chains
- Ask students, in their groups of three, to check the lists they made under the headwords – army, boats and weather - and delete any words that were not found in the text. Ask them to add at least three more words linked to the headword that were found in the text and identify what part of speech each word is. Students should also think about and discuss how the words in the chain are linked and how lexical chains function as a
cohesive device (Word 39KB)
in texts.
- The following annotation to the D Day text in ELIP should be pointed out to students if they do not notice this feature themselves:
Almost every paragraph has a synonym or substitution for "army"as the first element of the topic sentence to help track the information through the text viz. Para 1 D Day, Para 2 (In June 1940) the Allied army, Para 3 (Four years later) they, Para 4 The commanders of the army, Para 5 The first day they chose, Para 6 The generals, Para 7 Change of focus – Nowadays – so "army" is no longer the focus.
Pronoun reference
Ask the students to identify the nouns and noun phrases in the
pronoun reference task (Word 39KB)
. One example has been done for students, but some may need further guidance.
Verb processes
- Explain to students that there are different types of verbs which describe different types of processes. Linking verbs are those which show a link between the subject of the verb and something which it is or has. These are mostly is and have. Action verbs are those which describe something happening e.g. run, fight. Mental verbs describe thinking and feeling processes e.g. understand, love and saying verbs describe ways of saying things e.g. shout, whisper.
- Ask students to fill in the Verb Table (Word 28KB) with some different types of verb processes from this text. Beside each verb write the subject of the verb in brackets. Make sure students include all parts of the verb group. The first example has been done for students. Ask students what they have noticed about the types of verb processes used in this historical recount.
Reflection
Ask students to complete the
learning grid (Word 33KB)
at the end of the unit to identify which of the language learning outcomes they think they have met. Discuss with students to see if further teaching and learning needs to be done on specific outcomes for individuals or groups of students.
Where to next?
It is suggested that students read more complex historical recount texts at ELIP stage 3 using guided reading approaches.
For students who are interested in learning more examples of idioms in English the following resources may be useful:
http://languagearts.pppst.com/idioms.html
Published on: 09 Feb 2012
