II. Activities for Getting the Most out of textbook Lessons Without Using the Copy Machine

Guessing/ Prediction Exercise –

· Before handing out a reading or dialogue, ask the students a series of “or” questions. For example, Is the story about a man or a woman ? Is the person under 50 or over 50 ?, etc.

· Write the students’ predictions on the board. Ask them to listen to the story or dialogue or read the story to confirm or deny their predictions. This helps teaching skimming and scanning skills as well as focused listening skills.

Listening exercises / Comprehension Exercises

· Have students listen to a story or dialogue before they read it themselves.

· Ask them True/false comprehension questions. They can number 1-5 on a piece of notebook paper to record their answers.

· Ask them WH questions. Have students collaborate to report the correct answers.

Vocabulary words in context - Before a reading lesson, write some sentences on the board using the targeted vocabulary. Have students copy the sentences from the board and in pairs guess the meaning of the underlined words.

Re-telling a story - After studying a story, especially after the first day, write key words on the board that refer to parts of the story. Ask for volunteers to look at the key words and practice telling the story orally to the rest of the class.

Grammar focus – Ask students to number the paragraphs in a story. Ask them to choose one or more paragraphs and write down all the verbs in the story. Then have students group the verbs as to whether they are regular or irregular verbs. If applicable have students re-write the story , using a different verb tense.

Pronunciation focus - Ask students to look at a paragraph or a dialogue and copy it from the board or book and do the following:

· Underline the words in the sentences that carry the most important meaning. Have students read the sentences, stressing and lengthening these words.

· Circle the stressed syllables in words. Have students practice reading the sentences, lengthening and raising the pitch of the stressed syllables.

· Underline final letters in words that students may not pronounce very well. Have them practice these sentences, focusing on pronouncing the final sounds.

· Mark phrase groups. Have students practice reading the sentences, pausing after the phrase groups.

Pronunciation/ phonics focus - Ask students to underline or copy words in a paragraph or dialogue with certain sounds, e.g. short “a”. Then have students practice the pronunciation of these words.

Vocabulary – Pull words out of an article or story and ask students to write the opposite or words that mean the same. Have students categorize words from a lesson.

Spelling – Create spelling lists from a story or article that will be on a test or quiz. For practice, write them on the board with letters missing ( cloze ) and have students copy them supplying the correct letters at the beginning of a class.

Grammar focus - Write some sentences on the board about people in a story, e.g. William B. is from northern California, etc. Have students write sentences about themselves that agree or disagree with the statement, e.g. I am not from Northern California. This provides practice in writing negative forms or forms of agreement.

Memory - Show a picture. Ask students in teams to try and remember as many items as they can. Then have students alphabetize the words or sequence them in some fashion.

Recollection - Several days after a story, ask students to recall what a story was about. Write the story summary on the board as the students report it. Use this paragraph for dictation later on.

Question formation - After a reading, ask the students to generate comprehension questions about the story. Students can then practice writing the answers to the questions.

Writing - Write parts of a story or dialogue on the board with blanks ( cloze ). Students write the complete story, filling in the blanks.

n.Writing – Write key words on the board. Students write sentences which become a summary of the story previously studied.

Writing - Write sentences with errors on the board (preferably sentences students have written before.) Ask the students to work in pairs and correct the sentences. Check the sentences all together.

Have all students practice written textbook exercises orally, especially questions and answers.

When there are word boxes, ask the students to number the words. Then pairs of students can practice orally with each other, e.g. “ What’s number 3?”

Follow-up exercises after a reading that don’t require copying:

· Have students role play the story, if appropriate

· Have students write a letter to a character in the story

· Have students write an opinion about the story, supporting their ideas for examples or details.

· Have students research a related topic on the internet and report back to the class.