How to Teach 'Reading and obtaining specific information' for Form Two Students

How to Teach 'Reading and obtaining specific information' for Form Two Students


Welcome to UNIT 19.3 

PREVIOUSLY: In Unit 19.2, we discussed about the various ways of teaching the sub topic “Interpreting simple stories”  in Form Two.

IN THIS UNIT 19.3, we will cover the sub topic “Reading and obtaining specific information” in Form Two.

TOPIC’S INFORMATION
Main Topic: READING FOR COMPREHENSION
Sub Topic: Reading and obtaining specific information
Periods per sub topic: 12
Class: Form Two

DESCRIPTION OF THE SUB TOPIC
You can grab the newspaper and read only some specific details quickly. A specific thing is anything that is taken from the big content or many things. The teacher has to guide students to read various texts and pick out specific information from them. Specific information is important because in this world where people have a lot things to do, the students have to understand how identify specific information from the texts.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE OF THE LESSON
In this sub topic/lesson, the student should be able to answer questions on specific information on a text read.  

  1. TEACHER’S PREPARATION STAGE
This stage is about the preparation of the teacher before undertaking the lessons of the particular sub topic. These are all activities, procedures, materials, teaching aids, and games prepared by the teacher for teaching a sub topic:
  1. Putting heads together: Introducing the topic/lesson properly. Organising how students will be able to get to know what is the topic/lesson about. It is where teacher makes sure that students are going to be in his/her train. It includes brainstorming and familiarisation of the topic/lesson with the students.
This makes students stay together with the teacher. It is at this stage students can understand what is going to be discussed in the particular topic.
In this sub topic/lesson, the teacher guides students to brainstorm on definition of 'specific information' and how they get specific details quickly from the text they read.
'Specific information' is a piece of information that is taken out of various sources of information.
The specific information is obtained by skimming or scanning the texts. Through these processes of reading, the reader is able to find out or identify specific pieces of information from various sets of information.
  1. Preparation of Materials. A teacher has to decide on the teaching/learning materials he/she is going to use.
In this sub topic/lesson, the teacher will have to prepare a variety of textbooks with indices, dictionaries, and telephone directories. These details help the reader to collect specific information from the texts. For example, if a reader wants specific information like Story Writing in the book's index, this reader will directly or specifically look at letter S in order to get the phrase 'Story Writing'. This is reading or perusing something for specific information.
  1. Target Practice. Show them/Guide them to the practice of the functions of the sub topic. A teacher has to show or guide students to the target practice of the grammatical functions of the sub topic.
In this sub topic/lesson, the teacher will guide students to practice how to answer specific questions by using these patterns:
It's found in...
Author's name is....
born in......
It is a one party....
Mt. Kilimanjaro is found in.....
The country is the destination for...
She bled....
It was invented by.......
  1. Context-Based Practice. A teacher leads students to the discussion on how the target grammatical functions practised earlier can be applied or integrated into the contexts and situations. The students are guided by the teacher to apply the learnt skills in relevant contexts and situations like school and library.
In this sub topic/lesson, the teacher will guide his/her students to use library, public meeting, school and home to discuss various contexts or situations where one can find specific information.
  1. Vocabulary Building Practice. At this time, teacher discusses with the students on the vocabularies and phrases to apply in the already mentioned contexts and situations.
In this sub topic/lesson: The most commonly applied vocabularies are: spelt, pronounced, science and technology, political systems, agriculture, female genital mutilation, HIV/AIDS.
  1. TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCEDURES, ACTIVITIES AND GAMES
Guide the students to the full sub topic/lesson procedures, activities and games for better understanding of the sub topic by following these activities:
ACTIVITY ONE: Brainstorming. The teacher has to brainstorm with the students on the sub topic/lesson's aspects through oral questions with answers, pair works, and group discussions of all important concepts to get students on track.
In this activity, the teacher guides students to brainstorm with the students on the definition of 'specific information', how they get specific details quickly from the text they read and how specific information on various texts and media can be obtained.
The specific information is obtained by Skimming a text or Scanning a text. Through these processes of reading, the reader is able to find out or identify specific pieces of information from various sets of information.
The details on how to get specific information have also been thoroughly described in Scanning text and Skimming text processes.

ACTIVITY TWO: Teacher's Demonstration. The teacher applies his/models or examples so as to bring the topic/lesson and the students into the real or common sense of the topic/lesson.
In this activity, you can demonstrate to students how to obtain this type of information as described in Scanning text and Skimming text. You can pick any newspaper and read it in front of students and try to get the specific information. Ask students to watch over what you do.
Text
Teacher's Model
Pick any newspaper article. Skim it and get the specific information you want. Through this simple demonstration, the teacher will have portrayed how the texts can be skimmed or scanned to get specific information or details.
Or
The teacher can pick any big book and turn to the pages of table of contents or glossary of terms. Then a teacher tells students that he/she going to look for the particular aspect then he/she quickly scans the pages and find the aspect he/she is looking for.

ACTIVITY THREE: Students' Demonstration. The teacher guides students how they can apply a model like that of a teacher. The skills demonstrated by the teacher should now be demonstrated/applied by them. Here students need to be guided on how to use given expressions, structures, vocabulary, and phrases or similar ones.
In this activity, the teacher will use materials such as dictionaries, indices, table of contents, glossary of items and telephone directories, to guide students to look for some specific information a available in the materials.
Let's take any English Grammar Book as an example. The teacher asks students to pick the book. The teacher asks them to look quickly for the term 'Tense' in the table of contents. The teacher can also use the dictionary to scan it for a particular item.
Then the teacher has students to skim through available materials like books and dictionaries in order to locate the required information.
The teacher should also provide students with more activities to enable them practice skimming through texts to locate required information. These activities should involve various materials so as students can get used to Scanning text and Skimming text.

ACTIVITY FOUR: Taking/leading students to the real situations or contexts where they can apply what they have mastered. Here speaking, reading or writing activities are involved.
In this activity, the teacher should guide students to the more practices of skimming and scanning processes through a variety of texts to locate required information. The teacher should not worry about bringing in the class various materials like books, newspapers and magazines. More materials will help students practice widely.

ACTIVITY FIVE: Winding up the topic/lesson. Here teachers summarise the topic/lesson by emphasizing the importance of the sub topic/lesson and suggesting other related aspects of the sub topic/lesson.

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITY: As a teacher, what other activity can be applied in this sub topic/lesson? You can always drop your alternative activity or activities to this article so as to improve teaching and learning of 'O' Level English.

REFLECTION
You can say our life is made successful with reading. We always read important information that in some way or another they save our life. We read to get knowledge. Although, we can't say that other language skills are not important, but reading is the very starting point for any language skill.
One cannot speak if he/she didn't understand reading.
One cannot listen well if he/she didn't understand reading.
One cannot write well if he/she didn't understand reading.

ASSESSMENT
A teacher should design an evaluation for students by using appropriate assessment tools like oral questions or assignments so that to see if the student is able to answer questions on specific information on a text read.
ASSESSMENTS
Assessment #01: Group work.
Give students the text to read. Provide them with comprehension questions about the text. After discussion, each group should present the answers to the specific questions before the class.
Assessment #02: Pair works.
Ask students to read the passage you have given them. In pairs, allow them to respond to the set questions that require specific information. Each pair should present the answers to the class and other students will make comparison.
Assessment #03: Individual work.
Give students a test on comprehension skills. They will tackle this test individually and that is the time the teacher will assess the students by individual performance.

Note 01: You can give students more individual works, pair works, and group works to facilitate their interaction and understanding of the sub topic or lesson. As English language teacher you have to give students more works to do. Because language is meant to be largely spoken and written, the teacher should rely on written exercises and notes. Instead students have to learn English language by vigorously exercising individually, in pairs, and in groups.

SUMMARY/CONCLUSION
Reading is a language development skill. When learning all four language skills during teaching and learning processes, the students have to sit down and read in a guided practice or reading alone. This highlights that reading is the necessary skill if a student really wants to excel in pronunciation, spelling, and understanding of the texts. A teacher should emphasize this skill just he/she emphasize other language skills.

Note 02: These stages explained above are not necessarily covered in a single lesson of single or double period. Remember that this is the guide for teaching the whole sub topic which has periods ranging from 6 to 20. So, the teacher's task is to divide these stages according to the total number of periods for a particular sub topic.

WHAT IS YOUR OPINION?
This article is about how to study and teach "Reading and obtaining specific information" in Form Two. As a student or teacher, what is your opinion on how to study and teach this sub topic/lesson?
Your opinion is worth and I believe that it can make these materials better for our own consumption.
You are Welcome!


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FORME ONE
FORM THREE
FORM FOUR
                   
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Emmanuel Kachele

Emmanuel Kachele is a founder and Blogger of KACHELE ONLINE Blog, an educational blog where 'O' Level English - 'OLE', 'A' Level English (ALE) and other related teaching and life skills are shared extensively. This is an online center for all Tanzanian Secondary School English Language students and teachers (Forms I-VI) and all interested English Language learners and teachers worldwide.

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