Up and Away - National Council for Curriculum and Assessment

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The purpose of the following activities is to support pupils in working with texts in the mainstream class.
It is important to remember that all reading exercises share the same underlying aim of encouraging
pupils to read English texts outside of class. This can be achieved if pupils experience success in the
classroom. Therefore, the work of the language support teacher in preparing pupils to read texts is:
1. To raise pupils’ awareness of how much vocabulary they know about the theme.
This prevents pupils from feeling intimidated by the thought of reading a text that at first sight
appears impenetrable.
2. To introduce key words in context.
In the process of eliciting known vocabulary, the teacher can introduce key words in context.
3. To make the reading tasks challenging, but achievable.
Devise tasks that make it clear to pupils that they can understand the main points of a text without
knowing the meaning of every word.
Strategies
This section uses texts from the primary curriculum to highlight five different strategies which can be used
with regard to the above points. The strategies illustrated in this section are:
1. Using graphic organisers.
2. Keyword exercises.
3. Developing scan reading skills.
4. Predicting.
5. Grading the task.
Introduction
Note
Contact at intervals with the class teachers will provide important information about the texts being
studied in the mainstream.