Adult Literacy Core Curriculum - Nationally developed Skills for Life ...

• Follow the text in closer detail together, in order to model the reading process
for learners, e.g.: What does the first sentence tell you? What does the second
sentence add? Look closely at bruises and accident as necessary, noting the –ui–
pattern and the double –cc–, the first –c– sounded as [k], the second as [s]. (Selfstudy
exercises can be set as necessary to reinforce pronunciation of similar
sounding –ui– words, and dictionary work to investigate other –acc– words with
a similar pronunciation, e.g. access, accent, accept, accelerate.)
• Give learners some Post-it strips and ask them to place these under the bits of
text that represent direct speech, reminding them of how speech marks are used
to mark off the words a character says from the rest of the story. In pairs, ask
them to read these to each other using a voice that represents how they think the
character might say them, bearing in mind the question mark and the
information given in the sentence immediately after the direct speech.
• Ask readers to read to the end of Paragraph 1. If they had to paint a picture of
the man as he appeared in the mirror and then of what he looked like when Nell
saw him face to face, what details would they include in each? Which particular
words convey these details?
• Ask learners to read the whole of Paragraph 2 and to be ready to answer these
questions: Why does a new paragraph start here? How is Anna different in the
mirror from what she is face to face? How does Nell react when she sees Anna
in the mirror? Why is one sentence incomplete? Why is one sentence shorter
than the others? Then discuss the answers together, checking that people have
understood properly and identifying any difficult words. Draw attention to the
adjectives beautiful and horrible and ask learners to identify related words
(e.g. beauty, horror, horrifying) and discuss the forms and meanings. (Games and
investigations can be used to reinforce understanding of word roots and suffixes
and how different types of words (nouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs) are
sometimes related etymologically and share common elements.)
Finish the discussion by asking learners to predict what will happen next (and
remind them of the predictions before reading the next episode). Ask them to write
definitions for any new words added to their personal dictionaries. They could be
asked to read a further section of the story for the next class and to come along
ready to summarise what happens and to raise any points or questions.
Links to speaking, listening and discussion
The activities round the text involve speaking, listening and discussion at each stage,
providing opportunity for learners to listen for both gist and detail in narratives, to listen
and respond to points of view and to make relevant contributions to group discussion.
Specific spoken communication activities could also be planned that relate to reading
narrative and would extend learners’ experience of following a story line and talking
about it, e.g.: invite an outside speaker to tell a story or relate an experience and discuss
it with the group; listen to and discuss a tape-recorded story; ask learners to recount an
experience either in pairs or to the group.
Links with writing
As they become more familiar with texts that have a narrative structure (e.g. story,
biography, autobiography), learners can plan and draft their own narrative texts, fictional
or experiential, providing opportunity to sequence chronological writing organised in
paragraphs, and to maintain tense consistency and subject–verb agreement. Composing
and editing on screen to produce a text (e.g. to go in a Christmas/end-of-year anthology)
would provide a real context in which to emphasise the importance of planning, editing
and proof-reading.
Reading
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