This is an effective activity for practising all of the skills - reading, writing, speaking and listening - and what's even better, students love it!
Level: Pre-Intermediate (but could be higher or lower depending on the text that you choose)
Skills: Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening
Time: 50 minutes
Aim: To practise all of the skills; to energise a lethargic class; to encourage pair work
Materials: Board and pen; several copies of the text (including one for you)
Procedure:
1. Find a short text that's suitable for the level of your group. I used the printable version of a fun story from BBC News, which can be found here.
2. Introduce the topic and pre-teach new vocab; try to elicit each new word. For example, in this story I had to pre-teach "London Marathon", "autographs" and "exertions", and a few more.
3. Place two (or more) copies of the text in different locations in the classroom. Explain the task to the class. Students have to work in pairs and their aim is to make an accurate copy of the text. One student goes to it, reads part of it, remembers it, then comes back to tell their partner what they have read, while their partner has to write it down. So, one partner is reading and speaking, and the other is listening and writing. Students should swap roles from time to time during the activity. You could set a time limit, or let the activity flow naturally. The important rules are:
a) students must not touch or move the text
b) students must not shout at each other across the class
c) the person who reads the text cannot write the story, and vice versa
4. When a pair has written the complete story they should read through their copy and check it for grammatical and spelling mistakes.
5. Next, each pair has to write 10 comprehension questions about the text for a different pair to answer. The question types should be:
a) x 4 wh- questions (e.g. what, who, where, when, etc.)
b) x 4 yes/no questions (e.g. "Is...?", or "Does...? etc)
c) x 2 true/false questions
6. Each pair swaps their questions with another pair and the students write answers to the questions. The teacher leads group feedback at the end.
7. The students swap their version of the story with another team and the teacher reads the story as it was printed on the handout. The students have to check the text in front of them for mistakes. They give 1 point for each deviation from the original text, e.g. a missing word or the wrong kind of article. The pair with the lowest number of points at the end is the winning team!
8. Let the students see the original text so that they can compare it with their work.
9. Have fun, and why not let us know how your class got on?
More reading related materials on English Banana.com:
Free Printable Reading Worksheets:
http://www.englishbanana.com/free-worksheets-better-english-lessons-reading-index.html
Big Activity Book - Test Your Reading Skills:
http://www.englishbanana.com/bab_english_course/reading_index.html
