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Visuals are a powerful mechanism in steering students conceptually from the very start of the lesson.
Harmer illustrates this and says of these ''clues', that "our brain starts predicting what we are going to
read. Expectations are set up and the active process is ready to begin" ( How to teach english pg 102
chat 7).

For this reason I strongly believe that prediction is a key factor in reading lessons and that the pre-
teach, in conjunction with visual images, should activate more thoughts about what the students are
going to read. In order to initiate students' interest in the topic, five visuals that accompany the reading
are placed on the whiteboard and students are instructed to get up and talk to each other about
where they would like to go on holidays, using the images as a basis for their discussions. By briefly
introducing some of the key vocabulary that appears in each of the texts about the city, students will
be able to associate words with the appropriate city as they are reading the gist.

Following pre-teaching of 'archaeological', 'gondola', 'extravagant' ,'replica' and 'paradise', a choral

drill and CCQs for each item takes place, bearing in mind that pronunciation may need attending to,
possibly with three syllable words. Also at this point there may be the opportunity to correct errors with
drilling, before setting the focus question: "What will you see when you visit these places?"

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Answering this question, in conjunction with the visuals, students will work with each other to describe
what they might see or experience at each location. Looking for places and descriptions of things to
see (for example, different layers of rock, amazing colours, 500-year old buildings, extravagant hotel,
tropical paradise) students will skim-read and then check with their partners if their predictions were
correct.

"Just as with scanning, if students try to gather all the details at this stage they will be bogged down
and may not be able to identify the general idea.." (Harmer...how to teach english). By slowly
revealing information a good pace is set for a well-structured lesson, with the aim of engaging and
preparing students for the upcoming tasks.

The next stage would be to introduce the reading task to help students identify the main points. This
task needs to be achievable, in order to encourage and motivate the students and will consist of a
'True or False' statement finder on a hand-out (see attachments). After monitoring and a paircheck of
the answers, teacher feedback with the answers will allow identification of problems and directing of
the students to the appropriate paragraph or sentence to help self-correction or to reveal the right
answer.

The following task aims to encourage reading for more specific meaning by finding single items of
detail. This will be conducted by a gap fill, where students need to interpret the facts and apply
knowledge to the sentences (see worksheet). As this task requires more thought, students will require
additional focus for this activity and monitoring will play an important part in ensuring students have
ample time to read the text and answer the questions. Error correction can be tackled throughout
monitoring for individuals who need assistance. Monitoring will also highlight any area where the
whole group are struggling, to be mentioned at the end of lesson feedback. At the end of this task
paircheck and teacher check will be carried out.

Harmer suggests that a good teacher exploits reading texts to the full (pg 102) commenting that a
good teacher will integrate the reading text into interesting lessons sequences... using the language
for study and then activation. This should be new and interesting for the students and so task 3 will be
a language focus on expressions. Following a breakdown of the expressions used, eliciting meanings
from the students will act as a springboard into a discussion about expressions in their own language.
This could include discussing whether some expressions translate directly or whether they have new
expressions for the same experience, for example, 'Died and gone to heaven', 'it'll blow your mind',
'quickie'(Wedding reference!). In groups, students should discuss what they think about the
expressions and tell each other if they have anything similar in their own language. Feedback on this
topic will be interesting for the whole class.

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Following the reading work, a teacher-led discussion will help the students respond to the reading
they have done in the lesson. Asking the students if they agree with the comments made about the
places in the text, if they'd put other places above it and why, provides the platform for students to
give their opinions and develop oral fluency. Exercising the speaking sub-skill, in addition to the
reading, will help consolidate the language to the learner and contextualise how to go from reading to
speaking. Harmer reinforces the value of students giving feedback, "They need the opportunity to
make quick comments." (pg 110). By encouraging each group to provide a few points that they
discussed, other students may find it interesting and it will allow for teacher-check of their overall
understanding of the lesson. It will also help in evaluating the effectiveness of the lesson, providing
information on any areas for improvement in subsequent teaching.