Skills for Life E2 Reading Referencing questions – teacher’s notes

Description

This activity reviews simple referencing pronouns and familiarises students with the type of referencing questions they will encounter in Entry 2 Reading exams.

Time required: 40 minutes

Materials required:

A picture of London likely to be familiar to your students – to project on to electronic whiteboard or put up on wall

Student’s Worksheet 1 – one copy for each student.

Student’s Worksheet 2 – one copy for each student. The text here is an adaptation of a text in Part 3 of Entry 2 Past Paper 2009 from the Teacher’s Resources website.

Aims: to review subject, object and possessive pronouns as used in simple referencing tasks

to familiarise students with the type of referencing questions they may encounter in Entry 2 Reading exams

Procedure

1. Project or put up picture of a well-known London scene, which your students are likely to be familiar with. Ask your students to tell you about London – where it is / weather / food / culture / geography / etc.

2. Write a few sentences about London on the board, preferably including some of the points mentioned by students. Make sure the sentences include a referencing word. For example:

London is the capital of the UK. It is a very big city.

Underline / highlight the word ‘it’ and write London, the UK and city as a short list on the board.

3. Ask students the following questions:

• What does ‘it’ mean in this sentence? (London) Draw a line connecting London and it.

• How do you know? (We can replace ‘it’ with ‘London’ and the sentence still makes sense; it wouldn’t make sense if it was replaced by ‘the UK’ or ‘city’.)

• Why do we use ‘it’ in this sentence and not ‘London’? (So that we don’t repeat the same word.)

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• Can you think of other words like ‘it’? (subject, object and possessive pronouns – e.g. he/she/we/you/they/him/her/us/them/his/our/their/etc)

4. Repeat with one or two of the other sentences, or pairs of sentences, that you have written on the board.

5. Hand out Student’s Worksheet 1. You may need to do an example or two with the students. Monitor students doing the task. Check answers. [See Key to Student’s Worksheet 1]

6. Hand out Student’s Worksheet 2. Explain that Entry 2 Reading exams usually have questions which ask the students to say what a word like ‘it’ means in a sentence. Ask them to read Question 1 and underline or highlight the words people, shops and streets in Paragraph A in the sentence before the highlighted they. Ask students which word they means here. Ask them to justify their choice. [See Key to Procedure steps]

7. Ask students to do Questions 2 & 3. In both, they should highlight / underline the words in the text. Monitor students doing activity and check answers. Ask students to justify their choices. [See Key to Procedure steps and Key to Student’s Worksheet 2]

Additional information

Suggested follow-up activities/questions (and answers)

1. See also activity Skills for Life Entry 2 Reading Multiple choice questions for an example of a referencing question in an Entry 2 Reading exam.

2. See Past Papers on Teacher’s Resources website for more referencing questions.

© UCLES 2009. This material may be photocopied (without alteration) and distributed for classroom use provided no charge is made. For further information see our Terms of Use at http://www.teachers.cambridgeESOL.org/ts/legalinfo Skills for Life E2 Reading Referencing questions – teacher’s notes www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org Page 2 of 6

Skills for Life E2 Reading Referencing questions answer keys

Key to Procedure steps

Step 6 Question 1

people were full of plastic bottles, take-away food containers, cans and other rubbish This doesn’t make sense

shops were full of plastic bottles, take-away food containers, cans and other rubbish This might make sense but not in this sentence which says that People came out of the shops and just dropped litter in the streets

streets were full of plastic bottles, take-away food containers, cans and other rubbish This makes sense in this context.

Step 7

Question 2

They must refer to local people because it says local people did all the work. They cleaned the streets and the park, etc. The work was cleaning the streets and the park, etc.

Question 3

it must refer to the town because people don’t live in a park or a playground.

Key to Student’s Worksheet 1

These sentences have repeated words. Try to replace them with words like it, they, etc.

1. London is the capital of the UK. London It has a population of over 10 million people. 2. A river runs through London. The river It is called the Thames. 3. London has many theatres. The theatres They are very popular with tourists. 4. There are always lots of tourists in London. Many of the tourists them visit museums

and old buildings there. 5. I like London but some people don’t like London it at all. People They say London it is

too big and noisy. 6. My brother would like to live in central London. My brother He wants to go to university

there. 7. My aunt lives in south London. My aunt She works in an office. My aunt’s Her husband

is a builder. 8. London is famous for the red double-decker buses. I like the red double-decker buses

them very much. 9. My friend Ali lives in west London. I stayed in Ali’s his house last year. I visited some

very interesting places with Ali him.

© UCLES 2009. This material may be photocopied (without alteration) and distributed for classroom use provided no charge is made. For further information see our Terms of Use at http://www.teachers.cambridgeESOL.org/ts/legalinfo Skills for Life E2 Reading Referencing questions answer keys www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org Page 3 of 6

10. My brother and I went to the centre of London two weeks ago. It was my brother’s and my our first time there. My brother and I We went on the London Eye. Going on the London Eye it was a great experience for my brother and me us.

Key to Student’s Worksheet 2

1. Look at Paragraph A. What does they mean? Tick (√) one box.

© UCLES 2009. This material may be photocopied (without alteration) and distributed for classroom use provided no charge is made. For further information see our Terms of Use at http://www.teachers.cambridgeESOL.org/ts/legalinfo

people

shops

streets .

2. Look at Paragraph B. What does they mean? Tick (√) one box.

the council

local businesses

local people .

3. Look at Paragraph C. What does it mean? Tick (√) one box.

the town

the park

√

√

√

the playground .

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Skills for Life E2 Reading Referencing questions Student’s Worksheet 1

These sentences have repeated words. Try to replace them with words like it, they, etc.

1. London is the capital of the UK. London has a population of over 10 million people.

2. A river runs through London. The river is called the Thames.

3. London has many theatres. The theatres are very popular with tourists.

4. There are always lots of tourists in London. Many of the tourists visit museums and old buildings there.

5. I like London but some people don’t like London at all. People say London is too big and noisy.

6. My brother would like to live in central London. My brother wants to go to university there.

7. My aunt lives in south London. My aunt works in an office. My aunt’s husband is a builder.

8. London is famous for the red double-decker buses. I like the red double-decker buses very much.

9. My friend Ali lives in west London. I stayed in Ali’s house last year. I visited some very interesting places with Ali.

10. My brother and I went to the centre of London two weeks ago. It was my brother’s and my first time there. My brother and I went on the London Eye. Going on the London Eye was a great experience for my brother and me.

© UCLES 2009. This material may be photocopied (without alteration) and distributed for classroom use provided no charge is made. For further information see our Terms of Use at http://www.teachers.cambridgeESOL.org/ts/legalinfo Skills for Life E2 Reading Referencing questions Student’s Worksheet 1 www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org Page 5 of 6

Skills for Life E2 Reading Referencing questions Student’s Worksheet 2

© UCLES 2009. This material may be photocopied (without alteration) and distributed for classroom use provided no charge is made. For further information see our Terms of Use at http://www.teachers.cambridgeESOL.org/ts/legalinfo

1. Look at Paragraph A. What does they mean? Tick (√) one box.

people

shops

streets .

2. Look at Paragraph B. What does they mean? Tick (√) one box.

the council

local businesses

local people .

3. Look at Paragraph C. What does it mean? Tick (√) one box.

the town

the park

the playground .

10 years ago my town was really dirty. Everyone felt bad because the town looked terrible. People came out of the shops and just dropped litter in the streets all the time. So they were full of plastic bottles, take-away food containers, cans and other rubbish. The park was dirty too and the swings and slides in the playground were broken so it wasn’t safe for children.

Then a group of people living there decided to do something about it. We had a big party in the summer and made about two thousand pounds. We also asked the council and some local businesses to support us. But local people did all the work. They cleaned the streets and the park, put litter bins everywhere and fixed the equipment in the playground.

Now the town is really nice. The streets are clean, the park is beautiful and the playground is safe for kids. Now it’s a great place to live in.

Paragraph A

Paragraph B

Paragraph C

Skills for Life E2 Reading Referencing questions Student’s Worksheet 2 www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org Page 6 of 6