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A historical story There are different ways to read a story. Here is one way. Before you read, it’s important to get ready. When you start, read for gist first, then for detail. Pre-reading
1 Getting ready to read How can you get “into” a story even before you start to read? You must find out as much as you can about the text first.
First reading
2 Reading for gist
a) Look at the title and the pictures on p. 18 – 20. Can you guess what the story is about? b) What stories or films do you know that are about the past? Tell the class about them.
a) Read the whole story quickly. Don’t stop The first reading – or reading for gist – if you find words that you don’t know. gives you more information: Now you find out what the story is about and what b) Now you know better what the story is characters are in the story. But you do not about. Did you guess right in exercise 1a)? try to understand every word yet. Second reading
3 Reading for detail Now you have got the most important ideas, but many things are not clear yet. So you read for detail. a) Read the story slowly – first one part, then the next. b) If you find words which you don’t understand, think before you look them up: Can I understand enough without them? If the answer is “yes”, don’t look them up. c) There are really two stories in this text. Draw two action lines and put in the parts of the text and the most important events. How are the two stories connected? Draw connecting lines between the two action lines.
A closer look
Now 1878
TIP
Write down interesting words for your ‘personal vocabulary’ and put them in your folder.
A Chloe finds diary,
C
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B Gwendolyn talks to Timothy
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talks to Alex First sign of something wrong
4 Thinking about the story Do a) or b). a) Look at the text again and make a list: How was life in 1878 different from now? What other things do you know about the 19th century? Put them in your list, too. Compare Gwendolyn’s life to Chloe’s, and Timothy’s to Alex’s.
b) Look for adjectives or phrases in the text that describe the characters well. Make a list and use it to write a few sentences about the four most important characters.
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