Page:Adapting and Writing Language Lessons.pdf/394

CHAPTER 7 steps is directly proportional to the length of the text itself. This is an additional reason for being fairly strict about the 30-second limit.

6. After this basic procedure has been completed, the class may move in one or more of several directions. For example:

a. students write the text down, either by dictation or from memory, and read it back. Now they have a permanent record of the text, for later review.

b. Students ask two or three additional questions, to expand the scope of the text, or to get new details. (This is precisely the kind of questioning that should be discouraged at Step 2, above.) They then retell the amplified version.

c.Students and teacher discuss the content of the text. With the first story quoted above from the Montreal  for example, this is the time to talk about the implications of an agreement between a nation and one province of another nation.

d. Students may be asked to relate comparable experiences from their own lives.

e. The content of the text may be used for roleplaying. The second story from the, for example, provides a starting point for two students, as Mrs. J____W_____ and her husband, to plan for a social event like the one described in the text.

7. A microtext may serve as the basis for ordinary drills. Thus, the construction 'month-long