Practising Cambridge English: Key Reading and Writing Part 5

Contents

A. TEACHERS NOTES ...........................................................................................................2 A1. Lesson Plan ...............................................................................................................2

A2. Classroom Handout 1 ................................................................................................5 A3. Classroom Handout 2 ................................................................................................6 A4. Classroom Handout 3 ................................................................................................7 B GUIDANCE FOR FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES ....................................................................8

UCLES 2011. 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

Practising for Cambridge English: Key Reading and Writing Part 5

www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org Page 1 of 9

Practising Cambridge English: Key Reading and Writing Part 5 A. TEACHERS NOTES
Description Time required: Materials required: 50-60 minutes Aims: Classroom Handout 1 Classroom Handout 2 Classroom Handout 3 To prepare students for Part 5 of the Cambridge English: Key Reading and Writing exam by raising awareness of the type of words required to complete the gaps increasing student confidence in their ability to complete the task correctly.

A1.

Lesson Plan

1. Write the word chickens on the board. Elicit what students think about when they see this word, e.g. eggs, feathers, word gets confused with kitchen, etc. If you have a mixed nationality class, you could also compare the ways that people describe the sound that chickens make around the world. (In the UK, we say cluck cluck, but you will be surprised by the variation from country to country.) Timing: 5 minutes 2. Explain that students are going to read a text about chickens. Write this question on the board: Where do chickens live? Give out A2 Classroom Handout 1. Allow students 2 or 3 minutes to read the text, then discuss the answer (on farms, in gardens). Timing: 5 minutes 3. Collect in A2 Classroom Handout 1. Explain that you will give it back to them later in the lesson Write the following questions on the board. As you are writing the questions, students work in pairs to answer the questions. They can use what they remember from the text, or guess the answers. a) Where did chickens come from? (The jungle) (in India)
UCLES 2011. 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

Practising for Cambridge English: Key Reading and Writing Part 5

www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org Page 2 of 9

Practising Cambridge English: Key Reading and Writing Part 5

b) What do chickens eat? (seeds, insects and mice) c) How long do chickens usually live? (5 -10 years) d) How far can chickens fly? (not very far) e) Why do some people keep chickens? (for their eggs) 4. Allow a few minutes for students discuss the answers to the questions. Give out A3 Classroom Handout 2. Allow students to check their answers. before reviewing the answers as a class. Timing: 10 minutes 5. Draw attention to the gaps in the text in Classroom Handout 2. Point out that the gapped words are similar to the ones tested in Cambridge English: Key Reading and Writing Part 5. Explain that they can work out the missing words by looking at the words either side of the gap for clues, and also by using the meaning of the whole sentence or text. Work through one or two of the gapped words together. For example: Gap 5: Gap 8: What word follows the gap? (gardens) What word comes before the gap? (in) What kind of word could fill the space? (an adjective) Elicit some examples of possible words. Ask students to read the whole sentence, and to focus on the section that begins but.... Whose gardens are they? (the families) What word can you use to make this clear? (their) What kind of word follows the gap? (oldest, which is a superlative). What word always comes before a superlative? (the).

Timing: 10 minutes 6. Students work in pairs to fill in the gaps using the clues from the words around the gaps. They may also remember some of the words from their first reading. When students have had a chance to discuss all of the gaps, explain or elicit the difference between this task and the Cambridge English: Key Reading and Writing Part 5 task (in Part 5 they are given 3 options for each gap). Therefore this task is more difficult exercise, as they had to think of the words themselves.
UCLES 2011. 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

Practising for Cambridge English: Key Reading and Writing Part 5

www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org Page 3 of 9

Practising Cambridge English: Key Reading and Writing Part 5

Timing: 10 minutes 7. Give out A4 Classroom Handout 3. In pairs, students check if the answer they chose for each gap is one of the options. If not, they should decide if their answer is still ok for the gap, or if they would choose another option for the gap. Timing: 5 minutes 8. Give back A2 Classroom Handout 1. Students can check their answers. Go through the answers and ask if any pairs had different answers which were not in the options, but which they think are correct. E.g. each is acceptable for gap 3. (Answers: 0B, 1A, 2C, 3B, 4C, 5C, 6B, 7B, 8C) Timing: 5 minutes

UCLES 2011. 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

Practising for Cambridge English: Key Reading and Writing Part 5

www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org Page 4 of 9

Practising Cambridge English: Key Reading and Writing Part 5

A2. Classroom Handout 1

Chickens

There are more chickens in the world than any other kind of bird. People keep chickens mainly for the meat and their eggs. Hens can lay up to 300 eggs every year.

People think that the first chickens were jungle birds that lived in India. Chickens eat seeds, insects and even mice. Most chickens live from five to ten years but the oldest chicken in the world lived until it was 16 years old.

Most chickens cannot fly far but they can fly over fences and into trees. They like to live in groups and one chicken will be the leader of the group. Most chickens live in farms but more and more families have chickens in their gardens so they can enjoy fresh eggs from happy birds.

UCLES 2011. 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

Practising for Cambridge English: Key Reading and Writing Part 5

www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org Page 5 of 9

Practising Cambridge English: Key Reading and Writing Part 5

A3. Classroom Handout 2

Chickens

There (0)_____ more chickens in the world than any other kind (1)____ bird. People keep chickens mainly (2)______ the meat and their eggs. Hens can lay up to 300 eggs (3) _____ year.

People think that the first chickens were jungle birds that (4)_____ in India. Chickens eat seeds, insects and even mice. Most chickens live from five to ten years but (5)____ oldest chicken in the world lived until it was 16 years old.

Most chickens cannot fly far but they can fly (6) ____ fences and into trees. They like to live (7)_____ groups and one chicken will be the leader of the group. Most chickens live in farms but more and more families have chickens in (8) ______ gardens so they can enjoy fresh eggs from happy birds.

UCLES 2011. 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

Practising for Cambridge English: Key Reading and Writing Part 5

www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org Page 6 of 9

Practising Cambridge English: Key Reading and Writing Part 5

A4. Classroom Handout 3

Options 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 A A A A A A A A A is of because any live one up by our B B B B B B B B B are in by every lives an over in your C C C C C C C C C be from for many lived the on at their

UCLES 2011. 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

Practising for Cambridge English: Key Reading and Writing Part 5

www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org Page 7 of 9

Practising Cambridge English: Key Reading and Writing Part 5

B GUIDANCE FOR FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES
1. The text used on A2. Classroom Handout 2 and A3. Classroom Handout 3 is adapted from a website. Good sources for texts for Cambridge English: Key Reading and Writing Part 5 include encyclopaedias, newspaper and magazine articles and nonfiction guided readers. When you choose a text, think about these points: factual texts work well for this kind of task. Its also good to use informational texts so students get practice with a range of text types. keep the texts short and make sure they are adapted to the learners level of language. This may include replacing complex vocabulary and structures with simple synonyms or shorter sentences. You may also have to remove parts of the text that are too complex. use visuals or pictures to support understanding and make the text more appealing

2. In A3. Classroom Handout 2, students were asked to work out what the missing words could be, rather than selecting them from the options, as in the test. This is useful because it encourages students to use all the clues in the text to help them decide on the best word for the gap it trains them to predict the missing words before they look at the list of options it develops their confidence to choose the correct option in an informed way.

3. To make your own gapped texts, as in A3. Classroom Handout 2: focus on structural words, such as verb forms (past, -ing form, infinitive, -s ending, past participle, etc), determiners (a, the, his, this, some, every, etc), pronouns, prepositions and conjunctions. make sure that the words you choose are at Cambridge English: Key level (A2 on the CEFR) and so realistic for your students ability. For example, avoid removing prepositions that are part of phrasal verbs. if you have been working on a specific aspect of the language, such as prepositions, you may want to limit your focus to that area and remove only the prepositions. Its also important to practise working with a range of different types of word. make sure the gaps in the text are evenly spread. Avoid having long stretches of text with no blanks, unless these are needed to provide meaning. have no more than 8 gaps in a text

UCLES 2011. 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

Practising for Cambridge English: Key Reading and Writing Part 5

www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org Page 8 of 9

Practising Cambridge English: Key Reading and Writing Part 5

avoid putting a blank too near the beginning of a text. only remove words if there are enough clues in the text to work out the meaning and part of speech.

4. To make sets of options for your own gapped text, as in A4. Classroom Handout 3, follow this advice: all the options should be from the same class of word, i.e. all prepositions, all pronouns, etc make sure that the options you choose are not possible answers, so there isnt more than one correct option check that there are enough clues in the text to help students choose the correct answer.

5. Once your students have practised this task type a few times, you can reverse the process to make the exercise more interesting. give students a complete KET-level text. You can find one of these in a past paper pack. It would be preferable to choose a Part 5 text as these are chosen at the correct level. retype the text with the missing words put back in. as homework, ask students to read the text then select certain words that they think could be removed. in class, ask some comprehension questions about the text, then put students in pairs and get them to compare the words they have selected for removal. give out the exam task. Have they selected similar words? Even at this level, if you can put students in the position of examiner, it will help to give them confidence and demystify the exam.

UCLES 2011. 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

Practising for Cambridge English: Key Reading and Writing Part 5

www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org Page 9 of 9