Unit 2:
Making a Text Readable
On the basis of the text
you chose in the assignment for Unit 1: look more closely at
that text, and figure out what cognitive, cultural, and
linguistic factors or background knowledge that your
students would lack in approaching the text.
Specify:
-which would have to be provided as part of a pre-reading assignment, so that students would be able to understand the text's frame of reference, understand the problem it poses to even a native-language audience, or activate their memories or abilities to access the text's vocabulary and syntax efficiently? Explain why each kind of information would need to be provided.
-what prior work in the extant curriculum is reflected in the text (e.g. texts with similar themes, characters in films who could be in the text situation, specific grammar points, content areas studied in parallel classes)? Specify what the links between prior activities and the text you have chosen could be.
-what supplementary materials would make the text optimally readable for your students, and could be used to make the text clearer, or to expand it? In each case, define exactly why and how the supplementary materials will serve your students.
RETURN
TO SYLLABUS
