How to teach a reading skills lesson TESOL / CELTA

Summary

The video demonstrates a staged reading-skills lesson on the Inca civilisation and its encounter with the Spanish. The instructor moves from visual discussion and vocabulary preparation to gist reading, detailed reading, and a personal-response discussion.

Lesson sequence and methodology

1. Lead-in with pictures

   • The instructor displays several images and asks learners to discuss them in pairs for three to four minutes.
   • Learners identify links between the pictures and share their background knowledge.
   • In the class discussion, they connect the images to the Incas, Spanish conquistadors, colonisation, conflict, and population decline.
   • The instructor uses their ideas to introduce the topic and invite predictions about what the text might cover.

2. Pre-teach useful vocabulary

   • Before reading, the instructor introduces words expected in the text using images, examples, questions, and pronunciation practice.
   • The vocabulary includes empire, loot/looting, plunder/plundering, and brutal.
   • Learners consider meanings, parts of speech, syllables, and word stress. For example, they distinguish looting or plundering—taking things by force—from buying, and discuss the intensity conveyed by brutal.
   • The instructor checks understanding by eliciting answers rather than simply supplying definitions.

3. First reading: read for gist

   • Learners read the text individually and quickly, aiming to understand its general idea rather than every detail.
   • They write a short title that captures the main idea, with a suggested length of roughly three to seven words.
   • Learners compare titles in pairs, explain differences, and share examples with the class. The discussion highlights different possible emphases, such as the Inca Empire, its fall, and the devastation surrounding its defeat.

4. Second reading: read for detail

   • Learners read the text again, this time in more detail.
   • They sort eight phrases into four categories: the Inca Empire, Inca society, the conquistadors, and Machu Picchu.
   • The instructor clarifies the difference between an empire—the territory or peoples it encompassed—and a society’s everyday life and culture.
   • Learners compare answers with a partner before checking them as a class.

5. Post-reading: respond personally

   • The instructor models a personal response to the text, then gives learners sentence starters about what surprised them or what they think about the conquistadors.
   • Each learner chooses two prompts and completes them individually with their own opinions.
   • Learners then stand in groups, share their responses, compare ideas, and ask follow-up questions.
   • The final class discussion covers the Incas’ tolerance and cultural assimilation, the role of violence, possible reasons for the Spanish victory, and reactions to the text. The instructor closes by noting that the reading offered new information and vocabulary.

Main teaching points

• Use visuals and learners’ existing knowledge to create interest and prepare them for a reading.
• Set a clear purpose for each reading: first read for the general idea, then reread for specific information.
• Check comprehension with concrete tasks, such as writing a title or sorting details into categories.
• Give learners time to compare and justify answers with a partner before whole-class feedback.
• Follow comprehension work with a chance to express and discuss personal reactions.
• Teach vocabulary in context, including meaning, grammatical form, and pronunciation.

Speakers and sources featured

• Instructor: Diane Dowejko, identified in the video metadata; she leads and explains the lesson.
• Learners: Multiple TESOL trainees contribute during pair, group, and class discussions. Names audible or addressed in the subtitles include Steph, Luke, Michael, David, Laura, Alex, Mark, Jason, Andrea, and Asmina. Other names are unclear because of auto-captioning.
• Materials used: Images and a map for the lead-in, a reading text about the Incas and Spanish, and worksheets for the title-writing, detail-sorting, and sentence-completion tasks.