Post-Reading 3. Make inferences to answer the questions below by finding clues in the text. This exercise gives students the opportunity to answer questions by making inferences. In order for students to better understand the process involved in making inferences, use the example given in the text and explain that we: 1. Ask ourselves a question about something in the text. In this case the questions are provided for the st udents. Use an example: Was Blu a typical Blue Macaw? 2. Look for textual evidence written by the author which may give us some clues. E.g. domesticated Macaw; lived a comfortable life; never had to worry about learning normal “bird” activities like ying or nding food, etc. 3. Think about what you know about the evidence. What does your background knowledge tell you about the clues provided? E.g. Typical Blue Macaws can y, hunt for food, and are not domesticated. 4. Using the clues provided in the text and your own background knowledge, try to answer the original question. E.g. No, Blu was not a typical Blu Macaw.
4. Look at the pictures below, make inferences about the scenes and the sequence. Then, listen Track 10 and put them in order. Remind students of the Warm-Up activity and how we inferred the meaning of pictures on signs. Tell them that we don’t need words to make inferences, that we can also infer the meaning of pictures as is the case in exercise 4. Also invite them to reect on the Listening Strategy and explain how pictures can oer us extra information. Direct students’ attention to the four pictures and ask them what they think the story is about. If they have trouble inferring the meaning, make the observations that the boy seems to be dierent ages in the pictures and that he is in dierent countries and so forth. Once students have realized what the story is about, ask them to try to put the pictures in order. Now tell students that they are going to listen to the story in order to correct their answers and see if they were able to infer the story correctly.
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EXTRA IDEAS In order to practice making inferences, write short sentences on the board and ask students questions where they have to infer the answers. E.g. Shelly doesn’t like the movie she is watching. She has spent most of the movie holding her dad’s hand because she is scared. What type of movie do you think Shelly is watching?
Writing 5. Imagine the story above is a movie. Give it a name and invent the following information. Then write a movie review. Explain to students that using the pictures and the story they heard in exercise 4, they have to imagine that the story has been made into a movie and invent the information required. Then, they must write a short movie review. Remind them that using verb tenses and time expressions correctly will help readers follow the sequence of events.
Project Stage 3 Tell students that, using the information they have researched in the previous stages, they have to write a short movie review. Emphasize the importance of using the correct verb tenses and time expressions to help organize the text into a chronological order. Also make sure they understand how to present the movie review and visual aids in the form of a PowerPoint presentation.
