R E A D I N G C O M P R E H E N S I O N C L A S S

PRE READING

TEXT

• The activities in this class were designed in accordance with the following text:

RENZO PIANO: a biography in Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renzo_Piano

OVERALL OBJECTIVES:

• Familiarize yourself with the text. • Get the gist.• Determine the topic.• Determine the text organization.• Identify unknown words to look up in the

dictionary• Add the words you find useful to your personal

glossary.• Scan for numbers and proper nouns.

PREVIEWING

• Look at the text. Observe the text as an outsider.• Look at the title, headings, subtitles, pictures,

graphs, and all visual aids. Analize them.• Recall any knowledge you already have about the

topic.• Think about this topic and make suitable

questions. What would you like to find out? What would you like the author to tell you about that topic?• What kind of information does a biography

typically include?

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT RENZO PIANO?

DESCRIBE THE PICTURES

SKIMMING

• Read the full text quickly, without stopping. Don’t worry about what you don’t understand. Focus on general ideas.

• ACTIVITIES: Identify the following items:a. cognates: transparent words from one language to another (words that are written similarly in English and Spanish).Eg: biography, architect, Milano.b. typographic changes: words in bold, italics, underlined, etc.Eg: San Giovanni Rotondo

SKIMMING

c. repetition: words that share the same root even if they have different endings, and are repeated throughout the text.Eg: was (to be, past) also (también) museum (museo) remains (permanecer) work (trabajo) design (diseño) project (proyecto) has (tener) buildings (edificios) in (en) as (como) they (ellos) or (o) and (y)

SKIMMING

d. numbers: stated in numbers or words.Eg: 14: the day he was born

e. dictionary words (glossary): useful words to look up in the dictionary and memorize.Eg: workshop (n. taller) skyscraper (n. rascacielos) engineer (n. ingeniero) early (adj. temprano, primero) such as (con. Tal como) through (prep. A través de) as well as (con. Así como) well (adv. Bien) venue (n. recinto) kind (n. tipo) largEST (el más - grande)

SCANNING

• Read the text quickly to find specific information. • Think about the words you want to find in English.• Quickly identify the suitable paragraph or section

of text.• Stop reading once you’ve found what you were

looking for.

SCANNING ACTIVITIES

• Scan all the numbers in the text: say what they refer to:

Eg: 14, 1937: refer to the day and year of Renzo Piano’s birth

• Scan all the proper nouns and say what they refer to:

Eg: Genoa: is an Italian city, where Piano was born.