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TLE I: Lesson Plan

Amber Au
EDUC 540: Margolis
Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California

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Classroom Setting and Background

Teacher: Amber Au
Host Teacher: Cory Stewart
Lesson Title: Reading Comprehension Techniques Scanning and Skimming
Topic: Scanning
Learner Level: Advanced ESL
Number of Students: 14
Date: 2/3/2015
Duration: 60-70 minutes
Most students are looking into gaining more knowledge of English to further their academic
pursuits. An underlying theme that the students enjoy is socializing and using English for
conversational purposes.
Theoretical Background
Scanning and Skimming require cognitive process of understanding what information is needed
and finding that information in a reading passage. Throughout the lesson socio-cultural theory
will be utilized to co-construct meaning and practice the process of scanning materials. The
teacher will be using some bottom down up instruction via explicit definitions, but also draw
from the students background knowledge with top down instruction (Nunan, 2003).
Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to define scanning as a reading comprehension tool used to find specific
information in a reading passage. This knowledge will allow students to be able to put the skill of
scanning into practice to identify key information when reading an academic passage (TOFEL or
classes). Students will also see canning as a useful tool that can be used in the future.
Materials Required

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Print out menus Appendix A

Assessments in Appendix B&C
White board, markers and erasures.
Instructional Procedure
Teacher will explain scanning [10-15mins]

Warm up: Bring a picture/ draw a picture of a bar code (Appendix D)

o Ask students what the bar code is, what is used to understand the barcode? What
does the bar code provide? lead discussion to scanning
Teacher will define scanning: reading/looking through material to find specific

information.
What is the significance?
o Helpful to increase reading speed, finding important information, timed reading

passages like the TOFEL or academic reading purposes (tests)

Briefly mention the difference between skimming and scanning
o Skimming: looking through materials quickly for a general sense of the ideas and

information, or even the topic itself getting the gist

Teacher will provide Examples of Skimming vs Scanning
o Quickly going through a twenty page report in a few minutes and determine the
overall subject, tone, and a few key points --- SKIMMING
o Pick up a newspaper in the doctors office and looking through the first few pages
to gather a gist of the news--- SKIMMING
o Flipping through a report to find a particular data set---- SCANNING
o Looking through facebook to find one friends update ---- SCANNING
o Looking at bus schedules to find out when the earliest bus to take leaves---

SCANNING
o Google search listSCANNING
Note: both techniques emphasize that you do not need to read every single word and each
word does not need to be fully understood. These tools can be used both inside and
outside the classroom. And they can be used in tandemor together.

Students will complete Menu Scanning Activity (See Appendix A) [ 10 -15 minutes]

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Provide students will menus (Give each pair different menus)

Teacher will help students understand KEY THINGS TO LOOK FOR when scanning:
Key words
Look for specific words, phrases, or data (#)
Use headings or visual cues to help
When you are looking at questions note the W words
(When, Where, What, Who, sometimes How)
Try to anticipate the answer/ look at the answer choices.
Track with your finger or pencil to help focus.
o Have a list of things for the students to look/scan for (model for the students)
EX: I want to eat the cheapest chicken dish
EX 2: How many Rice options are on the menu?
ETC.
o Students will ask each other questions that require scanning
3-4 questions each student
Teacher will monitor and help accordingly
Teacher will introduce note taking/finding key words
o Circle or highlight or underline key information in questions --o EXAMPLES: Current event Superbowl
Students will define Scanning in their own words verbally in class
o Scanning: looking over information to pull out specific words, phrases, or data.

Questions? (5 minutes)
Practice Scanning Timed scanning activity (See Appendix B & C) [30 minutes]

Teacher will administer two assessments

o Printed front and back
Students will be given
Scanning part 1: 1 minute to review questions and 8 minutes to

read and answer the questions

Scanning part 2: 2 minutes to review the questions and 10 minutes

to read and answer the question

Teacher will provide verbal instruction and time the activity.
Teacher will give a 1 minute warning for each part
Have students reflect on the experience
o Talk about how scanning is sometimes not as effective as reading, but helps us to
o

find answers quickly in timed test situations

Whole class will check the answers to solidify scanning approach. [10 mins]

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Teacher should ask students to justify their answers

Informal and formative assessment

The informal assessment is done through having a timed reading assignment that will be done in
class as a practice exercise. This assignment consists of two parts. In the first part students will
quickly read through a set of questions to identify what key information they need to search for
in a passage (given 1-2 mins). Then the students are given 8-10 minutes to scan a reading
passage and answer the questions that were previously seen. This is a formative form of
assessment because it tests the skill that was presented in class. A future summative examination
can be provided to assess the students ability further. Informal assessment is also given through
the class in the form of affirmation or correction when questions are answered during discussion
or in groups.
Extension Activities
The purpose of this lesson is to increase reading speed and reading comprehension for future
academic use. Future activities enhance the students ability to read. No extension activities were
created, but further practice could be done in class with timed reading. This subject can lead into
note taking or discovering main idea topics.
Differentiation
This is a low technology class setting. The information could easily be changed with using
PowerPoint, images, more examples. The class could also be adjusted for other levels of
language learners. There could be more teacher lead activities when explaining the definitions of
scanning and skimming with more concrete definitions. Groups will be situated according to
proximity within the room, but teacher could construct groups with heterogonous or homogenous
mindset. Also, menus can be changed for more context

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References
Nunan, D. (2003) Practical English Language Teaching. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
Appendix B and C created by host teacher using articles from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Menu found at https://orderup.com/restaurants/texas-roadhouse-c4791/takeout

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APPENDIX A -- MENUS

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10
APPENDIX B
10 Of The Best Places To Live Abroad

Most of us have a deep, sneaking dream to just quit everything and go abroad.
And if you're going to make the scene change permanent, Switzerland is apparently the best place to do so. The
country ranked first on HSBC's annual Expat Explorer survey, which polled nearly 9,300 expats around the world -people who actually live the dream! -- about the quality of life, financial well-being and ease of raising a family in
their new homes abroad.
Switzerland's work-life balance earned especially high marks in the survey, which included 34 countries. And it's
just one of many accolades: Switzerland also ranked high on this summer's Expat Insider report from expat
community site InterNations. That survey asked expats in 61 countries to rate their experience in areas like personal
finances and ease of settling in -- Switzerland ranked first for "quality of life," aka the ideal blend of leisure options,
travel and transportation, health and safety and personal happiness.
In an interesting twist, Ecuador lead the InterNations list as the top expat destination overall. "Expats are generally
very pleased with their financial situation in Ecuador," the report reads. Respondents also said it was easy to settle in
and make friends in the South American hotspot.
Asia also has some of the best places for expats to live -- 76 percent of expats in the HSBC survey said they have
more disposable income since moving to China, according to a press release. Hong Kong and Singapore placed in
the top 10 of both surveys, with stellar scores for general quality of life from InterNations.
Considering a move (or just looking for a good daydream)? Here are some of the top places for expats, 2014.

Switzerland
HSBC rank: 1
InterNations rank: 4

Canada
HSBC rank: 11
InterNations rank: 14

Singapore
HSBC rank: 2
InterNations rank: 6

Australia
HSBC rank: 12
InterNations rank: 9

Germany
HSBC rank: 4
InterNations rank: 12

Mexico
HSBC rank: 21
InterNations rank: 3

New Zealand
HSBC rank: 6
InterNations rank: 16

Spain
HSBC rank: 24
InterNations rank: 7

Hong Kong
HSBC rank: 10
InterNations rank: 10

Thailand
HSBC rank: 7
InterNations rank: 2

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Scanning Part 1 You will be given 1 minutes to review and take notes on the question. Then you will be
given 8 minutes to read the passage AND answer the questions.
1. What is the best expat destination overall according to Internations?
a. Switzerland
b. Ecuador
c. Canada
d. Thailand
2. What is Internations?
a. A website
b. A non-profit
c. A government agency
d. A group of 34 countries
3. What information was not gathered in the HSBC survey?
a. Raising a family
b. Quality of life
c. Leisure options
d. Financial well-being
4. What place ranked tenth on both surveys?
a. Australia
b. Hong Kong
c. Canada
d. Houston
5. How many countries were ranked in the Internations survey?
a. 31
b. 61
c. 76
d. 10
6. What is known as the South American hotspot?
a. Colombia
b. Venezuela
c. Brazil
d. Ecuador
7. Which country is ranked sixth by HSBC?
a. Singapore
b. New Zealand
c. Thailand
d. Canada
8. Which Asian country was not mentioned in the survey?
a. Singapore
b. Korea
c. Greece
d. China
9. How many European countries made the list?
a. 1
b. 2
c. 3
d. 4
10. How many North American countries made the list?
a. 1
b. 2
c. 3
d. 4

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APPENDIX C
BEST PLACES TO LIVE
While we make small efforts each day to seek happiness, health and balance in our lives, the people at Gallup are the
gathering data regarding how we feel about the progress we are making.
And over the last decade, they asked people worldwide -- 80 percent via in-person interviews and 20 percent via
phone -- just how they are feeling when it comes to their overall sense of well-being. After collecting personal
rankings of quality of life (given on a scale of 1 to 10), the Gallup World Poll has determined which countries are
currently thriving in its Global States of Mind 2014 report, which was released recently at the Meridian Global
Leadership Summit. Jon Clifton, the managing director of Gallup World Poll, joined HuffPost Live host Caroline
Modarressy-Tehranito share the most surprising findings.
"Right now, Sierra Leone is the number one country within Africa in terms of thriving -- we did capture this data
before ebola broke out," said Clifton. "And a lot of people are wondering about what's happening in Russia right
now. Russia is now the highest it's been in our decade of tracking in terms of thriving, and a lot of that is probably
driven by things like more freedom that people are expressing within the country, less attitudes about thinking that
government corruption is widely spread, and also very high approval ratings of Putin."
However, as new countries rise to the top of the list, others that are known for their well-being rankings are
experiencing a decline.
"Perhaps the most surprising finding of everything that we've seen, when we ask people about their satisfaction with
their freedom, there's one country that was in the top 10 in 2006 that has now fallen out of the top quartile of all
countries that we track," he said. "And it's the United States."

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Scanning Part 2 You will be given 2 minutes to review and take notes on the question. Then you will be given
10 minutes to read the passage AND answer the questions.
1. According to this article, what is Gallup?
a. The way a horse runs
b. A government official
c. A business that conducts surveys
d. Vladimir Putins assistant
2. What country has fallen out of the top ?
a. Canada
b. USA
c. New Zealand
d. Germany
3. What percentage of the interviews for the survey were not done in person?
a. Eighty
b. Twenty
c. Twenty five
d. One in Ten
4. What is Caroline Modarressy-Tehranitos job?
a. Writer
b. Surveyor
c. Host
d. Waitress
5. How long has Gallup been tracking the data?
a. Ten Years
b. Twenty years
c. A Century
d. A few days
6. What African Country ranked the highest?
a. Sierra Leone
b. Russia
c. USA
d. South Africa
7. Where was the Global States of Mind report released?
a. Gallup World Poll
b. Meridian Global Leadership Summit
c. 2006
d. Clifton
8. Who is Jon Clifton?
a. The writer of the article
b. Managing Director of Meridian Global Leadership Summit
c. Managing Director of Gallup World Poll
d. Huffpost live Host
9. Where was there an Ebola outbreak?
a. USA
b. Sierra Leone
c. Russia
d. France
10. What is the scale used to measure the results of the survey?
a. One to ten
b. One to a hundred
c. One to five
d. Zero to a hundred

APPENDIX D- Warm Up Activity