2 Locating information: scanning

Assessment objectives IGCSE examination

AO1 Reading • Paper 1 all questions
R1 Demonstrate understanding of explicit meanings • Paper 2 all questions
R2 Demonstrate understanding of implicit meanings and attitudes • Component 4
Coursework
portfolio
(Assignment
3)

Differentiated learning outcomes Resources

• All students must select different sections of a text in order to show • Stude
their understanding (Grade E/D). nt
• Most students should select a range of relevant information from a Book
text that displays a good understanding (Grade D/C). : pp.
10–
• Some students could quickly select a full range of the most
13
appropriate information, suggesting insight into a text (Grade B/A).
• Wor
kshe
et:
1.2
Loca
ting
infor
mati
on:
scan
ning

Exploring skills
As a class, read through the opening sections on Student Book p. 10 and ensure that
students understand the term ‘scanning’. In pairs complete Q1. Take feedback,
eliciting the following answers: 1G, 2D, 3F, 4A, 5B, 6C, 7E. In each case discuss the
features that matched the text type and what made them easy to scan for.
Ask the students if they can think of any other real-life situations where they have
used scanning skills (such as reading a bus timetable, finding out what time a
television programme starts, searching for something on Google, checking food labels
for an allergy-causing ingredient).

Building skills
Read through Q2 with the class on how to unpick a question and scan for appropriate
Key reading skills
Chapter 1

information. For Q3, hand out Worksheet 1.2 and ask students to discuss the extract
from Q & A in pairs and then complete the table.

Give extra support by asking students questions that help them to explore the
different phrases in the table. For example:
• Why isn’t artificial light as nice as ‘natural light’?
• Why would you want ‘ventilation’?
• What do you think of when you imagine ‘corrugated metal’?
• What does the adverb ‘violently’ add to the roof image?

8 • Lesson 2 © HarperCollins Publishers 2013

 • What would a train ‘passing overhead’ be like?
• What do you need ‘running water’ for?
• What does it mean by ‘no sanitation’ and how would this affect the house?
Give extra challenge by encouraging students to consider the connotations
(implied meanings) of specific words. This is getting them to consider how and why,
not just what.

Take feedback on the extract as a class, focusing on the unpleasant words that
students found and how other phrases implied something unpleasant.

Key reading skills

Chapter 1

© HarperCollins Publishers 2013 Lesson 2 • 9

 Developing skills
As a class, read this section and complete Q4, discussing with students what they can
tell about migrants from the whole sentence given. Explain the importance of using
context to gain full understanding of certain meanings. Responses might include:
• ‘destitute’ shows they are poor and suggests homelessness
• ‘from all over the country’ suggests migrants move away from their home towns,
presumably for economic reasons
• ‘jostle’ suggests there are lots of migrants
• ‘their own handful’ suggests they are grateful for what they can get
• ‘slum’ suggests they are in extreme poverty and have to put up with a lot of
hardship.
As an extension, ask students to scan the extract to select the ‘best’ word or phrase to
describe the following things. Encourage students to explain their choices by thinking
about how the language suggests or enhances meaning. For example:
• not having much room (‘cramped’, ‘million ... packed’, ‘squabbles over inches’)
• the surrounding landscape (‘swampy urban wasteland’)
• suggestions of aggression (‘jostle’, ‘squabbles’, ‘turn deadly’)
• lack of self-esteem (‘live like animals’, ‘die like insects’).

Applying skills
Ask students to use the extract from Q & A to complete Q5: ‘How does the writer suggest that
life is not easy for the narrator?’

Give extra support by reminding students to use the information they have already
gathered. Help students with sentence starters, such as: The writer suggests life is
not easy for the narrator by describing a lack of hygiene... or The phrase, ‘no
sanitation’ implies that life would not be easy because...
Give extra challenge by encouraging students to be detailed yet concise, grouping
their ideas and considering the connotations of the words that they select and their
context. Advise them to refer to specific techniques, such as use of adjectives or
simile.

Feed back as a class, taking examples of the points that they identified, the phrases
that students selected, and how the choice of language within their phrases conveys
that life is not easy. Responses might include:
• the state of the house (as already explored in Q3)
• the narrator’s lack of money (emphasised by the short sentence) and people’s
desperation (‘inches of space ... bucket of water’)
• the local area (‘packed ... swampy urban wasteland’)
• his feeling of being unvalued (the simile, ‘live like animals’)
• the sense of danger (the simile ‘die like insects’, and the reference to ‘daily
squabbles ... which at times turn deadly’).
After feedback, ask pairs to share their work and – using the Checklist for success
Key reading skills
Chapter 1

on Student Book p. 13 – to assess how well they have done.

Towards To achieve the highest marks for reading, students need to scan texts and quickly
A/A* find the most appropriate information for the question being asked. They also need
to do this in order to select quickly the ‘best’ quotations that will allow them to
analyse the effects of a writer’s language choices.
Encourage students to practise this skill with a variety of forms of writing that they
encounter, such as newspapers, leaflets, or their favourite magazine.

10 • Lesson 2 © HarperCollins Publishers 2013