Purpose: To practice reading in chunks; to encourage effective group work

Preparation Time: 5-10 minutes

Materials:  Photocopies of a reading text; comprehension activities for the text; tape; pencils and paper

Preparation: Choose a reading text that is slightly above your students reading level. It should be between 5 and 10 sentences. Decide how many groups of students you will have and make that many copies of the text. Tape the copies around the room at eye level for your students.

Procedure:

1)      Create context for the reading.

2)      Divide students into groups. Assign each group one of the copies of the text that is on the wall. Each group should pick a secretary. The secretary will be the only person to write during the activity.

3)      Ensure each group has paper and a pencil.

4)      When you say go, each groups sends one person up to their text. That person reads and remembers as much of the text as he or she can. He/She walks back to the group and dictates what was read to the secretary, who writes it down. Anytime after the first person has returned, the next person in the group goes up to the text to continue reading. All members of the group (excluding the secretary) take turns reading and dictating until the group has completed the text. Students must walk back to the group before they start giving the dictation.

5)      When all groups have finished, compare their texts to the original. The group that has the fewest errors (spelling, repeated or left out words, punctuation) is the winning group.

6)      Read the text as a class and do the comprehension activities.

Comments: Students will often try to remember too much of the text at a time at first and then they forget what they have read by the time they get to their group. This activity helps them discover manageable chunks of text to remember and helps them pay attention to accuracy.