These are two ideas that I picked up from I.S.P. Nation's book.
Nation had the idea that reading comprehension questions should focus on helping the students learn how to read instead of simply testing their reading skills. To that end, he suggested designing questions that get the students to identify what the reference words in a text refer to.
Below is included an example I did for a recent reading class. It's only an example, of course, and new sheets will have to be designed for each text, but you hopefully get the idea.
Look at page
35 in your reading source book. Write in
what each reference word (in bold) refers to from the text.
Line 15: its
atmosphere: ____________
Line 20: This
is called: _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Line 22: it
is today: ____________________
Line 24: its
subsequent condensation: ____________________
Line 28: that
block: __________________
Line 36: the
one: _________________
Line 38
especially that: __________________
Line 38 which
has: _____________________
Answers:
Line 15: its
atmosphere: the Earth's
Line 20: This
is called: Greenhouse gases such as water vapour and carbon dioxide, as well
as clouds and small particles (called 'aerosols'), trap some heat in the lower
part of the Earth's atmosphere.
Line 22: it
is today: average surface temperature
Line 24: its
subsequent condensation: surface water
Line 28: that
block: tiny particles
Line 36: the
one: warmer period
Line 38
especially that: the atmospheric amounts
Line 38 which
has: carbon dioxide
The second idea is an extrapolation from Nation's book. Nation suggested designing questions that get students to identify the head of a noun phrase. Or, in more complex sentences, get students to identify which nouns are the subjects of which verbs.
I've modified this idea slightly into an activity where students have to identify the main subject and the main verb in each sentence. Students are encouraged to write down only the head noun and the head verb (i.e. only one word each). The exception is the passive voice, in which case auxiliaries are allowed to show that it's in the passive.
As with the above example, this has to be slightly redesigned for each reading, but a recent example I used in class is below, and a generic version of the sheet is on Google Docs Here.
Main Subject
|
Main
Verb
|
(3 subjects)
|
|
Which verbs are in the passive?
Answers
Main Subject
|
Main
Verb
|
document
|
answers
|
issues
|
(be) clarified
|
Climate
|
is
|
weather
|
change
|
changes
|
involve
|
climate
|
(is) influenced
|
climate
|
(is) controlled
|
radiation
|
(is) absorbed
|
radiation
|
(is) balanced
|
gases
|
trap
|
This
|
(is) called
|
temperature
|
be
|
currents
|
redistribute
|
evaporation, condensation, precipitation
|
redistribute
|
events
|
cause
|
eruptions
|
put
|
Variations
|
change
|
events
|
last
|
changes
|
caused
|
activities
|
change
|
amounts
|
increasing
|
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