Okay I’m using alter_native loosely here. My lesson later won’t be all that groundbreaking. I am penning down some notes because four personnel from the Ministry of Education Headquarters will come down to observe my lesson later. So, I wanna make it worthwhile for them. I’m gonna carry out certain activities that may be considered unprecedented for the regular classroom though, so I hope this fits the criteria of this territory.

Class greets: Good morning, Gurus.

So, class, today we are going to revise what we learnt yesterday. First things first, how many steps do you need to do when reading a text? Answer: three

Yesterday, I got you guys to come to the board to write the flow chart. There was a lot of movement, and movement helps in getting you to remember. Today, we are doing something totally different. A new experience.

Everyone, close your eyes and raise your right hand in the air. Sky-writing activates the muscles in your body, which sends signals to your brain and helps you remember things better. What’s the first step you do before reading? Sky-write the initial. Not a word from anyone.

Now, at the count of three, I want everyone to say aloud the letter you sky-wrote. You sky-wrote P. What does P stand for? Preview. Very good.

Now I will do a demo on how I used Preview yesterday. I came across an article and saw the title Dyslexia: help students with poor learning skills uncover their strengths. I looked at the closing of this letter. It was written by the CEO of the Dyslexia Association of Singapore. I predict that he will say nice things about people with dyslexia. I wonder what strengths these students have. So, I decided to read the article.

Preview is a useful tool because it will help you choose things to read.

Let’s apply Preview to the comprehension passage we are about to read.

First, see the title: Growing up in a foster family*. Is the word foster click or clunk for you? Is it unfamiliar to you? Let’s look at the pictures. The first picture shows the boy sitting alone by himself and looking at his friends. What do you think he’s feeling? Sad and lonely.

The second picture shows the boy with a group of people. They must be his family. The couple looks like his parents. How does he look like? Happy. Can I figure out the meaning of foster?

The last picture shows a grown-up man and two elderly people. Their backs are facing us. The man is probably the boy who has grown up. We know this because of the first two words in the title (Growing Up).

Now I think to myself, the couple can’t be his birth/real parents. Otherwise the writer wouldn’t have used foster family. He can’t be growing up with his relatives either. So, he must have grown up in an unusual family. The couple are looking after him, so they are not related by blood.

I think that the boy must have enjoyed living with his foster family because he is still around in their lives when they grow older. I predict that he is going to share happy memories of his growing up years.

I wonder why he liked his foster family.

Now, let’s move on to the second step: View/Read. How many question words are there? Six. What are the five wives and one husband?

Now tell me the image I get you to associate with each question word.

Life happens and I don’t have time to finish this. Good luck to me!