Developing reading skills by responding to Murakami's 'After Dark'
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can apply effective reading skills to an unseen fiction text.
Key learning points
- We can use context to help us make predictions about the text.
- We can use other words in the sentence to help us clarify meaning of words or sentences you do not understand.
- Considering the questions that arise as we read and looking for hints at the answers, deepens our understanding.
- To demonstrate our comprehension, we need to be able to summarise what we have read.
- Picking out relevant quotes can demonstrate our comprehension of a text.
Keywords
Comprehend - to understand something completely
Decode - to discover the meaning of
Context - background information that helps something to be fully understood
Perspective - a point of view
Genre - a style or category of art, music or literature
Common misconception
When we read something for the first time, we are able to take in all of the important information.
We may need to read something over and over again to fully comprehend it. Using active reading strategies can also help us to fully engage with a new text.
Teacher tip
In LC1, model the type of questions you would ask yourself as you read a text.
Equipment
You will need a copy of the beginning of Chapter 1 of 'After Dark' by Haruki Murakami for this lesson.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.What is context?
Q2.Match each word to its definition.
to declare what you think will happen based on available evidence
to make more clear and comprehensible
to provide the key ideas about something
Q3.Match each sentence to the perspective being used.
first person
second person
third person
Q4.What is important to include in a summary?
Q5.What is a utopia?
Q6.What does 'ominous' mean?
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.How can the title of a piece of writing help you in your comprehension of it?
Q2.How can the date that a text was published help you make predictions about the text?
Q3.When reading an unfamiliar text, what is the most productive method to support your comprehension?
Q4.Active reading is about ...
Q5.'After Dark' by Haruki Murakami is written from which perspective?
Q6.Match each word to the impression it creates of the city in Murakami's 'After Dark'.
The city is dangerous.
The city is busy.
The city is ominous.
To help you plan your 10 English lesson on: Developing reading skills by responding to Murakami's 'After Dark', download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 10 English lesson on: Developing reading skills by responding to Murakami's 'After Dark', download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 4 English lessons from the Fiction: read around the world unit, dive into the full secondary English curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.