programme organiser

Programme OrganiserIntermediate level

Written by Jackie Holderness

Heinemann Educational Publishers Halley Court, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8EJ

An imprint of Harcourt Education LimitedHeinemann is a registered trademark of Harcourt Education Limited.

© Harcourt Education Limited 2005

First published 2005

09 08 07 06 0510 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library on request.

ISBN 0 435 27731 6

All rights reserved. The material in this publication is copyright. The duplicating masters may be photocopied for one-time use asinstructional material in a classroom by a teacher, but they may notbe copied in unlimited quantities, kept on behalf of others, passedon or sold to third parties, or stored for future use in a retrievalsystem. If you wish to use the material in any way other than thatspecified you must apply in writing to the publishers.

Designed by Susan Clarke

Cover design by Susan ClarkeCover photograph reproduced with permission of Corbis

Printed in the UK by Ashford Colour Press Ltd., Gosport, Hants

AcknowledgementsEvery effort has been made to contact copyright holders of materialreproduced in this book. Any omissions will be rectified insubsequent printings if notice is given to the publishers.

What is Heinemann English Readers? page 5

How to use the readers page 9

How to read and teach each strand page 14

Getting the most out of the readers page 16

Photocopiable worksheets page 17

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C o nt e nt s

4 = blank

Welcome to the library of Heinemann English Readers and the Intermediatelevel shelf. This guide is designed to help teachers and parents supportstudents’ understanding and enjoyment of the Heinemann English Readers.

Heinemann English Readers (HER) aims to offer students the chance to accessEnglish-medium and general interest books. They are designed to helpstudents develop their reading skills so they can read a wider variety of genreswith both comprehension and pleasure. Ultimately, they aim to help studentsto raise achievement through reading in English.

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What is He i ne mann English Reade r s ?

The readers have been carefully selected to feature topics of general interestand fascination to students, world-wide. They should appeal to a wide rangeof cultural backgrounds and to both male and female students.

Clear visual support is given, in the form of photographs, illustrations anddiagrams, to enhance the students’ understanding. There are additionallanguage features through which the readers aim to extend the students’knowledge of the English language. The exercises and guidelines at the back ofeach book are designed to develop students’ oral and written fluency.

These additional language features include:● the use of key words to introduce vocabulary to the reader;● a language bar that reinforces grammar and/or vocabulary on every page;● extra pages with teaching points and practice exercises;● notes for parents and teachers so students can get the most out of the books.

The Intermediate level is designed for students learning English as a second,or even foreign, language who have already acquired some basic vocabularyand who are used to reading short and easy texts in English. Their level ofcomprehension should reflect the fact that they have learned English for atleast one or two years, either in school or at home.

HER structure

Fiction strand Non-fiction strand Science strand

Elementary

Intermediate

Advanced

10 books 10 books 10 books



What is ESL?ESL (English as a second language) can be defined as the use of the Englishlanguage as a medium of instruction among learners for whom English is not afirst language.

In other words, ESL is not about teaching English, but about using English toteach other subjects, and improving the learners' English so that they are ableto participate in an English-language classroom.

There is, however, significant overlap between the ESL and EFL (English as aforeign language) markets, and the definition of these terms can vary.

Extensive readingESL experts stress the benefits of reading extensively for learners of English. Asthe name suggests, it means reading a variety of texts on a wide range oftopics. It is important that students read for pleasure, information andunderstanding. HER has been developed with this in mind. Students can selectfrom a range of genres and a wide variety of interesting subjects. The books aredesigned to be visual and accessible for students; they present information inan interesting way.

Fiction/non-fiction splitHER includes more non-fiction than fiction books. Fiction books are essentialto the development of vocabulary and language skills, and most ELT readingprogrammes are mostly or entirely composed of fiction. ESL, however, is aboutteaching the whole (or at least part) of the curriculum in English, rather thanlearning English for its own sake. For this reason, we have highlighted non-fiction books in the series, many of which will link to science and technology,and so help to reinforce the key vocabulary required to study these subjects inEnglish.

Levelling Students need a programme with a clear indication of progression and parentsand teachers like to see students’ reading improving. Within each level,therefore, we will outline a suggested reading order, with the books becomingprogressively more challenging.

ContentESL learners are likely to have a lower reading level than children reading intheir first language. This means that books which are at the right reading levelmay be inappropriately childish. We have addressed this issue by ensuring thebooks combine an appropriate reading level with a high interest level andproviding support material to help language learners.

Support materialWhen parents and schools invest in reading books for their students, theywant to be sure they are getting value for money. Through providing relevant,targeted and interesting support material to accompany the readers, we haveprovided resources which have an added value.

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Structure

The Intermediate level has 30 titles altogether. They represent three mainstrands of interest:● science, featuring biology, chemistry and physics;● general interest non-fiction, including history, geography, sport etc.;● fiction, including plays and short stories.

Below, there is a chart showing the structure of the series. While the titles ineach strand have been presented in a sequence of increasing challenge, it isassumed that a student with average reading ability will be able to cope withbooks across the strands in any order.

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Title Subject/Genre ISBN

Fiction

Tales of Tricks Drama 0435 98752 6

A Christmas Carol Graphic novel 0435 27240 3

Eerie Encounters Fiction 0435 98762 3

Survival Fiction 0435 07232 3

Dark Secrets Fiction 0435 98755 0

The Adventure of the Speckled Band Sherlock Holmes mystery 0435 01042 5

The Eye of the Eagle Fiction 0435 22866 8

Journeys Fiction 0435 98756 9

Two Tales from the Future Fiction 0435 98764 X

Another Level Drama 0435 93445 7

Non-fictionNatural Record Breakers Geography 0435 31073 9

Special Effects in Film Technology 0435 07230 7

The Search for Tutankhamen History 0435 07229 3

Karate and Judo Sport 0435 27730 8

Marco Polo History 0435 27364 7

Ocelots Nature 0435 98758 5

Extreme Survival General interest 0435 98754 2

Pollution and Conservation Environmental studies 0435 62161 0

Forest Furnace Environmental studies 0435 93423 6

Quakes, Floods and Other Disasters Geography 0435 55077 2

Science

Breathing Biology 0435 07228 5

Hot and Cold Physics 0435 98761 5

Matter Chemistry 0435 98763 1

Electricity and Magnetism Physics 0435 07241 2

Coral Reef Explorer Biology 0435 98759 3

Life Cycles Biology 0435 98753 4

Minerals Chemistry 0435 98765 8

Eyes Biology 0435 98757 7

Classifying Reptiles Biology 0435 04404 4

Energy Alternatives Physics 0435 07233 1

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The benefits of using HER

The major benefits of Heinemann English Readers are:● It is a programme specially built for English language learners.● There is support material in each book which helps students to understand

the language and concepts.● They are beautifully presented books, most of them full colour, from first

class children’s authors and illustrators.● There are three separate strands so there will always be a book at the right

reading level and the right interest level.● It uses a clear and incremental levelling system, so teachers and parents can

easily see how students are progressing.● The non-fiction and science books which link to key areas of the wider

curriculum, and teach the associated vocabulary.

Primary/secondary split

Students of the same age may have very different reading levels, depending onthe age at which they started learning English. Having three separate levels(Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced), means that books are provided atboth the right reading level and the right interest level for most students. Italso means we can give the books for older students a more sophisticated lookand feel than those for younger students.

The key words

Each book begins with two pages of key words designed especially for languagelearners. These define several words, usually through artwork and/or a writtenexplanation. They provide readers with key words, which are usually nounsessential to understanding the content of the non-fiction book or to follow astory or play. The example below is from The Search for Tutankhamen.

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How to use Heinemann English Readers

The language bars

At the bottom of each page, there are language bars designed to supportlanguage learners in a variety of ways.

1 They provide an explanation of a word or phrase which may be challengingfor the ESL reader, for example:

2 They offer students the chance to see key vocabulary or phrases in differentcontexts, so that they can hypothesise about their usage.

3 They take a grammatical feature from the text and provide further examplesof it.

By placing the bars at the bottom of the page, the ESL student can refer to themeasily when necessary.

to flatter someone: to praise someone, but not mean itterror: great fear

can’t afford to: You can’t afford to lose.You can’t afford to spend all your money.

comparativesHelium is lighter than air.An elephant is bigger than a mouse.

Follow-on activity pages

There is support material at the back of every book. Usually this takes the formof six pages of language activities and exercises, including comprehensionquestions, grammar exercises, vocabulary work and research challenges. Hereare some examples taken from different books:

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Read and remember: Kahu’s Trick

Possible model answers to Read and remember comprehension questions areprovided but there may be several ways to answer each question correctly. Insome books, there are extended comprehension questions which encouragestudents to analyse the text more deeply or enquire further into the subjectmatter of the text. These Digging deeper questions do not always haveanswers provided as they are deliberately open-ended.

Read and remember: Kahu’s Trick1 What kind of animal was Taniwha?

2 Where did Taniwha live?

3 What did Taniwha do to anyone who passed?

4 Why couldn’t anyone kill Taniwha with a sword or an arrow?

5 How long did it take Kahu to walk around the mountain?

6 What scratched Taniwha’s back?

7 Where did the 100 men hide?

8 What is a noose?

9 What name did the Chief give to Kahu?

Digging deeperDigging deeperIn this book, you have read the names of some of the things whichmerchants traded from many parts of the world. You will need tolook back at the text to do this activity.

Draw a table like the one below and complete it with the names ofmerchandise and the countries which they came from. The first onehas been done for you.

activity2

Country Merchandise

Africa gold, iron

Vocabulary and grammar exercises

The vocabulary and grammar activities are designed to enable students todeepen their understanding of words or structures encountered in the book’stext. For example:

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Match the synonymsMatch the synonymsA synonym is a word of similar meaning to another word. Writers usesynonyms to make their work more interesting.

See if you can match each word in the first column to its synonym in thesecond column below. Write down each pair of words. One has been donefor you.

Word Synonym

fear big

rich wicked

hard tiny

loud terror

Verbs and tensesSilly Billy’s Walk to LondonVerbs and tensesSilly Billy’s Walk to LondonCopy the grid and fill in the missing verbs.

Infinitive Present simple Present continuous Past simple Past continuous

to call call calling called was calling

to see see saw was seeing

to go go going was going

to hear heard

to fall falling fell

to tell tell told was telling

These activities can help students to extend their vocabulary, practise languagefeatures and then apply their knowledge in other contexts. In several activities,the students are asked to write sentences of their own or write creatively. Forexample:

Here are six sentences using six words from the grid.

1 I’m going to London by bus. 4 I called for my friend yesterday.

2 She’s falling! Quick! Catch her! 5 I was going home when I fell.

3 She heard stories about Silly Billy. 6 I saw him go the wrong way.

Now make up six sentences of your own using some of the verbs in the grid.

Glossary

The non-fiction books always include glossaries. The explanations providedhave been written with the ESL student in mind. Here is an extract from theglossary provided for Marco Polo:

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accurate if something is accurate, it is correct, or true

amber a material which looks like glass. It is yellow or gold. People useit to make jewellery.

astrolabes an instrument people use to find position

amazed very surprised

astonished very surprised

bandits, pirates people who attack you and steal from you

BackgroundThe Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, including The Speckled Band, was firstpublished in 1892. In these stories, detective Sherlock Holmes and hisfriend Dr Watson live in the city of London, but the young woman in thisstory, Miss Stoner, lives in the countryside of Surrey, a journey of severalhours away by train. When she arrives to see Holmes, she is wearingblack. This lets Holmes and the reader know that there has been a deathin her family, as it was then the custom for women to wear black for atleast a year after the death of a close relative.

Notes for teachers and parents

The last page of each book is dedicated to notes for the adults who may bereading the book with the student or supporting them through the activitypages.

The notes come in two parts:

1 There are usually some text-specific ideas to provide backgroundinformation or support follow-up activities, for example:

2 General guidance is provided about encouraging students to read more inEnglish, with ideas on how to make the experience more interactive,memorable or challenging. You can see an example of this general guidanceon the following page.

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How to get the most out of this book

1 It is helpful if the students can read the book in pairs, reading onepage aloud each. Reading aloud should help with recall and it alsoencourages the students’ application of words and phrases. At the endof each chapter, see if the students can guess who or what killed JuliaStoner. Ask the students to think carefully about the clues.

2 Encourage the students to look at the key words pages before readingthe rest of the book. These pages are designed to be used as a pictureglossary. It is also helpful to have an English dictionary available forthe students to use.

3 The strips at the bottom of each page are designed to show thelanguage used in the text in either a different way or a differentcontext, or may help introduce a new word. Looking at these will helpthe student to better understand the text and to develop their English.

4 Encourage the student to read through the follow-up activities, wheredifferent language features are explored. If possible, ask the studentto complete them.

Students need to be encouraged not only to read silently (and withunderstanding) but also to read aloud. They need to be able to use theirreading in discussion and in their own writing (application).

By drawing their attention to particular writing conventions and genres, forexample, play scripts, science experiments or recipes, you can help studentsappreciate how a text is constructed. This will help them when they need toconstruct and write a similar text themselves.

Science/non-fiction

In the Intermediate level the science strand is comprised of biology, chemistryand physics texts. In order to understand the text fully, encourage the studentsto discuss the concepts in their mother tongue if they can. Ideally, they shoulddo this before reading the book but if necessary they can do so afterwards, forexample, at home. The science texts reinforce the vocabulary students willneed in order to understand these subjects.

Diagrams: a diagram can explain vocabulary and processes very well. Alwaysstart by looking at the key words in the front of the book.

Experiments: where experiments are included, try to plan ahead so that youhave all the equipment and materials available, if possible. Encourage thestudents to talk about what they need, what they are doing and why. Even ifyou are unable to actually do the experiment this is useful for theirunderstanding and development.

Instructions: point out how instructions are laid out and how they tend touse verbs in the imperative, for example, Put this …, Do that … etc.

R e c o rd bre a k e r s : w h e re something is described as the biggest or fastest, make surethat the students understand the comparative and superlative forms of adjectivesand how they are constructed.

Dates and time lines: similarly, it is useful to practise the numbers in datesand timelines and the way they are pronounced.

Fiction

At each level, there are 10 fiction books. Fiction is particularly helpful to ESLstudents because the language patterns used in stories and plays are oftenmore closely related to everyday speech than those in non-fiction books; thesetend to be non-chronological and may be written in the passive voice.

In the fiction range, there are short stories, folk tales, novels, a graphic noveland two plays. The subjects have been chosen to appeal to boys and girls andto reflect a wide range of cultures. A few English-medium classics and storiesset in the UK have been included because a richer learning experience isprovided when we also learn about a culture whilst learning its language.

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How to read and teach each strand

Stories

Stories are an excellent vehicle for language learning. They are memorable andprovide models of dialogue. They offer students the opportunity to predictwhat is going to happen next, to reflect on language used, to sequencethoughts and ideas and to hypothesise about chronological language.

Encourage the students to predict what they think will happen next and toremind you what has happened so far. Ask them to reflect upon the way thestory is constructed and how the writer has used language.

Help them to make links with other stories or literature they have encountered(inter-textuality) and, as follow-up, help them retell or act out scenes from thestory. They could write a book review, sequence events from the story or paintor draw a picture of one of the scenes or characters.

Other follow-up opportunities include using the photocopiable activity sheetson pages 17 to 24.

Drama

Drama is another powerful vehicle for learning language. It enables students touse target language within the ‘safety’ of a role. It can provide models of re a l i s t i clanguage exchanges and is as effective in developing language skills as storiesa re. Drama is particularly valuable for developing students’ intonation ande x p ression. It is useful to include informal drama re g u l a r l y, such as role plays,i n t e rviews, TV re p o rts and pair work dialogues. All of these encourage studentsto ‘speak aloud’ in English and to make the vocabulary and stru c t u res their own.

The play scripts in HER may lead to a performance but their chief aim is tointroduce students to a different genre of writing and to the conventions ofwritten plays. Students can read the plays independently but their greatestpotential, in terms of language learning, lies in group reading or pair work.The students can each take on several roles and be encouraged to vary theirvoices according to their characters. It might be helpful if, as the adult, youcould take one of the parts.

These books are best read aloud and with dramatic effect. Some students willenjoy making a sound recording of the text being read aloud, using soundeffects in the background (a rustling crisp packet sounds very like wind in theleaves on a stormy night!)

If a small group of students could be encouraged to perform one of the playsor even just one scene from a play, it would greatly enhance their confidencein speaking English and be entertaining to the rest of the group as well.

Graphic novels

Leading ESL experts recommend graphic novels as one of the best vehicles forlearning English. These are ideal for ESL students because they provide thestrongest visual support for understanding. Every ‘chunk’ of text has anillustration so the students can make sensible guesses about any unfamiliarlanguage they encounter. They can be used as play scripts as well, with groupsreading aloud from them.

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Potential of HER in extensive reading

Extensive reading is one of the current buzzwords in the ESL/EFL fields. Itmeans reading widely, and in quantity, in the target language. It is beingrecognised increasingly that extensive reading helps learners with vocabularyand grammatical stru c t u res, as well as improving their comprehension.

The increased interest in the benefits of extensive reading has led to calls form o re material which is written specifically for the language learn e r.

Heinemann English Readers is tailored with extensive reading in mind. Theseries is particularly suitable for extensive reading because:● it is comprised of a wide variety of types of text;● the 30 books cover a huge range of subjects;● the colourful and visual design encourages independent reading;● the books are interesting and accessible, enabling students to read for

pleasure and to obtain information.

Potential of HER at school

It is possible to use the books in a variety of ways:● As library books placed on shelves which are specifically labelled for the

Heinemann English Readers. Students then know that they will receive extrasupport to help them understand and learn from the text;

● Inserted into the mainstream book collection in the library;● As extension work. The books would be ideal for those students who have

finished regular class work ahead of their peers. Students could work thro u g hthe text, language bars and exercises individually, or better still, in pairs;

● For group reading. If the school has managed to purchase three copies ofeach book, teachers could use the books for Guided Reading, where sixchildren read through and make sense of a book together, asking oranswering questions and making notes;

● For research and study skills/to support topic-based work.

Potential of HER at home

It is possible to use the books in a variety of ways:● As personal reading matter. The readers would make valuable and attractive

additions to a student’s own book collection. They could enhance astudent’s experience of reading in English and enable the student to widentheir vocabulary and learn about a wide range of topics;

● For homework. Teachers may send home a reader for self-study. Theexercises at the back could form the basis of written homework. Thelanguage bars stimulate language study and writing practice. Finally, thestudents could be asked to find out more about a non-fiction book’s theme,through study of other library books (in English or Mother Tongue) orthrough using a search engine on the Internet.

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Getting the most out of the readers

Title

Author

Chapters

Key words and new words

New phrases and structures

My questions

Things I learned …

An interesting fact …

What I want to find out about next …

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Non-fiction writing framePhotocopiable worksheet 1


Non-fiction concept mapsPhotocopiable worksheet 2

2 Brace map

1 Mind map

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Title:

Title:


Write down the adjectives which describe characters in the book:

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Character studyPhotocopiable worksheet 3

Character 1 Character 2 Character 3Name Name Name

Choose two things that each of these characters said in the book. Find sayingswhich tell us something about their personality. Copy what they said into thespeech bubbles.

Name


Name

Name

Prepare a story for retelling.

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Story structurePhotocopiable worksheet 4


Title

Author

Setting

Characters

On the scale below, write in where you think each character should go.

good bad

Beginning

Problem or challenge 1



Climax (the most exciting part)

Resolution

An alternative ending

You have read a story and now you want to make it into a play or film. Imagineyou are a Hollywood director! First, choose the main characters and decide whoyou want as your actors. Next, think about the locations for the sets. Finally,think about the costumes. You could even draw a sketch of the main charactersin costume.

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Presenting a story as dramaPhotocopiable worksheet 5


Characters

Locations/settings

Costumes

Opening scene

Most dramatic scene

Closing scene

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Presenting a story as a newspaper report

Photocopiable worksheet 6


artwork or photo

artwork or photo

headline

HER NEWS

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Book review: non-fictionPhotocopiable worksheet 7

Important word My definition


Now decide which words have been important in this book. They may be key wordsor glossary words or they may be words which are new to you.

Title

Author

Definition of title

Main idea 1

Main idea 2

Main idea 3

Personal response (what I liked or disliked about this book)

Recommendation (Would I tell my friends to read this book? Why? Why not?)

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Book review: fictionPhotocopiable worksheet 8


Title

Author

Characters

Synopsis (summary) of story

Main appeal

Age range

The best part

The worst part

Personal response (what I liked or disliked about this book)

Recommendation (Would I tell my friends to read this book? Why? Why not?)

programme organiser

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