Keys to Texts

Keys to Teaching Descriptive and Report Texts

written by Aziza Restu Febrianto

Teachers of High schools are required to teach some certain kinds of text using various approaches they have to choose. The followings are the keys on how to teach texts especially Descriptive and Report texts creatively.

1. Know your students and choose texts/ materials that reflect their interest.

Choose your texts carefully. You’d better choose the texts about interesting topic. It will be much more successful.

At the beginning of the terms, talk to your students and have them write about their interests and hobbies.

2. Incorporate integrated skills into pre- reading activities.

Personalize the texts you have chosen by asking the students what they know and what their opinions are.

You can have your students answer the following questions in pairs/ small groups.

-          Have you ever heard about Lombok Island?

-          Where is Lombok Island?

-          Where is West Nusa Tenggara?

Help your students build their confidence by schema-building and vocabulary. For example:

a.       You can show a map of Indonesia, Nusa Tenggara, and pictures of Lombok island and ask:

-          Which province is Lombok Island in?

-          What kind of Island is that?

-          What kind of people do you think live there?

-          What do think people have fun there?

b.      Pre- teach important vocabulary words.

For example: Matching

Find the correct definition for each word:

1)      Subtropical Climate                                                                         a) Near tropical

2)      Intimate                                                                                           b) Located

3)      Situated                                                                                           c) Made out of

3. Extend activities beyond text comprehension and students to use English creatively.

Don’t stop here! Continue with more creative post-reading integrated activities. For example:

Group Investigation Technique

Step 1:

After reading Natural Disasters report text, students in small groups choose any topic they are interested in, related to the text, and brainstorm questions about it, e.g.

ü  Floods: what is a flood? What causes floods? How much damage can flood cause? How can we prevent floods?

ü  Locusts: What are locusts? Do they exist in Indonesia? How can they cause a natural disaster? Has there ever been a locust problem in Indonesia?

ü  Ice Age: What is an Ice Age? When was the last Ice Age? How did it effect people alive then?

Step 2

ü  Using questions as guidelines, small groups together write one paragraph (or more) answering all of their questions, creating their own unique report text.

ü  This step can be completed as homework, so students can research (Internet, books, journal articles, etc) more about their topics.

Step 3

ü  The teacher reads each group’s report and gives feedback on grammar, cohesion, word choice, etc.

Step 4

ü  Students in groups self-correct their paragraphs, according to the teacher’s feedback.

Step 5

ü  Independent construction of a new text: after the students have practiced writing texts in groups, they individually write a new text on the topic of their choice.