I love sharks and so when I found this article on New Scientist, I couldn’t wait to share it with my students. As it falls under the topic of environment/animals, it’s perfect for IELTS. It’s also written in the right tone for IELTS, too, and all difficult words of vocabulary can be figured out from context.
I put together some questions aimed at developing key reading skills: figuring out vocabulary from context, highlight important features for later use, and some common question types. I’ve also put in a writing response at the end to make it a bit more productive.
I like to begin my lessons with a discussion as a lead-in activity. You can ask students some general questions like:
- How do you feel about sharks?
- What are some problems sharks face?
- What do you know about sharks?
Next, give out the reading paper and guide them through the questions, discussing each. I like to show where in the text each answer could be found. It helps them a great deal.
Here’s the document:
Finally, when it comes to the writing, I show another short video to get some ideas in their minds. You don’t have to, but it’s pretty easy viewing.