WebQuest- Reading and Vocabulary Workshop

In this workshop we have designed exercises to help you improve your reading skills, especially those that are useful for newspapers reading. While you do the exercises you will learn the established conventions about all the elements that constitute a newspaper. This is what we are going to do in this workshop:

- Revise the newspaper elements learnt in the previous treasure hunt.
- Learn the pattern of the headlines and revise a list of key words that are typical of headlines.
- Revise the structure of news writing style.
- Examine the layout of front pages.

In the left column you will find a series of resource pages designed to help you with the exercises. Use them whenever you need advice or help.

- Do this short answer quiz on the menu to revise the terms used to name different parts and features of a newspaper.

- Do this drag and drop exercise as many times as you want to check that you have understood all the words. Click on the picture to access to the page.

One of the major problems of reading English newspapers is the language of headlines. However, once you learn the rules to decipher headlines and the meaning of the key words typical of them, it will be as easy as reading any other texts. So, while you do the following exercises take into account the structure and the words of headlines. Use the resources on the left column.

Headlines A. Read about the structure of headlines and do some practice by rewriting the headlines as full sentences in a more understandable way. Do this short answer quiz on the menu as in the example:

Headlines B. Click on the headline in the example below and you will see twenty headlines and the first paragraphs of the articles that correspond to them. Read them as quickly as possible and find a word in the paragraph that is similar in meaning to the underlined word in the headline. Then do the short answer quiz on the menu. Have a look at the example:

Headlines C. Do the exercises below as many times as you need to revise some more key words in headlines.

Revision Quiz 1 (25 w)

Revision Quiz 2 (25 w)

Headlines D. Click on the image of the Mirror to read the headlines and the short paragraphs, find the words in the text that correspond to the abbreviations in the headlines. Then do the exercise

Headlines E. Headlines also reflect the style and political attitude of the newspaper. A headline from a news story in "The Sun" will surely differ from the headline of the same news story in "The Guardian". Now that you understand headlines better answer the questions in the matching exercise on the menu.

Text Structure A Click here and you will see six articles and the headlines that appear with them. Skim them quickly and do the multiple choice quizon the menu where you will have to match the headlines and the articles:

Text Structure B Choose only one of these two feature stories and find:

'I had too much time to think'
Paper of the future is here

- The lead sentence of the article. - The name of the reporter. - A fact and an opinion. - A sentence where a relative pronoun has been avoided. - Any example of vocabulary used to attract the reader attention. - Indirect and direct speech.

Text Structure C Choose only one of these two news stories and write a short summary of it. Try to identify as much of the 5W1H as possible, that is, the information about: what, who, where, when, why and how.

Food watchdog angry at schools chocolate deal
Daniella rages at hyperactive Catalina

Text Structure B and C are to be answered in assignment 2 of module 4.

Front Pages A

We are going to explore online newspapers front pages. Be aware of the following features in each of the newspapers selected.

- As you explore the papers, you can save some of the news for your final task.

Front Pages B
Read the following headlines. All of them are about the same piece of news, but they have been published in different newspapers.

Now it's your turn: follow the track of a news story in the six papers; skim the news quickly to see the differences in the way the news is presented in different newspapers. Them, write the headlines in the paragraph quiz on the menu.

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Reading Strategies
Vocabulary Strategies