FL436 / Dr. J.

Smith
David Balmaceda

Level and Age:

Objectives:

Advanced Organizers:

Text:

Format for Reading Activity

The following reading activity was designed for adult leaners of Spanish of
an intermediate level class.
-

Practice reading in Spanish for general and specific information.

Practice and develop their inferencing and critical thinking skills in
Spanish through the story El Leador.
- Use reading as a launching pad for writing by creating a new story
or writing an ending to it.

For this lesson I am using:
Pictures and titles.
Guessing meaning of words through pictures and synonyms.
I have chosen to use these advanced organizers, as I believe visuals are
always useful for guessing and retaining meaning. Besides, most students
tend to be visual learners.

The text is a tale about a poor, but honest lumberjack, whose axe falls in a
river while crossing a bridge. A nymph offers to help him find the axe. At
first, the nymph brought him a gold axe, which the lumberjack refused to
take. Then, she showed him a silver axe, which again, he refused to take. At
last, the nymph brought him an iron axe, which he accepts happily since it
was the one he lost. The nymph loved the honesty of the man, and in return
she gave him the gold and silver axes too.
I found the text at http://aprenderespanol.org/lecturas/ejercicios-delectura.html
Under the link:
http://reglasdeortografia.com/testcomprension1ciclo01.html
I found the text very interesting as it addresses the benefits of practicing
good values. I also find it appropriate for the level of the students as it has
vocabulary and grammar structures that are neither too advanced nor too
simple for students at this level.
It is important to mention that the website provided some multiple-choice
questions that I did not find useful for checking students comprehension.
Therefore, I created a set of pre-reading, while-reading and after-reading
activities that I think will facilitate comprehension.
I also, omitted the adjective honrado (honest) in the title to avoid obvious
conclusions about the action of the lumberjack in the story.

FL436 / Dr. J. Smith

David Balmaceda

Copy of the text:

El leador
Haba una vez un pobre leador que regresaba a su casa despus
de una jornada de duro trabajo. Al cruzar un puentecillo sobre el
ro, se le cay el hacha al agua. Entonces empez a lamentarse
tristemente: Cmo me ganar el sustento ahora que no tengo
hacha? Al instante oh, maravilla! Una bella ninfa apareca sobre
las aguas y dijo al leador: Espera, buen hombre: traer tu
hacha. Se hundi en la corriente y poco despus reapareca con un
hacha de oro entre las manos. El leador dijo que aquella no era la
suya. Por segunda vez se sumergi la ninfa, para reaparecer
despus con otra hacha de plata. Tampoco es la ma dijo el
afligido leador. Por tercera vez la ninfa busc bajo el agua. Al
reaparecer llevaba un hacha de hierro. Oh gracias, gracias! Esa
es la ma! Pero, por tu honradez, yo te regalo las otras dos. Has
preferido la pobreza a la mentira y te mereces un premio.

Activities:

Other:

For this activity the students will go through the reading as many times as
they need to complete the exercises that will help them comprehend the
reading as well.
To enhance reading comprehension, a mix of bottom-up and top-down
activities were designed for the different stages in the reading process.