Title:
Reading Skills – Paraphrasing
Type:
Lesson plan
KLA:
English Language
Level:
S4
School:
HKTA The Yuen Yuen Institute No.1 Secondary School

Background

S4 students in HKTA The Yuen Yuen Institute No.1 Secondary School found it challenging to tackle reading questions that require them to decode messages from texts and understand paraphrased versions. English teachers designed a reading skill booklet as a learning resource to help students develop paraphrasing skills progressively.


Objectives

These lessons aim to:
  • help students understand the idea of paraphrasing;
  • familiarise students with some common paraphrasing techniques;
  • demonstrate the application of paraphrasing skills; and
  • provide students with practice opportunities to handle paraphrasing skills

Implementation

The reading skill booklet is designed to raise students’ metacognition of paraphrasing skills applied in reading texts. Different paraphrasing techniques are categorised with examples and practice. It is expected that students could gain a better understanding of the use of paraphrasing in encoding and decoding messages and develop an enhanced language sense.


Teaching Procedures

The table below presents the process of building up students’ paraphrasing skills:
Lessons
Teaching steps
Relevant parts in the booklet
1
  • Teacher introduces the idea of paraphrasing.
  • Teacher distinguishes between paraphrasing, quoting, and summarising.
  • Teacher introduces the use of synonyms in paraphrasing, and different ways of forming and using synonyms.
  • Students are asked to associate the paraphrased version with the original part so as to get a deeper understanding of the technique.
P.3:
What is paraphrasing?
Why do we need to learn paraphrasing?
P.4-5:
Technique 1 – Synonyms
2-3
  • Teacher revisits with students the concept of different parts of speech, and also the use of linguistic clues like prefix and suffix.
  • Teacher explains the use of changing parts of speech in paraphrasing.
  • Students are asked to associate the paraphrased version with the original part so as to be familiarised with the technique.
P.6-7:
Technique 2 – Parts of speech
4-6
  • Teacher summarises other techniques used in paraphrasing, e.g. changing voice, sentence structure, word order, using metaphors, making inferences.
  • Teacher gives examples of metaphors, and illustrates some basic techniques in making inferences, which will be covered in more detail separately.
  • Students are asked to associate the paraphrased version with the original part so as to get a deeper understanding of the technique.
P.8-9:
Other paraphrasing techniques
7
  • After students have got familiar with the common paraphrasing techniques, they are given opportunities to practise the skill through working out answers from specific types of reading questions using paraphrasing skills.
  • Teacher introduces common question types in reading assessment and guides students in understanding their requirements.
  • Teacher specifies some limiting factors in paraphrasing questions.
P.10-11:
Instructions in HKDSE reading


P.12-13:
Limiting factors
8-9
  • Teacher categorises some basic techniques of paraphrasing skills in proofreading.
  • Teacher points out the difference between correcting language and correcting content with examples.
  • Students attempts proofreading questions.
  • Teacher gives explanations and relate them to the skills taught.
P.14-15:
Paraphrasing in HKDSE Reading – Proofreading
10-11
  • Teacher guides students in tackling fill-in-the-blanks questions with examples, and explains the rationale behind.
  • Teacher starts with shorter and simpler questions so as to make it easier for students to grasp the concept and essence of the technique.
  • Teacher shifts to longer questions, which are usually in the form of tables or paragraphs and require understanding of the overall organisation and meaning of the text.
  • Students are asked to analyse the organisation of the text and attempt the questions.
P.16-17:
Paraphrasing in HKDSE Reading – Fill in the blanks

Acknowledgments


HKTA The Yuen Yuen Institute No.1 Secondary School
Stephen LAM (Language Support Officer)