English Teaching

ELT365 · Day 173 — Gist Tasks for Reading

📚60-Day ELT Masterclass — This post is part of an ongoing series. View full index →

Idea — A gist reading task asks one global question answerable after a single read — it trains learners to resist processing every word first.

Example — ‘Is this text for or against the proposal?’ is gist. ‘How many people were affected?’ is a detail task.

Try — Take a reading text you use. Write one genuine gist question. Check: could a learner answer it without reading the final paragraph?


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