Connelly
An Apology from an Arab: Reading Exercise
Pre-Reading Exercises: these exercises are designed to help give you an overview of what you are about to read and help you to notice relevant textual features.
Getting Ready to Read
1. What was the response from many of the citizens in Arab countries to the terrorist acts committed on 9/11?
2. Why do you think that they responded this way?
Surveying the Text / Making Predictions
3. Based on the title, what do you think that this article will be about?
4. Discover when and where this text was published. Who do you think that audience is for this text?
5. What do you think that purpose of this text is? (Think about the audience.)
6. Based on the title, introductory paragraph and the concluding paragraph of the text, what information/ideas might this article present?
Introducing Key Vocabulary
7. Find the meanings of the following words either using the context of the reading or using a dictionary.
· Perpetrators
· Secularism
· Infidel
· Fundamentalists
· Sickles
· Lunacy
· Piety
· Canonized
First Reading: the first reading of the text is intended to help you understand the text and confirm predictions.
8. Which of your predictions turned out to be true? (List them.)
9. Were there any surprises in the reading? (If yes, list them. If no, why not?)
Re-Reading: the re-reading of this article will help you develop fluency and build vocabulary which will help aid your comprehension of the article.
10. As you read the text, make marginal notations (annotate) following the format below:
a. In the left hand-margin label what the author says:
· The introduction
· The issue or problem the author is writing about
· The author’s main arguments or points
· The author’s examples (that support the arguments)
· The conclusion
b. In the right hand margin, write your reaction to what the author is saying.
11. Cite this article according to MLA citation format.