reading assignment activities

13 Fun Reading Activities for Any Book

Whether you walk into a classroom in Asia, North America or Europe, you will almost certainly see teachers and students building their understanding of the world through a dedicated daily reading session full of great reading activities.

Books allow students an opportunity to be informed, entertained or escape as they comprehend fiction and non-fiction texts against their understanding of the world, their personal insights, and opinions and finally compare those texts to others.

Whilst you may have a wealth of books in your school library, developing fresh and engaging ways to study literature can often be challenging.  So today, we will explore 25 proven activities that can be applied to any book and at any age level.

These reading activities to improve reading comprehension are easy to follow and suitable for most age groups within an elementary/junior high school level.

125 Text Response ACTIVITIES, Games, Projects for ANY BOOK

This massive collection of ☀️ READING ACTIVITIES☀️ covers all essential reading skills for elementary/primary students. NO PREP REQUIRED! Works with all text and media types.

Thousands of teachers have adopted this as a GO-TO RESOURCE for independent and group tasks.

A COLLECTION OF FUN READING ACTIVITIES

A lifetime tale in pictures reading task.

Draw the main character from a book you have recently read.  Show them as a baby, middle-aged and an older person.

Underneath each picture, write what you think they might be doing at that point in their life, and explain why they may be doing so.

For example, if you drew Harry Potter as a baby, he might cast spells on his mum to feed him lots of yummy food.

Post-reading activities like this are accessible for all age groups to adapt their skill level and text style.

If you want to learn more about characters, read our complete guide here.

TEXT TO SELF-READING TASK

Based upon a book you have just read, share a  story about yourself related to an event or character in the book.

It is probably best done in the form of a written recount. Link your experience to no more than four situations that occurred within the text.

Text to self is an excellent opportunity for students to become introspective about the content they read and compare it to their own life experiences. 

This activity is appealing to teenagers more so than juniors .

IT’S IN THE INSTRUCTIONS READING TASK

From a book you have just read, select either a critical object or creature and create a user manual or a guide explaining how to care for it.

Ensure you use any vital information learnt from the book and any other information you consider essential.

If you are writing a user manual for an object, remember to focus on using it correctly and taking care of it.

If you are writing a user guide for an animal or creature, focus on keeping it alive and healthy as well as information that explains how to keep it happy and under control if necessary.

Dear Diary, READING TASK

Place yourself in the shoes of one of the characters you have just read about and write a diary entry of a critical moment from the story.

Try to choose a moment in the story where the character has plenty of interaction and emotion to share in a diary entry.

Your diary entry should be around a page long and contain information you learned from the book when the character was in that specific place and time.

Remember, when writing a diary entry, you are writing it from a first-person perspective. It is usually but not always written in the present tense.

Diary writing has been a very popular activity throughout time, but social media tools such as Facebook and blogging have in some ways changed this.

Mapping it all out, READING TASK

How do you make reading lessons fun? This reading activity answers that question confidently.

Have a go at drawing a map of one of the places from the text you have just read. See how much detail you can include, and be sure to discuss your map with another reader so you can compare and add more if necessary.

Take some time and effort to ensure your map appeals to the same audience the book aims at.

All good maps should contain the following BOLTS elements.

B – Bolts

O – Orientation

L – Legend

S – Scale

Express Yourself READING TASK

Using an iPad or a digital camera, make faces of the emotions the main characters would have gone through in your book and take photos of them. 

Put them together in a document on your computer or device and explain the emotion below the image and when the character would have felt this way.

This is an excellent opportunity to use some creative direction for this task.

Be sure to play around with the images, filters and graphical styling available.

Travel Agent READING TASK

Think of yourselves as a group of travel assistants whose job is to promote a  city of your choice from the text you have been reading.

As a group, you need to develop a concept map of all the exciting things that happen in your city and then present it to the class.

Don’t forget all of the exciting things such as theatres, restaurants, sports, adventure activities, entertainment and much more…

If you are a little short on details of the location of your story, do some research if it was an actual location or just get creative and make up some locations and tourist attractions based on what you read.

You’re Hired READING TASK

Select a character from a book and consider what might be an excellent job for them. You can choose something entirely suitable such as a security guard job for Superman or a more oddball approach, such as a pastry chef.

Either way, you will have to write a letter from this character’s perspective and apply for a position.

Be sure to explain why your character would be a great employee and what special skills they would possess to make them ideal for the role. Sell your character by explaining all the great attributes they possess.

What’s the Status? READING TASK

Create a Facebook page for your character with some status updates about what they have been up to.

Include some pictures and ensure your status updates are relevant to the character and the story.

Around 3 – 4 status updates with mages should give an overall picture of the character.

Use your status updates to explore what your character does for a job, leisure time, places they might go on vacation and the like.

Bubbles and Clouds READING TASK

Using speech bubbles and pictures of the characters, draw a conversation between two characters from the story you have read.

Remember, thought is drawn as a cloud, and a spoken statement is drawn as a  bubble.

Be sure to look at some comics or graphic novels for inspiration and insights.

This activity is usually best done on pen and paper, but numerous digital apps and tools will allow you to make this a reality through technology.

Amazing Artifacts READING TASK

An artifact is an object that has some significance or meaning behind it. Sometimes, an artefact might even have a very important story behind it.  I am sure you have a favorite toy, or your parents have a particular item in the house that they would consider an important artifact.

For today’s task, you will select five artifacts from the text you have been reading and explain what makes them significant or essential.

They don’t all have to be super important to the story, but I am sure that at least a couple played a significant role.

Be sure to draw a picture of the artifact and if necessary, label it.

FREE READING ACTIVITIES RESOURCE TO DOWNLOAD

Thinking Differently READING TASK

Choose three important events from the text and explain how you would have handled them differently from the characters in the story.

Explain how it may have changed the story’s outcome in either a minor or significant way.

Be insightful here and think of the cause and effect.  Sometimes your smallest action can have a significant impact on others.

Popplet Mind Mapping Task

Popplet is a mind mapping tool that allows you to connect ideas together using images, text and drawings.

From a text, you have recently read, create a family tree or network diagram that explains the relationship the characters have with each other.

Some may be father and son, husband and wife or even arch enemies.

Try and lay it out so it is easy to follow.

You Have Three Wishes READING TASK

A genie lands at the midpoint of the story you have just read and grants the two main characters three wishes.

What do they wish for and why?

Finally, would their wishes have changed anything about the story?  How so?

Again think about the cause and effect relationship and how this may have altered the path of the book you have been reading.

A COMPLETE DIGITAL READING UNIT FOR STUDENTS

Over 30 engaging activities for students to complete BEFORE, DURING and AFTER reading ANY BOOK

• Compatible with all devices and digital platforms, including GOOGLE CLASSROOM.
• Fun, Engaging, Open-Ended INDEPENDENT tasks.
• 20+ 5-Star Ratings ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

MORE GREAT ARTICLES WITH READING ACTIVITIES

Top 7 Reading Comprehension Strategies for Students and Teachers

How to teach Guided Reading: Teaching Strategies and Activities

Identifying the main idea of the story: A Guide for Students and Teachers

Teaching Cause and Effect in Reading and Writing

Graphic Organizers for Writing and Reading

Top 7 Tips for Teaching Guided Reading in Large Classes

5 Reasons You Need a Digital Reading Diary In 2023

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22 Effective ESL Reading Activities Your Students Will Love

Do your ESL students sometimes struggle to understand what they’ve read?

Reading comprehension is notoriously difficult for students to learn and for teachers to teach. You have to make it interesting and effective. Otherwise, your students will lose interest and get discouraged from reading in English altogether.

In this post, I’ve compiled 22 awesome and effective ESL reading comprehension activities that your students will surely enjoy. Some are straightforward, while others require a bit of preparation prior to the main activity.

1. Pick the Right Word: Which Is It?

2. picture quiz: brown bear, what do you see, 3. connect the dots: this word goes with that picture, 4. sequence: putting humpty dumpty back together, 5. story retelling: showtime, 6. cause and effect: who solves the mystery, 7. following directions: it’s a treasure hunt, 8. multiple-choice: get it right, 9. short answers: a story within a story, 10. vocabulary focus: show and tell, 11. decoding idioms: guess what the phrase means, 12. question time: prep for the real work, 13. read and repeat: get pronunciation down pat, 14. paragraph summary: tell it another way, 15. quiz writing and giving: stump your classmates, 16. true or false: give me a thumbs-up (or down), 17. puzzle making: cut and paste, 18. taboo: don’t say that, 19. class discussions: talk it out, 20. class debates: fight it out, 21. class presentations: in-class ted talks, 22. class presentations redux: tell me about [a favorite topic], why do esl reading comprehension activities.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Most ESL reading activities designed to test comprehension look like this:

Sarah went to the (beach/park). There, she met a friend who went to (science class/summer camp) two years ago.

You can usually find exercises like this for free on K12Reader.com and Mr. Nussbaum.com , so you don’t need to spend time making them on your own.

They’re rather cut-and-dry as far as exercises go, but if you’re new to giving out ESL reading comprehension activities or are looking for a safe option, you can always fall back on this one.

If you’re looking for a more creative version of “Pick the Right Word,” you can also craft an ESL reading comprehension activity that doesn’t necessarily involve words and sentences (as strange as that might sound).

Instead of giving students two options to choose from or having them fill in the blanks, you can give them a bunch of pictures and have them do some matching.

Using the example above ( Sarah went to the (beach/park) . ..), you can label several pictures as A, B, C and D. Picture A can be a beach, Picture B can be a park and so on. Students can then sort through the pictures, and write the correct letter corresponding to the correct image in the blank space.

Alternatively, you could also use “Connect the Dots” for the same exercise above. This works especially well with younger ESL learners, who’ll be more appreciative of colorful pictures accompanying their learning activities.

Feel free to throw in an irrelevant picture or two to make the activity a tad more tricky and interesting. It’ll also more accurately gauge whether your students actually understand the answers they’re giving out or are just guessing them.

Nursery rhymes like “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall” are engaging for ESL learners of any age.

For this activity, use pictures to retell the story and help your students remember the main plot points, characters and events of the text.

Preparation

• Create copies of two stories. Make sure each is single-spaced and printed on a separate piece of paper. Label each story “Story 1” and “Story 2.”
• Make a worksheet of a bunch of pictures (related to the stories you’ve created) labeled with either numbers or letters. Make sure there are spaces or lines immediately below the pictures where your students can write their answers. Depending on your class’s level, you can turn the labeling exercise into the perfect drill for practicing spelling and sentence construction.
• Give your students the picture worksheet, and talk about what’s happening in each picture.
• Ask your students to turn over the picture worksheet, and hand out the two stories to read.
• After the students have finished reading, have them flip the papers with the stories over to the blank back side. Without looking at the story, students should cut out the pictures, and glue them to the back of the right story in chronological order.

If you need some inspiration for fantastic picture reading comprehension worksheets, try ESlFlow.com . There are also some interesting picture worksheets on Cal.org that  focus specifically on health literacy for ESL adults .

You’ll probably find that it’s easier and more fun to find a story online, and download images from Google to make your own picture stories.

Story retelling involves reading a text or story and then acting it out to other students. If you have students who love role play, they’ll enjoy this one and similar activities .

• Choose from any of these short stories for ESL students , print them out and make enough copies for the whole class.
• Divide students into small groups. Make sure the size of each group matches the number of characters in the stories you’re handing out.
• Give each group a different story that they’ll need to act out in front of the class.
• Prepare (or have your students prepare) a list of short answers/multiple choice/true or false questions to engage the audience and evaluate how well the actors captured the events of the story.
• Once everything is set, it’s showtime!

Cause and effect questions help students think outside the box and better understand the ripple effect of events.

Text materials that have a mysterious plot or historical background are excellent choices, because they require students to understand the context of the mystery, the clues and the characters to fully appreciate the thrills of crime solving.

For example, you can read this interesting crime scene together with your students in class. Your objective with this activity is to answer the final question: Why isn’t Inspector Coderre satisfied with Ms. Webb’s version of the event? 

• Divide students into groups.
• Create a cause and effect map to capture the first part of Ms. Webb’s testimony, which ends right before the sentence, “The inspector was very sympathetic and told her that it was very natural to not want to damage somebody’s property.” For example, you can write something like “ (effect) Ms. Webb could see the study room → it was well-lit. (cause) ” or “ (cause) Ms. Webb broke a small window → to get into the house. (effect) ” It doesn’t matter how you order the cause and effect—the point is to help students notice details in the story and make an effective analysis.
• Ask the students to identify the part of the testimony that made the detective lose his sympathy. Analyze that testimonial section with another cause and effect chart. Do they notice any inconsistencies?
• Discuss the students’ findings in class or in small groups.

You don’t have to limit ESL reading comprehension activities to short stories. You can also facilitate hands-on activities to encourage your students to read, such as this treasure hunt game.

• Create a map. It can be hand-drawn or printed. Give unique names to the basic geographic features of the classroom/schoolyard, so students can navigate the “rainforest” or “dark caves” without getting lost.
• Put together a clue sheet to help locate the treasure. It should be filled with hints, codes and even secret messages for students to decode. For example, if you hid a diamond playing card on the third shelf of a bookcase in the corner, you can give the following clue: It stands in a corner with lots of pages for you to read. The diamond is on the third floor and right under a fairy tale. 
• Hide different treasures (cards, small balls and beanies) in the classroom or schoolyard.
• Divide your students into groups.
• Give them the map and clue sheet to locate the treasure.
• The first group that finds their treasure wins the game. But they’re always welcome to join other teams to help them find their treasures, too!

Multiple-choice is a classic, wonderful way to ease your students into new material. It’s also excellent for building much-needed confidence before moving on to more challenging ways of checking reading comprehension.

You’ll want to use “scaling” in your multiple choice questions—i.e., making each question slightly more difficult than the one before it. This way, your students will be challenged just enough to keep going.

To get started:

• Ask students to read a short story, article or blog post. 
• Give them a few concise multiple-choice questions afterward.
• Go over the questions and answers as a class.

In this activity, your aim is to get students to dig deeper beneath the surface of what they’re reading. You want them to go beyond answering questions about the events and characters in the story, and talk about related topics as well.

For example, if a short story features lovers who are of the same gender, the students might want to formulate short answers about the concept of homosexuality. (Of course, if this is a taboo topic in the area where you’re teaching, or your students aren’t at the level where they can talk about such topics yet, you may want to pick an easier subject that’s less emotionally charged or controversial.) 

There are a lot of ways to go about this activity. You can:

• Give students time to read the story in class.
• Assign the story as homework.
• Pair students up, and have them develop short answers together.
• Have pairs read their short answers to other pairs.

This exercise is a great way to put some of your students’ newly learned words to good use. Plus, you don’t have to search far for new words—the ones that appear in the assigned reading will do.

All you have to do is:

• Pair students up.
• Have them underline key words in the target text.
• Have them look up any words they don’t know.
• Have students present their vocabulary terms to their classmates.

Decoding phrases, especially idioms, can be tricky for most students. That’s why it’s a good idea to devote an entire activity to this concept alone.

• Scan the assigned or target text for idioms that may be difficult to decode based on context alone.
• Compile these words and phrases, and print them on a worksheet.
• Ask your students to read the collection of phrases, and have them write down or discuss what they think the phrases mean. Be careful not to use too many phrases, or you’ll bore the life out of your students and discourage them from reading the assigned or target text further. 
• Once everyone is done, explain the phrases to the students. If you speak your students’ mother tongue, you can also judiciously use the bilingual method of teaching English . Ask them if they have similar idioms in their language.
• Challenge your students to write sentences using the new idioms, either in class or for homework. This allows you to check for comprehension and tweak accordingly.

Often, ESL reading activities involve answering questions after the text has been read. For this activity, it’ll be the other way around. 

Pre-reading questions are great for reading comprehension because:

• They orient the reader to the genre, topic and purpose of the text.
• They allow the reader to activate their knowledge of related vocabulary, and glean the key words and phrases they should seek to understand in the reading.
• They provide a focus for the reading of the text, so students know what information is important and what isn’t.
• They save a ton of time during reading comprehension tests.

Encourage your students to underline key words and phrases, and make notes and translations where necessary. This will help them avoid the common error of not answering the question as it’s written on the paper. A little time spent going over their notes here can improve the overall accuracy and relevance of their answers.

Reading comprehension work gives you an excellent opportunity to get in some pronunciation activities for your ESL students . These will enhance their speaking and listening skills all at once.

For example, when working on a text in class, you can:

• Read a sentence in the target text.
• Have the students repeat the sentence after you, paying close attention to their pronunciation.
• If you notice anything off about their pronunciation, give them gentle feedback .
• Once you’ve worked through the entire piece, have the students read it back to you paragraph by paragraph. Again, take the opportunity to correct where necessary.

Similar to the short answer activity discussed earlier, paragraph summary activities can challenge your students and help them develop their unique English voices.

This activity could be done post-reading, but it’s also an excellent way to ensure comprehension as you work through the text with your students.

• Put students in groups.
• Give them the text as you usually would.
• Encourage your students to take notes, annotate and underline as they go. Ask them to talk about any personal connections that they have to the topic(s), or to put themselves in the shoes of someone featured in the text. Students will benefit from relating what they’ve learned to their own lives.
• At the end of a paragraph (or suitable portion of the text), have the students summarize what they’ve read in their own words. They should be instructed to write it out in no more than four or five sentences. Encourage them to use different words and sentence constructions.
• Have them present their summaries to the class. The presentations can last from 30 seconds to a minute each.
• Answer any questions that arise.

A fun post-reading activity is to have a quiz based on the reading comprehension text.

Students generally get lots of opportunities to answer questions in class, but not as many to ask them. Try checking their comprehension by having them ask their classmates questions about the passage they’ve read.

I’ll go into the specific quiz formats later, but the activity will generally go like this:

• Have them create a quiz for the other groups.
• Have the groups grade the quizzes.
• Discuss the quiz questions and answers as a class.

The quizzes don’t have to be in the usual pen-and-paper format. They can also come in the form of an:

• Oral quiz.  This gives the students an opportunity to use their new vocabulary in speech.
• Game show quiz. Set up a game resembling “Jeopardy!,” or choose from any other famous TV game show to model your quiz on.

True or false is yet another standard classroom activity that can be made fun for your ESL classroom.

• Take your featured text, and create a good number of “yes or no” questions about it. Each question should be relatively simple, covering the main topic, events, themes, characters and anything else described in the text.
• Read the questions out loud while students follow along on a worksheet. Have the students respond to the statements by giving a thumbs-up for a true statement or a thumbs-down for a false statement. This allows you to easily spot the students who are struggling to understand the piece and support them accordingly.

For longer and more complex pieces, you can review the true or false statements at the end of each paragraph or page, instead of the end like you would with simpler pieces.

This could be done as a pre- or post-reading activity and works best in groups.

• Photocopy the passage, and cut it into pieces. Chunks of one or two paragraphs are best.
• Get your students to put the reading together. 

You could also do a cloze reading exercise like so:

• From the reading, choose topic sentences that you want your students to work on.
• Using your word processor software (like Microsoft Word or Google Docs ), type or copy-and-paste the topic sentences into a blank page.
• From the sentences, cut the words you want your students to work on, and paste them at the bottom of the page. Replace the cut words in the sentences with blanks.
• Let your students fill out the blanks using the words pasted at the bottom of the page.

Luckily, here are some ready-to-use cloze activities on different topics you can swipe from. 

Taboo is arguably the best game for practicing vocabulary and livening up your lesson. If you haven’t heard of it before, it essentially involves a student explaining what the key word they’re thinking of means without using the key word itself or synonyms of any kind.

Here’s another variation:

• Put students in groups of four to five members.
• One student goes first. They draw their key word on the board. If the word is “financial,” the student won’t be able to say “bank,” “money” or “financial.” They can only make gestures or add details to their drawing.
• The student who guesses which word fits the drawing gets a point.

Class discussions can take place before or after your ESL reading activities.

If you’re doing it beforehand, your goal should be to engage the students and activate their current vocabulary, getting them to talk in broad terms about the topic they’ll be reading.

For example, if the text will be about tourism, kickstart a discussion with questions like:

• What are the benefits of a strong tourism industry?
• What are the best tourist destinations in their home country, and why?
• What are major problems for tourism for their home country?

You can put these questions on a worksheet with ample space for brainstorming and forming opinions independently.

Alternatively, you could divide students into pairs or small groups to discuss the topic before reading the text. Since you’re already familiar with the text they’ll be looking at, you can skillfully and subtly steer the conversation into issues and areas related to the gist of the text to come.

If you’re doing post-reading discussions, you can use questions from ESL textbooks , come up with your own questions or—if your students are at a high enough level—have them come up with the questions themselves.

• Have them write two to three discussion questions.
• Use the questions as a basis for class discussion.

For some fantastic ESL-oriented discussion questions on a variety of topics, click right here .

If the passage is about something topical, you could use it to organize a debate.

There are many ways to structure a class debate, but the one I usually use is pretty simple:

• One-minute argument
• One-minute rebuttal
• The facilitator (usually you or a capable student) gives feedback.

Suitable for intermediate to advanced students, a debate offers a platform to share opinions about a given topic. Often, with a little imagination, a reading comprehension topic can segue into a debate topic relevant to the students’ own lives.

You know how watching a TED Talk often leaves you with a feeling that you’ve learned something new or even life-changing afterward? Recreate that format in class to further boost reading comprehension.

For example, if the class just read an article about the qualities of a good brand, the students could deliver two-minute presentations about their favorite brand and what makes it special.

To make the most of these in-class TED Talks:

• Show them a relevant TED Talk in class, so they can get the hang of the format.
• Give students time to create their own TED Talks. You could also assign it as a homework assignment instead.
• Decide whether the TED Talk should be done individually or in groups. Both work well enough, in my experience.

Then again, your students might feel intimidated at the thought of having to recreate presentations that are given by big-name personalities and watched by millions of people around the world.

In that case, it’s okay to take a more down-to-earth approach to presentations. Give your students a bit more leeway with the format. Better yet, let them have the freedom to talk about any topic they choose.

This way, they’ll make more of an effort to communicate their passion for something in English. They’ll also have a solid incentive to brush up on the necessary vocabulary and express themselves in colorful ways. Watch them come alive as they talk about the things that matter the most to them.

• Reading doesn’t only teach ESL students grammar, word usage and sentence structure. It also enables them to acquire new information about the culture surrounding their target language.
• Reading helps students see how English is communicated through writing. As you know, good writing and being a good reader go hand in hand.
• Reading comprehension activities help students test their understanding of words in a written context. At the same time, they can get the most out of their reading assignments.

While you’ve undoubtedly used conventional tests to quiz your students, there are ways to make reading comprehension activities effective without relying on the same old methods.

For example, you can:

• Have your students listen to ESL podcasts . Some of them have transcripts, so students could read those first, then listen to the episode afterward and combine listening and reading comprehension.
• Use videos with subtitles in your classroom for a fun twist on reading comprehension. The key is to use videos that have subtitles, like YouTube and FluentU , the latter of which has authentic videos with accurate transcripts. Have students read the transcript first, then play the video in class.

Sure, there’s a time for your students to read for pleasure outside the classroom. However, in-class reading comprehension activities maximize the benefits of reading by making it more relevant and personal to them.

Also, as their teacher, you’ll have opportunities to clarify misunderstandings and ambiguities, as well as enhance students’ vocabulary, word usage and interpretation skills.

With a few dashes of entertainment and creativity here and there, your ESL students will come to love reading in English beyond its educational benefits. 

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31 Effective Reading Comprehension Activities

October 30, 2023 //  by  Sean Kivi

There are hundreds of different ideas on how to help your students develop their reading comprehension. No matter what technique you choose, the goal is to be able to check your students’ understanding of a text. Here’s a list of the top 31 reading comprehension activities that we find to be most varied and beneficial for developing numerous areas of comprehension. So, without further adieu, get exploring to find a few new approaches to try with your class!

1. Roll & Chat Dice

Who would’ve thought that die could be used to assess understanding? This activity relies on just two dies to accomplish just that! Once your students have finished their class reader, have them work in partners or small groups to roll dice and answer the corresponding questions provided. Best of all- you can adapt the questions for any grade level or subject!

Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers

Looking for fun and educational kits for kids? Check out our Favorite Subscription Boxes for Kids

2. WANTED Poster

Here’s an arty pursuit to tie into your next reading comprehension session! Creating a wanted poster for a character in the story that your kids are reading will highlight their understanding of that character. Simply have them draw a picture and add some character traits, and a few actions taken by their characters to demonstrate their knowledge.

Learn More: Education.com

3. Story Cheeseburger

Get your kiddos revved up about reading comprehensions by turning this process into a burger-building expedition! To do so, have your students link each part of a hamburger with a different element of a story! This will help you see if they’ve grasped the plot as well as the other elements, or if there are a few gaps in their understanding.

Learn More: Unique Teaching Resources

4. Reading Comprehension Worksheets 

Nothing like a good ol’ worksheet to ring a concept home! Here’s a plethora of worksheets that include reading passages with comprehension questions that you can quickly print out. They’re useful for teaching different reading strategies and don’t take up too much of your planning and prep time!

Learn More: K5 Learning

5. Make a Timeline

Test your students’ understanding by having them map out a timeline. By doing so, they’ll exhibit their knowledge of sequential events and be able to effectively relay the most important facts from their reading passages.

Learn more: Education.com

6. Yellow Brick Road Retelling

This is an excellent strategy to get your kids involved in active reading. All that’s required is for them to break a passage or story apart piece by piece. Using a piece of poster board, images, sticky notes, and markers, help your learners separate key information in terms of outlining various elements. In the end, they should be able to use the board to retell the chosen tale in a cohesive manner!

Learn More: Just Cara Carroll

7. Anticipation Guide

This is a perfect pre-reading activity to get your students to better understand the reading process in more detail. They’ll need to make some predictions about the story by sharing if they agree or disagree with the statements provided in the anticipation guide. We suggest that you return to this guide after reading to reveal whether or not their predictions were accurate!

Learn More: Reading Rockets

8. Question Ball

This after-reading activity will surely increase student engagement in your class! By taking an inflatable beach ball and writing the 5 W’s on each colored stripe: who, what, when, where, and why- your students can throw the ball around the class and answer questions about the story. Whichever question stem is touching their right hand when they catch the ball can be the start of your crafted question.

Learn More: Coffee Cups and Crayons

9. Lego Retelling

This idea is most suited for use with younger learners who may not have started reading and writing journeys in full yet. Have them retell a story by building lego images that represent different parts of the book. They can then visually piece together scenes as they describe what they’ve built.

Learn More: The Educators Pin On It

10. Story Telling Bracelet

Here’s a simple tactile tool that could be just what your kiddos need to help them retell stories. This teaching procedure involves your kids creating a beaded bracelet that assigns each colored bead to a particular part of a text. For example, yellow for the setting, green for the characters, and blue for the conflict. As you ask them to retell the story, they can touch each bead in an attempt to prompt themselves to recall some of the most important elements of the plot!

Learn More: Growing Book By Book

11. Reading Cheat Sheets

Need to help your students understand critical reading skills? Use these cheat sheets to provide them with expert details and things to bear in mind while they read a text. Simply print out and laminate the cheat sheets or bookmarks and use them to prompt your kiddos to think or discuss different elements of the text. 

Learn More: Research Parent

12. Vocabulary Skits

Improving your students’ vocabulary skills will have a positive impact on their reading comprehension. That’s why we’ve chosen this task for your students to turn selected vocabulary words into short skits. Playing charades and guessing which vocabulary word their classmates are acting out will spice up the often-dry task of vocabulary learning and improve reading comprehension that much faster!

Learn More: YouTube

13. Painting the Scene

Visualizing is a fantastic strategy that can help your students create mental pictures to better recall story elements. Ask your students to close their eyes so that they can’t refer to the illustrations as you read a descriptive book aloud. Then, have them open their eyes and share what they saw before drawing their vivid mental images on a pair of pre-cut paper sunglasses. 

Learn More: Raise the Bar Reading

14. Diary Entries from Characters

Time to get in character! After reading, task your learners with writing a diary entry from the point of view of one of the characters. Thinking like their storybook characters will nurture empathy and emotional intelligence, as well as show you the traits they’ve picked up on and can recall with ease, whilst also providing insight into which areas may need a little more revision. 

Learn More: Twinkl

15. Plotting With Mind Maps

Doodles take on a new purpose with this next idea! Ask your students to create mind maps that connect the dots between characters, themes, and events. This endeavor offers a fresh angle for grasping the narrative’s intricate storyline and is an ideal complement to verbal discussion and traditional book reports.

Learn More: Template.net

16. Expanding Vocabulary with the ‘Word of the Day’

Building vocabulary will definitely help your learners comprehend difficult text. Pick a word from your current class text each day and have your kiddos analyze and learn its definition. Then, the next time this word appears in one of their passages, they’ll already recognize it and know its meaning!  

Learn More: Lizard Learning

17. Cause-and-Effect Diagrams

This activity is great for utilization either during or after a reading session. Simply have your little detectives search for cause-and-effect relationships within their text before recording the examples in the provided diagram. You can also adapt this approach by providing them with the cause and asking them to find the effect and vice versa. 

Learn More: Mrs. Warner’s Learning Community

18. Storyboarding the Text

This activity will intrigue your up-and-coming movie directors! Your students can exhibit their understanding of a narrative by laying out key events on a storyboard. This visually captivating task will help you facilitate an intuitive grasp of the plot sequence whilst highlighting the most important parts of a story by getting your learners to develop detailed pictures and short captions. 

Learn More: Movavi

19. Reciprocal Teaching

Reciprocal teaching is all about activating peer power! Have your students break into small groups and take turns adopting teacher-student roles. The ‘teachers’ will guide discussions and ask probing questions about the text, while the students respond with what they know before switching roles. 

Learn More: Smore

20. Quiz Creation

Test makers, take your positions! Challenge your students to design quizzes about any given text. To up the stakes, their quiz should be complete with multiple-choice, true/false, and short-answer questions. Talk about a fun role reversal that lets them show off their grasp of the material while reinforcing key takeaways.

Learn More: Canva

21. Peek Into The Future

Psychic reading or educated guess anyone? Before diving into a new text, have your students jot down their predictions on sticky notes and paste them on an anchor chart that displays a crystal ball. Later, get them to compare these forecasts to the actual outcomes. 

22. Puppet Show Retelling

Budding theater producers this one’s for you! Encourage your students to reenact pivotal scenes using puppets. This role play activity will amplify their grasp of the characters, storylines, and sequences alike. 

23. Writing Alternate Endings

What if is a powerful question. Once you’ve finished a class book, urge your students to rewrite the ending or even draft a sequel. Alternate realities are more than just creative exercises; they offer a deep dive into understanding characters and their motivations. Plus, they have the potential to ignite discussions on how a single twist can alter the narrative landscape whilst working to reinforce original content and better bind it to memory.

Learn More: Teach Starter

24. Character Interviews

In this activity, one student will role play a storybook character, and the other will act as a journalist. Conducting fictional interviews to explore the psyche and motivations of characters in a newsroom-like setting is bound to get your kiddos more familiar with the content that they’ve read. 

25. Breaking Down Themes

Theme hunters, let’s go! Assign your students the task of dissecting the major themes of a story- discovering recurring motifs and underlying messages along the way. They’ll need to provide text evidence to support their claims and display their comprehension! 

Learn More: Easy Teacher Worksheets

26. Annotation Walk

Annotating is an awesome strategy that can help your kiddos actively engage with a text as they read. By using symbols like an exclamation mark to note a surprising element, or a magnifying glass to highlight something that they want to know more about, your learners can note and track their thoughts on sticky notes! Once complete, hang posters with the symbols around your classroom and have them walk around; adding their annotations onto each display. In the end, spend time dissecting the elements together. 

Learn More: Comprehensible Classroom

27. Text-to-Text Connections

Your students are bound to read tons of different stories and texts throughout the school year. This activity will prompt them to recall texts they’ve previously read and make connections with texts that they’re currently reading. They might compare characters, themes, or conflicts that appeared across texts; tapping into past learning and revising like never before! 

28. Flash Fiction

Flash fiction is a strategy that tasks your students with telling a story with not too much detail, but just enough to keep their classmates engaged. These micro-stories will have maximum impact as they display their ability to explore themes and character development in a shortened version of the plot! 

29. Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers are such a great tool that we find teachers using them across all subject areas! Here’s a plethora of options to incorporate with different reading skills. From Venn diagrams to 5-finger summaries- there’s something that each and every one of your students can use when dissecting their next fiction and nonfiction books!   

Learn More: First Grade Blue Skies

30. Newspaper Reporting

Newspaper reporting is a fun activity that allows your students to act as investigative journalists! Assign your students the task of crafting newspaper reports about significant events from a text. This real-world task will hone their summarizing skills, sharpen their focus on key points, and elucidate their importance. 

31. Book Club Discussions

Why not start a book club in your classroom? Divide your students into small groups for book club-like discussions. Here, they can swap interpretations, address lingering questions, and delve deeper into the text’s mysteries. 

Learn More: ThoughtCo

These are just a few of the best ways to make reading more accessible for your learners. The majority of these activities can be expanded upon to meet the specific needs of your readers, whether that be sequencing events or providing a detailed analysis of character.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are comprehension activities.

Comprehension activities are activities or games that can be used to help your students to demonstrate what they know about a text. This usually covers but is not limited to, setting, plot, and character. Comprehension activities can be expanded to include other ideas too, like the meaning of the text, and can go beyond the details included within the text, such as in terms of contextual information surrounding the creation of the book.

What is the best way to teach comprehension?

Unfortunately, there is no definitive “best” way to teach comprehension to your kids, as each student is different and will respond to different activities. However, one thing that will definitely work is to make comprehension an enjoyable process. Try using the activities above to help with this and avoid simply completing tests or quizzes, as these will not make your student engaged.

How can I improve my comprehension?

Try to go beyond simple ideas of comprehension. Your basic comprehension of a text should include the key events (or plot), the setting (where and when the story happens), and characters (the people or things that the text is about). You should try to expand beyond this by thinking about the meaning of the text. What message was the writer trying to put across? Reading comprehension goes beyond the words on the page – you need to think about the writer’s craft, too.

What are the 3 main types of reading strategies?

The key reading strategies that you will likely encounter are scanning, skimming, and detailed reading. Scanning involves looking for specific information in a text, such as a keyword or detail. Skimming is slightly more in-depth as it is about understanding the main idea of a text by reading small chunks of the passage. Detailed reading is the slowest reading process but is the one that can help you get the most information from a text. Using this last strategy, your kids will understand approximately 80% of the text. Even so, each of these strategies is vital for teaching your students how to read effectively for information.

• Grades 6-12
• School Leaders

FREE Poetry Worksheet Bundle! Perfect for National Poetry Month.

11 Active Reading Strategies for Comprehension and Retention

Read with a purpose.

We know what active reading looks like: students reading voraciously and talking and thinking about what they read. When students are active readers, they know that reading is much more than sounding out words—it’s building vocabulary and connecting background knowledge to new learning. For students to end the year as active readers, we have to spend time engaging them in active reading every day.

What is active reading?

In short, active reading is … active. It’s students actively thinking about what they are reading, either following along with a novel, or learning more about a topic with a nonfiction text. The active part is in how students engage with each text. Rather than skimming a text to get the main idea and moving on, active reading means students are engaging in many ways with a text. They’ll think through questions before, during, and after reading. After reading, they’ll share their ideas. And as they read from text to text, they’ll build knowledge about everything from mushrooms to mysteries.

Why is active reading important?

Once students are able to read words on the page and are able to understand the basics of text, active reading helps them add purpose to reading. The more kids read, the better readers they become. And active reading strategies have been associated with improving students’ vocabulary and overall comprehension.

Active reading also helps students see real purpose in reading, so that they’re not just reading for an assignment or for school, they’re able to read to satisfy their own curiosity. Active reading starts in the classroom and can be done with any text, from science articles to biographies in history class to novels. Below are 11 ways to turn every student in your room into an active reader.

Active reading strategies to model

Get a book you’re genuinely excited about, and show students how you’re thinking as you read. It doesn’t have to be a novel—even reading through your favorite picture book and explaining what makes this book interest you can be a quick mini-lesson in active reading.

1. Ask questions

Source: Dr. Precise’s Literacy Playground

Active readers are always asking questions. When they start reading, they’re wondering why the author chose the title they did, or what an article will reveal about the topic. During reading, an active reader is constantly asking what will happen next or how the aspects of a topic fit together.

Active readers will ask questions that range from the most basic to the most advanced, so we want to make sure lessons incorporate all kinds of questions, starting with literal and advancing from there.

Source: University of Michigan

Use this list of higher-order thinking questions as you plan lessons.

2. Teach multisyllabic word reading

Source: Ms. Winter’s Bliss

Even after students have learned phonics patterns, they’ll run into words that are complicated. Advantageously , ketogenesis , and transfiguration come to mind. Having a strategy to approach longer words will help students read more complex texts, and it will support their vocabulary as they may have heard longer words before they see them in text.

Teach the BEST strategy to sound out longer words:

• Break the word apart.
• Examine each part.
• Say each part.
• Try the whole word.

3. Set a purpose for reading

Rather than diving into a text, have students do some prework. Talk about the title and what it could mean. In fiction, do they think the title refers to the setting, plot, or characters? For nonfiction, what knowledge do they bring to this reading? What questions do they already have?

Read more about questions that set a purpose for reading .

4. Set a purpose while reading

After each chapter or section, have students think about what was new and what they’re wondering about next. For fiction, have students pause after each chapter or big event to think about how the story is changing and why the author is taking it in this direction. For nonfiction, knowing what you want to know helps direct what students focus on and what information isn’t as important.

5. Teach text structure

Source: Teacher Thrive

A nonfiction text’s structure determines how we’ll approach it. Teach students the various text structures and how to approach each one at the start of their reading so they can use text structure to help them comprehend what they’re reading.

6. Preteach important vocabulary

Source: Miss DeCarbo

Building a strong vocabulary is something that all readers need, and the more kids read, the larger their vocabularies become. It is helpful to teach words that are specific to a text (Tier 3 words). Teach three to five words per text. For example, before reading a text about genetics, you may want to teach words like dominant , recessive , and allele .

7. Read around to define new words

Readers are always going to come across new words. Teach students to read around new words. When they come to a word they don’t know:

• Stop and reread the sentences before and after the word.
• Think of a potential synonym for the new word.
• Plug that synonym in and see if it makes sense.
• If it makes sense, keep reading. If it does not make sense, either try again or try another vocabulary hack, like a dictionary or asking a peer.

8. Teach annotation

Source: The Joy of Teaching

Rather than having students circle and highlight, which can get out of hand, teach them to shrink paragraphs down to less than 10 words. Every paragraph or so, stop and think about what the author is saying. Write the gist of the paragraph in 10 words or less.

9. Reread strategically

Teach students how to recognize when they need to reread (when they have read a paragraph or two and can’t tell themselves or someone else what they read). And when they are rereading, teach them how to read differently the second time around so they don’t miss the meaning. To mix it up, students could:

• Read it aloud.
• Read slower.
• Use their finger to follow along with the text.

10. Discuss daily

Have students discuss what they’re reading in pairs or small groups. Keep the focus on curiosity, not necessarily literal comprehension. To do this, focus on open-ended questions:

• What does this text make you want to learn more about?
• What surprised you most in what you read today?
• What advice would you give the author?

Some ideas for engaging students in text that don’t involve talking:

Silent discussions

Socratic seminars

Use Jamboard

Source: Building Book Love

11. Extend active reading with your classroom library

Source: Lessons With Laughter

During a unit, create a section of your classroom library that includes books that encourage students to read deeply about a topic. Or have a section that encourages students to read more broadly. For example, if you are studying volcanoes, fill one section with more nonfiction about volcanoes (and think outside the book—include lists of websites, videos, or documentaries). Then, include a section with books that feature volcanoes but aren’t necessarily nonfiction—graphic novels, mysteries, and other fiction books that incorporate volcanoes. The idea is to capture any and all student interest and help them run with it.

What are your top tips for creating a love of reading? Come share in our  WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group  on Facebook.

Plus, check out 25 surprising benefits of reading ..

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ESL Activities

ESL Games, Activities, Lesson Plans, Jobs & More

ESL Reading Activities, Games: Worksheets, Lesson Plans and Resources

If you’re looking for some of the best ESL reading activities, games, worksheets and lesson plans, then you’re certainly in the right place. Keep on reading for all the ESL reading comprehension activities you need to!

ESL reading games and activities

Let’s get into some top reading activities for ESL students to consider using in your classes.

ESL Reading Comprehension Activities and Games

Are you reading to get into the top ESL reading games and activities for kids, teenagers and adults? Without further ado, here are the best ESL reading activities to consider!

#1: Dialogue Substitution Reading Activity

Have you ever noticed that when students have to read a dialogue of some kind in the textbook, most of them just read it without really thinking about what they’re reading? It’s not really their fault, it’s just that we haven’t given them a reason to read carefully.

In order to turn a simple reading activity into one that focuses on grammar and meaning is to remove some of the words! Tricky, right? Try it out for yourself and you’ll notice how much more carefully students have to read. Learn more about it here:

Dialogue Substitution ESL Reading Comprehension Activity .

#2: Brochure Scanning ESL Reading Activity

Students are often quite good at reading for detail. However, the downfall is usually that it can take them forever to do this! This is often not like real life though in that students have to scan something quickly to find the information they need. For example, if they’re looking for a certain type of food on a menu, or the time of a certainly flight on a schedule.

An ESOL reading exercise that can help your students out with scanning is this one that uses a brochure of some kind like a travel brochure. Find out more details about it here:

Brochure Scanning Reading Activity .

• Amazon Kindle Edition
• Bolen, Jackie (Author)
• English (Publication Language)
• 88 Pages - 02/16/2020 (Publication Date)

#3: Concentration Reading and Memory Game

A fun way for students to work on their reading, along with memory skills and grammar or vocabulary is with concentration.

The way it works is that you make a bunch of cards that match in some way. They can be opposites like hot-cold, words with definitions or pictures, or present-past tense verbs (more ideas here: teach past tense ). These are only a few examples—there are more options you may want to consider as well.

Then, in groups of 4, students place the cards face down on their desks in a random fashion. They take turns choosing two to see if they match. Find out more about it here:

ESL Concentration Memory Game .

#4: ESL Reading Lesson Plan Template

Are you a little bit unsure how to go about planning an ESL reading lesson? Don’t worry. Many teachers, even experienced ones aren’t that sure how to do it. But not to worry! You can follow these simple steps that include warm-up or lead-in, scanning, reading for detail, follow-up and more.

Check it out right here: ESL Reading Lesson Plan Template.

#5: Is that Sentence Correct?

• 71 Pages - 05/02/2017 (Publication Date)

A fun way for students to review grammar by reading is to try out this error correction activity. The way it works is that you can write a few sentences, some of which have errors while others do not.

Students have to read the sentences and then correct the errors. You can make this into a friendly competition by giving the first team to complete the activity correctly a small prize of some kind. If I do this variation, I usually tell students how many errors they should be looking for.

Learn more about it here: ESL Error Correction Game .

#6: Rock-Scissor-Paper

I love to use this game before a midterm or final exam to review material from the semester. The way it works is that you can write some questions and answers on a spreadsheet. Then, print them off and cut them out into separate strips of paper. Give each student a mix of question and answer papers (5-6).

Then, they have to go around the class to find their matches. Once they do, they can do rock-scissor-paper and the winner takes both papers and gets one point. The winner is the person with the most points at the end of the activity. Find out more here:

ESL Rock Scissor Paper Activity .

#7: ESL Surveys

I’m ALL about using surveys in my classes. They’re fun, engaging and cover a wide range of skills, including reading. The best part is that you can use them for just about any vocabulary set, grammar point or topic. They’re truly one of the most versatile ESL activities so try them out with your students today.

Do you want to learn more about how to make your own? All the details are right here: Surveys for ESL Students .

#8: English Reading Test Tips

Students are often trying to improve their reading skills in order to score better on English proficiency exams. If this is the case for your students, you’ll certainly want to check out these tips that’ll help improve scores, no matter what the best. And of course, teach them to your students.

You can find them all here: Reading Comprehension Test Tips .

• 75 Pages - 05/31/2020 (Publication Date)

#9: Odd One Out

If you’re looking for a quick ESL warmer that’s heavy on the reading, then consider trying out Odd One Out. The way it works is that you write groups of 4 words on the board. For example:

Apple orange carrot banana

Students have to say which one doesn’t match and then why. One possible answer for this one is carrot because it’s a vegetable, not a fruit.

Find out more about it here: Odd One Out ESL Warmer.

Teaching Reading Skills

If you want to learn more about teaching ESL reading skills, then check out this short video:

#10: Flyswatter Game

If you want to have some fun with your students, consider pulling out the flyswatters! The way it works is that you divide the students up into two teams and each team sends one student up to the front.

On the board, you’ll have a bunch of words related to a certain topic. Then, you can give some hints and the first student to slap the correct word with their flyswatter is the winner. There are also other variations and things you can use this game for besides vocabulary. Learn more about them here:

ESL Flyswatter Game .

#11: Proofreading and Editing

A key part of English writing is reading closely to find errors. It’s not uncommon that English teachers fall into the trap of students writing and teachers correcting. Instead, opt for the better way of teaching students how to self-edit their own work with this simple activity:

ESL Proofreading and Editing .

#12: Mixed Up Sentences

If you want your students to get some practice with reading and sentences structure, then consider this quick activity. The way it works is that you can write a few sentences on the board but with mixed up word order. Students have to write them on a piece of paper in the correct order.

It’s simple, but works well as a quick warmer activity to review material from previous classes. Learn more about it here: ESL Mixed Up Sentences Activity .

#13: Problem/Advice Board Game

I love to play board games in real life which is why I like to bring them into my TEFL classroom as well. One area that they work extremely well for is problem and advice. The way it works is that students land on a square with a problem of some kind.

They have to read it, and then give some advice using the correct grammar. Find out more about it right here:

ESL Problem and Advice Board Game .

#14: Information Gap Activities

I love to use information gap activities. The way it works is that students work in pairs to complete a set of information, but each student only has half of the details. These kinds of activities are usually heavy on the reading, but also include a good dose of speaking. Check out our top picks here:

ESL Information Gap Activities .

• 279 Pages - 07/12/2020 (Publication Date)

#15: Story Timeline

If you get your students to read a story of some kind, then consider using this follow-up activity. The way it works is that students have to put some pieces of paper with the main sequence of events in the correct order. You can learn more about it right here:

Story Timeline Post-Reading Activity .

#16: Extensive Reading for English Learners

If you have access to a library or budget to buy some English novels, then consider doing some extensive reading in your classes. It can help your students with their reading skills as well as vocabulary acquisition in a big way. Find out more details about it right here:

Benefits of Extensive Reading .

#17: Running Dictation 

#18: Ball Toss

A fun ESL reading game for young learners is ball toss. But, I’ve also used it with university students and adults and they found it fun too!

The way it works is that you write some words or phrases on a beach ball. Then, students toss it around the class and when someone catches it, they have to read what’s under their right thumb and then do something related to that. What they have to do depends on the level of the students. For all the possibilities, take a look at this article:

Ball Toss ESL Activity .

#19: Postcards

This is a fun, simple ESL writing activity that can easily be turned into a reading activity as well. When the students are done writing their postcard, post them around the class. Then, have students carefully read the information on the cards and make a quiz related to the details. It’s a nice reading activity ESL that you’ll want to try out!

Find out more about it: Postcards .

#20: ESL Fruit and Veggies Quiz

Try out this simple online quiz that requires students to read the clues before making a guess as to what fruit or vegetable it is.

#21: Error Correction Relay Race

I love to use this ESL reading activity with my students because it takes something old (error correction) and turns it into something new by making it into a game. It’s fun, engaging and students love it. Plus, it helps them work on their reading for detail skills too.

Find out more here: Error Correction Relay Race .

• 50 Pages - 01/21/2016 (Publication Date)

#22: Freeze Group Writing Activity

Although this is a writing activity, it’s also heavy on listening in that students have to read what other students have written before adding a line of their own. It’s fun, interactive and students generally love doing it!

Try it out for yourself: Freeze Group Writing Activity .

#23: Closest in Meaning

Try out this simple reading activity, Closest in Meaning that helps students infer details from the surrounding context if they don’t know some words. Students have to choose the sentence that is closest to the original one. It’s quick and easy and perfect for a warmer activity.

Have a look at it here: Closest in Meaning .

#24: English Phrases and Expressions Lesson Plan

A nice way to focus on English phrases, expressions and idioms is through a reading lesson plan like this one. Help students sound more like Native English speakers as they pick up some of these things that natives use all the time in speaking and writing.

Check it out: English Phrases Lesson Plan .

#25: Vocabulary Auction

#26: Short Stories for ESL Adults

One of my favourite ways to teach reading is with stories. The only issue is finding interesting and engaging ones that are at an appropriate level for English learners. That’s where a book like this one comes in. There are more than 20 ESL short stories about life in Canada.

Have a look:  Short Stories for ESL Adults .

#27: More Ideas for TEFL Reading Lessons

#28: post-reading activities for esl.

There are a million and one you things you can get your students to do in order to get the most mileage out of what they just read. Here are some of the best ideas:

Post Reading Activities ESL .

#29: Prepositions of Place Game

Try out this reading and memory game with your students:

#30: Reading Treasure Hunt

Hide short reading passages or sentences around the classroom or outdoor area. Provide students with clues or prompts related to the content of the passages. Students work individually or in teams to find and read the hidden texts. This activity promotes reading comprehension and adds an element of adventure to the lesson.

#31: Story Chain

Begin with a short paragraph or sentence that sets the scene or introduces a character. Each student adds a sentence or paragraph to continue the story. They can pass the story to the next student or continue writing in a round-robin fashion. This collaborative activity encourages creativity, critical thinking, and reading fluency.

#32: Reader’s Theater

Select a short play or story and assign roles to students. They practice reading their parts with expression and then perform the play or story for their classmates. This activity improves reading fluency, comprehension, and public speaking skills.

#33: English Books for Beginners

If your students want some easier books to read, here are a few of the top recommendations for them:

English Books for Beginners .

ESL Reading Lesson Plans

Are you looking for some of the best lesson plans for teaching English reading comprehension? The good news is that you don’t have to make your own! Other teachers have gone before you and done the hard work. Here are some of my go-to sources:

Breaking News English

One Stop English

English is a Piece of Cake

ESL Reading Comprehension Exercises

ESL Reading Worksheets

As teachers, it can be super helpful to just print a worksheet and go! It can potentially save you a ton of time when planning lessons. Here are some of our top picks for ESL reading comprehension worksheets:

ISL Collective

Busy Teacher

English for Everyone

Did you Like these ELL Reading Activities?

• 148 Pages - 03/09/2016 (Publication Date)

Yes? Thought so. Then the book you’re going to love is this one over on Amazon: 101 ESL Activities for Teenagers and Adults . The key to better English classes is a wide variety of interesting and engaging activities and games and this book will help you get there in style!

The best part is that the book is well organized into sections: reading, speaking, review, icebreakers, etc. so you should be able to easily find what you need in just a minute or two. If that’s not some ESL teaching awesome, then I’m not sure what is.

You can get these ESL activities in both digital and print formats. Consider keeping a copy on the bookshelf in your office and using it as a handy reference guide. Or, taking the e-version with you to your favourite coffee shop for some lesson planning on the go.

It really is that easy to have better English classes! Head on over to Amazon to pick up a copy of the book for yourself:

Teaching ESL Reading FAQs

There are a number of common questions that people have about how to teach ESL reading. Here are the answers to some of the most common ones.

How do I teach ESL reading?

There are a number of strategies you can use to teach ESL reading that will help improve reading comprehension skills. They are as follows:

• Reading for detail
• Summarizing
• Taking notes

How do ESL students improve their reading skills?

ESL students can improve their reading skills in a number of ways.

• Use scanning and skimming techniques.
• Make predictions about the text.
• Look up unfamiliar words or grammatical patterns.
• Study vocabulary frequently.
• Extensive reading.
• Read a variety of different genres.
• Use reading comprehension questions.
• Read passages at your level, slightly above and also slightly below.

Why is reading difficult for ESL?

Reading is often difficult for ESL students because they lack a large enough vocabulary and have to stop too often to look up new words. However, extensive reading of texts at a slightly lower level can increase vocabulary, as can targeted study.

What is ESL reading?

ESL reading is when people who don’t speak English as their first language read a text. Abilities can range from reading single words to reading complicated, details academic texts.

What are the 7 strategies of reading?

To improve reading comprehension, teachers should introduce the 7 strategies of reading. They include:

• monitoring/clarifying
• questioning
• searching/selecting
• summarizing
• visualizing/organizing

What is the aim of a reading lesson?

The aim of a reading lesson might be to expand a certain vocabulary set or to be introduced to a certain grammatical point. However, the aim may be more reading specific such as working on predicting when reading, note-taking, or reading for detail.

Tips for Teaching ESL Reading

Teaching reading comprehension to ESL learners can be a rewarding but challenging task. Here are some tips to help you effectively teach reading comprehension skills:

Pre-reading Activities

Before diving into the text, activate students’ prior knowledge on the topic. Engage them in pre-reading activities such as brainstorming, discussing related vocabulary, or predicting what the text might be about. This helps build curiosity and prepares students for what they are going to read.

Teach Reading Strategies

Introduce various reading strategies to your students. These strategies can include skimming (quickly scanning the text for general information), scanning (looking for specific details), and inferring (drawing conclusions based on context). Explicitly teach and model these strategies, and encourage students to apply them while reading.

Start with Shorter Texts

Begin with shorter texts that are at an appropriate reading level for your students. This allows them to build confidence and develop comprehension skills gradually. As they become more proficient, gradually introduce longer and more complex texts.

Vocabulary Development

Reading comprehension is closely tied to vocabulary knowledge. Teach and review vocabulary related to the topic or theme of the reading. Encourage students to use context clues to determine the meanings of unfamiliar words. Provide opportunities for vocabulary practice through activities like word matching, creating word webs, or using the words in sentences.

Scaffold Reading Tasks

Provide support for your students as they engage with the text. Use graphic organizers, such as KWL charts (What I Know, What I Want to Know, What I Learned), story maps, or concept maps, to help students organize their thoughts and make connections. Break down complex sentences or paragraphs, and encourage students to summarize key points or main ideas.

Comprehension Questions

Ask a variety of comprehension questions to assess students’ understanding of the text. These questions can include factual, inferential, and critical-thinking questions. Encourage students to support their answers with evidence from the text. Gradually increase the complexity of the questions as students progress in their reading abilities.

Provide Authentic Reading Materials

Supplement textbook readings with authentic materials, such as news articles, short stories, or blogs. Authentic materials expose students to real-world language use and enhance their cultural understanding. Choose texts that align with students’ interests and backgrounds to foster engagement.

Promote Discussion

After reading, facilitate discussions to encourage students to express their thoughts, share opinions, and ask questions about the text. This helps develop critical thinking and encourages students to delve deeper into the content. Pair students up for peer discussions or conduct whole-class discussions to promote interaction and collaboration.

Monitor Progress

Regularly assess students’ reading comprehension skills through quizzes, informal assessments, or reading logs. Track their progress and provide feedback to address areas for improvement. Celebrate their successes and offer encouragement throughout the learning process.

Cultivate a Love for Reading

Foster a positive reading environment by sharing your enthusiasm for reading. Recommend books, encourage independent reading, and create opportunities for students to explore different genres and authors. Instilling a love for reading can motivate students to become better readers and improve their overall reading comprehension.

Have your say about these Reading Activities for ESL Students

What are your thoughts about these reading comprehension activities for English learners? Did you try out one of them from this list or do you have another that you’d like to recommend? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think. We’d love to hear from you. Also, check out this TOEFL reading practice exercise.

Also be sure to give this article a share on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. It’ll help other busy English teachers, like yourself find this useful resource.

Last update on 2022-07-17 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

About Jackie

Jackie Bolen has been teaching English for more than 15 years to students in South Korea and Canada. She's taught all ages, levels and kinds of TEFL classes. She holds an MA degree, along with the Celta and Delta English teaching certifications.

Jackie is the author of more than 60 books for English teachers and English learners, including Business English Vocabulary Builder and 39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities for Teenagers and Adults . She loves to share her ESL games, activities, teaching tips, and more with other teachers throughout the world.

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This Reading Mama

Ready to Go Guided Reading Lesson Plans and Activities

By thisreadingmama 4 Comments

*I received a  free online access  from SNAP! Learning  and was compensated for my time. All opinions expressed in this post are my own.

As a classroom teacher years ago, one of my biggest chunks of planning time was mapping out my guided reading lesson plans and activities. Getting my guided reading lesson plans ready involved finding appropriate reading texts for each of my reading groups, reading the books beforehand {or at least skimming them if they were longer}, planning different phonics or comprehension mini-lessons to go with the books, and organizing activities that the students could do with the book after they had read {or re-read} the books to practice skills.

Whew. Just thinking about it again makes my brain spin.

Ready to Go Reading Lesson Plans and Activities

Now that I’m homeschooling, I don’t have to keep close track of and turn in any guided reading lesson plans {thank goodness}, but I still like to follow the guided reading model at home. This involves before, during and after reading support while my kids are reading developmentally appropriate texts.

One thing that I’ve been very thankful to discover this past school year was Snap! Learning . The ready to go guided reading lesson plans and activities are such a time saver. And they are a great fit for classroom teachers or homeschooling parents!

If you’ve hung around long enough, you know that I’ve mentioned Snap! Learning before, as their lesson plans and reading activities are great for improving comprehension and supporting struggling readers . But did you know that Snap! Learning also has printable ready to go guided reading lesson plans and activities? Talk about a time saver!

For each grade level (K-6), you’ll find ready to go printable resources that are top notch. Not only can you print off the books, but you can print off lightly scripted lesson plans and reading activities {not busy work} for before, during, and after reading.

The lesson plans for books include things like picture walks, phonics and phonemic awareness activities for younger children to vocabulary , text features and text structures for older students. With longer books, three days of lesson plans are included to help support readers.

The activities include writing, answering questions {many of which are higher order thinking questions }, phonics activities, vocabulary work, projects to extend learning, cloze activities, summarizing, retelling, and use of graphic organizers to organize information.

How do I use Snap! Learning in my reading instruction at home? We use it as a supplement. Since there are not enough stories to last us all year, I use the resources as a supplement to what we’re already doing. But what an amazing supplement it is!

You can give Snap! Learning a try for FREE! Sign up for your trial HERE .

You can also connect with Snap! Learning via Twitter , Facebook , Pinterest , or LinkedIn .

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Join thousands of other subscribers to get hands-on activities and printables delivered right to your inbox!

July 20, 2015 at 2:58 pm

Thanks for sharing these wonderful lesson plans!

July 21, 2015 at 5:34 am

You are welcome. 🙂

July 28, 2015 at 8:45 am

Thank you for sharing with us! How can I access the lesson plans?

July 28, 2015 at 10:20 am

Sign up for their free trial to try them out–> http://homeschool.snaplearning.co/buy_trial?utm_source=This%20Reading%20Mama&utm_medium=RMBanner&utm_campaign=RMAd

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5.2 Effective Reading Strategies

Questions to Consider:

• What methods can you incorporate into your routine to allow adequate time for reading?
• What are the benefits and approaches to active reading?
• Do your courses or major have specific reading requirements?

Allowing Adequate Time for Reading

You should determine the reading requirements and expectations for every class very early in the semester. You also need to understand why you are reading the particular text you are assigned. Do you need to read closely for minute details that determine cause and effect? Or is your instructor asking you to skim several sources so you become more familiar with the topic? Knowing this reasoning will help you decide your timing, what notes to take, and how best to undertake the reading assignment.

Depending on the makeup of your schedule, you may end up reading both primary sources—such as legal documents, historic letters, or diaries—as well as textbooks, articles, and secondary sources, such as summaries or argumentative essays that use primary sources to stake a claim. You may also need to read current journalistic texts to stay current in local or global affairs. A realistic approach to scheduling your time to allow you to read and review all the reading you have for the semester will help you accomplish what can sometimes seem like an overwhelming task.

When you allow adequate time in your hectic schedule for reading, you are investing in your own success. Reading isn’t a magic pill, but it may seem like it when you consider all the benefits people reap from this ordinary practice. Famous successful people throughout history have been voracious readers. In fact, former U.S. president Harry Truman once said, “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” Writer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, inventor, and also former U.S. president Thomas Jefferson claimed “I cannot live without books” at a time when keeping and reading books was an expensive pastime. Knowing what it meant to be kept from the joys of reading, 19th-century abolitionist Frederick Douglass said, “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” And finally, George R. R. Martin, the prolific author of the wildly successful Game of Thrones empire, declared, “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one.”

You can make time for reading in a number of ways that include determining your usual reading pace and speed, scheduling active reading sessions, and practicing recursive reading strategies.

Determining Reading Speed and Pacing

To determine your reading speed, select a section of text—passages in a textbook or pages in a novel. Time yourself reading that material for exactly 5 minutes, and note how much reading you accomplished in those 5 minutes. Multiply the amount of reading you accomplished in 5 minutes by 12 to determine your average reading pace (5 times 12 equals the 60 minutes of an hour). Of course, your reading pace will be different and take longer if you are taking notes while you read, but this calculation of reading pace gives you a good way to estimate your reading speed that you can adapt to other forms of reading.

So, for instance, if Marta was able to read 4 pages of a dense novel for her English class in 5 minutes, she should be able to read about 48 pages in one hour. Knowing this, Marta can accurately determine how much time she needs to devote to finishing the novel within a set amount of time, instead of just guessing. If the novel Marta is reading is 497 pages, then Marta would take the total page count (497) and divide that by her hourly reading rate (48 pages/hour) to determine that she needs about 10 to 11 hours overall. To finish the novel spread out over two weeks, Marta needs to read a little under an hour a day to accomplish this goal.

Calculating your reading rate in this manner does not take into account days where you’re too distracted and you have to reread passages or days when you just aren’t in the mood to read. And your reading rate will likely vary depending on how dense the content you’re reading is (e.g., a complex textbook vs. a comic book). Your pace may slow down somewhat if you are not very interested in what the text is about. What this method will help you do is be realistic about your reading time as opposed to waging a guess based on nothing and then becoming worried when you have far more reading to finish than the time available.

Chapter 3 , offers more detail on how best to determine your speed from one type of reading to the next so you are better able to schedule your reading.

Scheduling Set Times for Active Reading

Active reading takes longer than reading through passages without stopping. You may not need to read your latest sci-fi series actively while you’re lounging on the beach, but many other reading situations demand more attention from you. Active reading is particularly important for college courses. You are a scholar actively engaging with the text by posing questions, seeking answers, and clarifying any confusing elements. Plan to spend at least twice as long to read actively than to read passages without taking notes or otherwise marking select elements of the text.

To determine the time you need for active reading, use the same calculations you use to determine your traditional reading speed and double it. Remember that you need to determine your reading pace for all the classes you have in a particular semester and multiply your speed by the number of classes you have that require different types of reading.

Practicing Recursive Reading Strategies

One fact about reading for college courses that may become frustrating is that, in a way, it never ends. For all the reading you do, you end up doing even more rereading. It may be the same content, but you may be reading the passage more than once to detect the emphasis the writer places on one aspect of the topic or how frequently the writer dismisses a significant counterargument. This rereading is called recursive reading.

For most of what you read at the college level, you are trying to make sense of the text for a specific purpose—not just because the topic interests or entertains you. You need your full attention to decipher everything that’s going on in complex reading material—and you even need to be considering what the writer of the piece may not be including and why. This is why reading for comprehension is recursive.

Specifically, this boils down to seeing reading not as a formula but as a process that is far more circular than linear. You may read a selection from beginning to end, which is an excellent starting point, but for comprehension, you’ll need to go back and reread passages to determine meaning and make connections between the reading and the bigger learning environment that led you to the selection—that may be a single course or a program in your college, or it may be the larger discipline, such as all biologists or the community of scholars studying beach erosion.

People often say writing is rewriting. For college courses, reading is rereading.

Strong readers engage in numerous steps, sometimes combining more than one step simultaneously, but knowing the steps nonetheless. They include, not always in this order:

• bringing any prior knowledge about the topic to the reading session,
• asking yourself pertinent questions, both orally and in writing, about the content you are reading,
• inferring and/or implying information from what you read,
• learning unfamiliar discipline-specific terms,
• evaluating what you are reading, and eventually,
• applying what you’re reading to other learning and life situations you encounter.

Let’s break these steps into manageable chunks, because you are actually doing quite a lot when you read.

Accessing Prior Knowledge

When you read, you naturally think of anything else you may know about the topic, but when you read deliberately and actively, you make yourself more aware of accessing this prior knowledge. Have you ever watched a documentary about this topic? Did you study some aspect of it in another class? Do you have a hobby that is somehow connected to this material? All of this thinking will help you make sense of what you are reading.

Application

Imagining that you were given a chapter to read in your American history class about the Gettysburg Address, write down what you already know about this historic document. How might thinking through this prior knowledge help you better understand the text?

Asking Questions

Humans are naturally curious beings. As you read actively, you should be asking questions about the topic you are reading. Don’t just say the questions in your mind; write them down. You may ask: Why is this topic important? What is the relevance of this topic currently? Was this topic important a long time ago but irrelevant now? Why did my professor assign this reading?

You need a place where you can actually write down these questions; a separate page in your notes is a good place to begin. If you are taking notes on your computer, start a new document and write down the questions. Leave some room to answer the questions when you begin and again after you read.

Inferring and Implying

When you read, you can take the information on the page and infer , or conclude responses to related challenges from evidence or from your own reasoning. A student will likely be able to infer what material the professor will include on an exam by taking good notes throughout the classes leading up to the test.

Writers may imply information without directly stating a fact for a variety of reasons. Sometimes a writer may not want to come out explicitly and state a bias, but may imply or hint at his or her preference for one political party or another. You have to read carefully to find implications because they are indirect, but watching for them will help you comprehend the whole meaning of a passage.

Learning Vocabulary

Vocabulary specific to certain disciplines helps practitioners in that field engage and communicate with each other. Few people beyond undertakers and archeologists likely use the term sarcophagus in everyday communications, but for those disciplines, it is a meaningful distinction. Looking at the example, you can use context clues to figure out the meaning of the term sarcophagus because it is something undertakers and/or archeologists would recognize. At the very least, you can guess that it has something to do with death. As a potential professional in the field you’re studying, you need to know the lingo. You may already have a system in place to learn discipline-specific vocabulary, so use what you know works for you. Two strong strategies are to look up words in a dictionary (online or hard copy) to ensure you have the exact meaning for your discipline and to keep a dedicated list of words you see often in your reading. You can list the words with a short definition so you have a quick reference guide to help you learn the vocabulary.

Intelligent people always question and evaluate. This doesn’t mean they don’t trust others; they just need verification of facts to understand a topic well. It doesn’t make sense to learn incomplete or incorrect information about a subject just because you didn’t take the time to evaluate all the sources at your disposal. When early explorers were afraid to sail the world for fear of falling off the edge, they weren’t stupid; they just didn’t have all the necessary data to evaluate the situation.

When you evaluate a text, you are seeking to understand the presented topic. Depending on how long the text is, you will perform a number of steps and repeat many of these steps to evaluate all the elements the author presents. When you evaluate a text, you need to do the following:

• Scan the title and all headings.
• Read through the entire passage fully.
• Question what main point the author is making.
• Decide who the audience is.
• Identify what evidence/support the author uses.
• Consider if the author presents a balanced perspective on the main point.
• Recognize if the author introduced any biases in the text.

When you go through a text looking for each of these elements, you need to go beyond just answering the surface question; for instance, the audience may be a specific field of scientists, but could anyone else understand the text with some explanation? Why would that be important?

Analysis Question

Think of an article you need to read for a class. Take the steps above on how to evaluate a text, and apply the steps to the article. When you accomplish the task in each step, ask yourself and take notes to answer the question: Why is this important? For example, when you read the title, does that give you any additional information that will help you comprehend the text? If the text were written for a different audience, what might the author need to change to accommodate that group? How does an author’s bias distort an argument? This deep evaluation allows you to fully understand the main ideas and place the text in context with other material on the same subject, with current events, and within the discipline.

When you learn something new, it always connects to other knowledge you already have. One challenge we have is applying new information. It may be interesting to know the distance to the moon, but how do we apply it to something we need to do? If your biology instructor asked you to list several challenges of colonizing Mars and you do not know much about that planet’s exploration, you may be able to use your knowledge of how far Earth is from the moon to apply it to the new task. You may have to read several other texts in addition to reading graphs and charts to find this information.

That was the challenge the early space explorers faced along with myriad unknowns before space travel was a more regular occurrence. They had to take what they already knew and could study and read about and apply it to an unknown situation. These explorers wrote down their challenges, failures, and successes, and now scientists read those texts as a part of the ever-growing body of text about space travel. Application is a sophisticated level of thinking that helps turn theory into practice and challenges into successes.

Preparing to Read for Specific Disciplines in College

Different disciplines in college may have specific expectations, but you can depend on all subjects asking you to read to some degree. In this college reading requirement, you can succeed by learning to read actively, researching the topic and author, and recognizing how your own preconceived notions affect your reading. Reading for college isn’t the same as reading for pleasure or even just reading to learn something on your own because you are casually interested.

In college courses, your instructor may ask you to read articles, chapters, books, or primary sources (those original documents about which we write and study, such as letters between historic figures or the Declaration of Independence). Your instructor may want you to have a general background on a topic before you dive into that subject in class, so that you know the history of a topic, can start thinking about it, and can engage in a class discussion with more than a passing knowledge of the issue.

If you are about to participate in an in-depth six-week consideration of the U.S. Constitution but have never read it or anything written about it, you will have a hard time looking at anything in detail or understanding how and why it is significant. As you can imagine, a great deal has been written about the Constitution by scholars and citizens since the late 1700s when it was first put to paper (that’s how they did it then). While the actual document isn’t that long (about 12–15 pages depending on how it is presented), learning the details on how it came about, who was involved, and why it was and still is a significant document would take a considerable amount of time to read and digest. So, how do you do it all? Especially when you may have an instructor who drops hints that you may also love to read a historic novel covering the same time period . . . in your spare time , not required, of course! It can be daunting, especially if you are taking more than one course that has time-consuming reading lists. With a few strategic techniques, you can manage it all, but know that you must have a plan and schedule your required reading so you are also able to pick up that recommended historic novel—it may give you an entirely new perspective on the issue.

Strategies for Reading in College Disciplines

No universal law exists for how much reading instructors and institutions expect college students to undertake for various disciplines. Suffice it to say, it’s a LOT.

For most students, it is the volume of reading that catches them most off guard when they begin their college careers. A full course load might require 10–15 hours of reading per week, some of that covering content that will be more difficult than the reading for other courses.

You cannot possibly read word-for-word every single document you need to read for all your classes. That doesn’t mean you give up or decide to only read for your favorite classes or concoct a scheme to read 17 percent for each class and see how that works for you. You need to learn to skim, annotate, and take notes. All of these techniques will help you comprehend more of what you read, which is why we read in the first place. We’ll talk more later about annotating and note-taking, but for now consider what you know about skimming as opposed to active reading.

Skimming is not just glancing over the words on a page (or screen) to see if any of it sticks. Effective skimming allows you to take in the major points of a passage without the need for a time-consuming reading session that involves your active use of notations and annotations. Often you will need to engage in that painstaking level of active reading, but skimming is the first step—not an alternative to deep reading. The fact remains that neither do you need to read everything nor could you possibly accomplish that given your limited time. So learn this valuable skill of skimming as an accompaniment to your overall study tool kit, and with practice and experience, you will fully understand how valuable it is.

When you skim, look for guides to your understanding: headings, definitions, pull quotes, tables, and context clues. Textbooks are often helpful for skimming—they may already have made some of these skimming guides in bold or a different color, and chapters often follow a predictable outline. Some even provide an overview and summary for sections or chapters. Use whatever you can get, but don’t stop there. In textbooks that have some reading guides, or especially in text that does not, look for introductory words such as First or The purpose of this article  . . . or summary words such as In conclusion  . . . or Finally . These guides will help you read only those sentences or paragraphs that will give you the overall meaning or gist of a passage or book.

Now move to the meat of the passage. You want to take in the reading as a whole. For a book, look at the titles of each chapter if available. Read each chapter’s introductory paragraph and determine why the writer chose this particular order. Depending on what you’re reading, the chapters may be only informational, but often you’re looking for a specific argument. What position is the writer claiming? What support, counterarguments, and conclusions is the writer presenting?

Don’t think of skimming as a way to buzz through a boring reading assignment. It is a skill you should master so you can engage, at various levels, with all the reading you need to accomplish in college. End your skimming session with a few notes—terms to look up, questions you still have, and an overall summary. And recognize that you likely will return to that book or article for a more thorough reading if the material is useful.

Active Reading Strategies

Active reading differs significantly from skimming or reading for pleasure. You can think of active reading as a sort of conversation between you and the text (maybe between you and the author, but you don’t want to get the author’s personality too involved in this metaphor because that may skew your engagement with the text).

When you sit down to determine what your different classes expect you to read and you create a reading schedule to ensure you complete all the reading, think about when you should read the material strategically, not just how to get it all done . You should read textbook chapters and other reading assignments before you go into a lecture about that information. Don’t wait to see how the lecture goes before you read the material, or you may not understand the information in the lecture. Reading before class helps you put ideas together between your reading and the information you hear and discuss in class.

Different disciplines naturally have different types of texts, and you need to take this into account when you schedule your time for reading class material. For example, you may look at a poem for your world literature class and assume that it will not take you long to read because it is relatively short compared to the dense textbook you have for your economics class. But reading and understanding a poem can take a considerable amount of time when you realize you may need to stop numerous times to review the separate word meanings and how the words form images and connections throughout the poem.

The SQ3R Reading Strategy

You may have heard of the SQ3R method for active reading in your early education. This valuable technique is perfect for college reading. The title stands for S urvey, Q uestion, R ead, R ecite, R eview, and you can use the steps on virtually any assigned passage. Designed by Francis Pleasant Robinson in his 1961 book Effective Study, the active reading strategy gives readers a systematic way to work through any reading material.

Survey is similar to skimming. You look for clues to meaning by reading the titles, headings, introductions, summary, captions for graphics, and keywords. You can survey almost anything connected to the reading selection, including the copyright information, the date of the journal article, or the names and qualifications of the author(s). In this step, you decide what the general meaning is for the reading selection.

Question is your creation of questions to seek the main ideas, support, examples, and conclusions of the reading selection. Ask yourself these questions separately. Try to create valid questions about what you are about to read that have come into your mind as you engaged in the Survey step. Try turning the headings of the sections in the chapter into questions. Next, how does what you’re reading relate to you, your school, your community, and the world?

Read is when you actually read the passage. Try to find the answers to questions you developed in the previous step. Decide how much you are reading in chunks, either by paragraph for more complex readings or by section or even by an entire chapter. When you finish reading the selection, stop to make notes. Answer the questions by writing a note in the margin or other white space of the text.

You may also carefully underline or highlight text in addition to your notes. Use caution here that you don’t try to rush this step by haphazardly circling terms or the other extreme of underlining huge chunks of text. Don’t over-mark. You aren’t likely to remember what these cryptic marks mean later when you come back to use this active reading session to study. The text is the source of information—your marks and notes are just a way to organize and make sense of that information.

Recite means to speak out loud. By reciting, you are engaging other senses to remember the material—you read it (visual) and you said it (auditory). Stop reading momentarily in the step to answer your questions or clarify confusing sentences or paragraphs. You can recite a summary of what the text means to you. If you are not in a place where you can verbalize, such as a library or classroom, you can accomplish this step adequately by  saying  it in your head; however, to get the biggest bang for your buck, try to find a place where you can speak aloud. You may even want to try explaining the content to a friend.

Review is a recap. Go back over what you read and add more notes, ensuring you have captured the main points of the passage, identified the supporting evidence and examples, and understood the overall meaning. You may need to repeat some or all of the SQR3 steps during your review depending on the length and complexity of the material. Before you end your active reading session, write a short (no more than one page is optimal) summary of the text you read.

Reading Primary and Secondary Sources

Primary sources are original documents we study and from which we glean information; primary sources include letters, first editions of books, legal documents, and a variety of other texts. When scholars look at these documents to understand a period in history or a scientific challenge and then write about their findings, the scholar’s article is considered a secondary source. Readers have to keep several factors in mind when reading both primary and secondary sources.

Primary sources may contain dated material we now know is inaccurate. It may contain personal beliefs and biases the original writer didn’t intent to be openly published, and it may even present fanciful or creative ideas that do not support current knowledge. Readers can still gain great insight from primary sources, but readers need to understand the context from which the writer of the primary source wrote the text.

Likewise, secondary sources are inevitably another person’s perspective on the primary source, so a reader of secondary sources must also be aware of potential biases or preferences the secondary source writer inserts in the writing that may persuade an incautious reader to interpret the primary source in a particular manner.

For example, if you were to read a secondary source that is examining the U.S. Declaration of Independence (the primary source), you would have a much clearer idea of how the secondary source scholar presented the information from the primary source if you also read the Declaration for yourself instead of trusting the other writer’s interpretation. Most scholars are honest in writing secondary sources, but you as a reader of the source are trusting the writer to present a balanced perspective of the primary source. When possible, you should attempt to read a primary source in conjunction with the secondary source. The Internet helps immensely with this practice.

What Students Say

• How engaging the material is or how much I enjoy reading it.
• Whether or not the course is part of my major.
• Whether or not the instructor assesses knowledge from the reading (through quizzes, for example), or requires assignments based on the reading.
• Whether or not knowledge or information from the reading is required to participate in lecture.
• I read all of the assigned material.
• I read most of the assigned material.
• I skim the text and read the captions, examples, or summaries.
• I use a systematic method such as the Cornell method or something similar.
• I highlight or underline all the important information.
• I create outlines and/or note-cards.
• I use an app or program.
• I write notes in my text (print or digital).
• I don’t have a style. I just write down what seems important.
• I don't take many notes.

You can also take the anonymous What Students Say surveys to add your voice to this textbook. Your responses will be included in updates.

Students offered their views on these questions, and the results are displayed in the graphs below.

What is the most influential factor in how thoroughly you read the material for a given course?

What best describes your reading approach for required texts/materials for your classes?

What best describes your note-taking style?

Researching Topic and Author

During your preview stage, sometimes called pre-reading, you can easily pick up on information from various sources that may help you understand the material you’re reading more fully or place it in context with other important works in the discipline. If your selection is a book, flip it over or turn to the back pages and look for an author’s biography or note from the author. See if the book itself contains any other information about the author or the subject matter.

The main things you need to recall from your reading in college are the topics covered and how the information fits into the discipline. You can find these parts throughout the textbook chapter in the form of headings in larger and bold font, summary lists, and important quotations pulled out of the narrative. Use these features as you read to help you determine what the most important ideas are.

Remember, many books use quotations about the book or author as testimonials in a marketing approach to sell more books, so these may not be the most reliable sources of unbiased opinions, but it’s a start. Sometimes you can find a list of other books the author has written near the front of a book. Do you recognize any of the other titles? Can you do an Internet search for the name of the book or author? Go beyond the search results that want you to buy the book and see if you can glean any other relevant information about the author or the reading selection. Beyond a standard Internet search, try the library article database. These are more relevant to academic disciplines and contain resources you typically will not find in a standard search engine. If you are unfamiliar with how to use the library database, ask a reference librarian on campus. They are often underused resources that can point you in the right direction.

Understanding Your Own Preset Ideas on a Topic

Laura really enjoys learning about environmental issues. She has read many books and watched numerous televised documentaries on this topic and actively seeks out additional information on the environment. While Laura’s interest can help her understand a new reading encounter about the environment, Laura also has to be aware that with this interest, she also brings forward her preset ideas and biases about the topic. Sometimes these prejudices against other ideas relate to religion or nationality or even just tradition. Without evidence, thinking the way we always have is not a good enough reason; evidence can change, and at the very least it needs honest review and assessment to determine its validity. Ironically, we may not want to learn new ideas because that may mean we would have to give up old ideas we have already mastered, which can be a daunting prospect.

With every reading situation about the environment, Laura needs to remain open-minded about what she is about to read and pay careful attention if she begins to ignore certain parts of the text because of her preconceived notions. Learning new information can be very difficult if you balk at ideas that are different from what you’ve always thought. You may have to force yourself to listen to a different viewpoint multiple times to make sure you are not closing your mind to a viable solution your mindset does not currently allow.

Can you think of times you have struggled reading college content for a course? Which of these strategies might have helped you understand the content? Why do you think those strategies would work?

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Teaching with Jennifer Findley

Upper Elementary Teaching Blog

Free Digital Reading Activities

Are you looking for digital reading activities to kick off your school year? It can be challenging to plan reading lessons when you’re still getting to know your students and getting to know what they know. You don’t want to bombard your students with too many skill-based reading activities before you’ve reviewed or taught the skills. This set of free digital reading activities designed for use at the beginning of the year is a great way to supplement your reading instruction, get to you know your students as readers, and review a few reading genres. 

About the Free Digital Reading Activities

This set of free reading digital activities includes six different texts; three fiction and three nonfiction.

The fiction texts include a mystery, a twisted fairytale, and a realistic fiction story. The nonfiction topics are emojis, snakes, and pyramids.

Each text includes comprehension questions that require the students to show their understanding of the text. The questions are:

• multiple choice questions
• fill-in-the-blank questions
• true or false statements

The questions and activities included are strictly comprehension-based rather than skill-based. This makes it ideal for the beginning of the year, before your reading skill instruction has started.

Digital Reading Passages

Each genre has a short text presented on one slide. The text passages are the perfect length for your students to read without being too much at once.

The texts are written at lower levels than is expected for 4th and 5th graders since this is the beginning of the school year. The levels are around a 3rd grade reading level.

The variety of genres included makes this a great way to review a few genres at the beginning of the year and get your students excited about what types of books they enjoy reading and are looking forward to reading this school year.

Multiple Choice Reading Comprehension Questions

Each passage has its own set of multiple-choice questions. Your students will read the questions and the choices and then use a drag and drop element to show their answers. This makes it more engaging and interactive for your students instead of simply typing their answers in a text box.

Fill-in-the-Blank Sentences

The second type of question is fill-in-the-blank. Your students will type a missing word or phrase into each text box based on what they read in the text.

Agree or Disagree Activities

Lastly, your students will read sentences that could be true or false. Each one requires your students to show whether they agree or disagree with the statement they read. If they disagree, there is a text box for your students to rewrite the sentence to make it true.

To make the activities more engaging, the drag and drop moveable pieces are related to the passage topic or theme. For example, in a story about missing donuts, your students will drag a moveable donut to a box to show they agree with each statement. If they disagree, the donut box will stay empty and they will need to rewrite the statement in the text box to make it factual.

Using the Digital Reading Activities

The best thing about these activities is that they are versatile depending on your needs. You can adapt them whether you want your students to work on them as a class, independently, in partners, or even in your small reading groups. They are easily projected on an interactive whiteboard for whole-class reading and discussion, or may be assigned independently through your virtual classroom interface.

Need help with assigning Google Slides assignments? Check out this post.

What if I don’t need digital versions?

Looking for a printable version of this set? There are printable versions of each text and set of questions included in this download, too. When you click on the link below, you will receive both sets.

How do I get these free digital reading activities?

Click here or on the image below to download the digital reading activities from my TPT store for free.

Want more digital reading activities?

If you want more digital reading activities to help with online or digital reading instruction, I recommend this resource.

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Digital Reading Activities with Google Slides (w/ Printable Versions)

Each set includes BOTH printable and digital versions for digital reading instruction, face-to-face instruction, or hybrid reading instruction. Just like the free set of activities shown on this post, the digital activities are designed for use with Google Slides and digitally optimized for student engagement and optimal use.

Reading Skills Include:

• Point of View
• Perspective
• Fiction Summarizing
• Figurative Language
• Context Clues
• Text Structure
• Paired Text Structure
• Multiple Accounts
• Various Nonfiction Skills

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4 Independent Reading Activities to Challenge Students

You’ve established independent reading in your classroom. Congratulations! But now what? How do you make independent reading meaningful for students? Once students are actually reading, there are many independent reading activities you can do to take advantage of reading time without killing the fun! 

(Still working on establishing an independent reading routine? Learn about putting together a great classroom library !)

Independent Reading Activities Idea #1: Quick Reading Skill Reviews

You’ve got students engaged in a book! Don’t forget to have students actually think about their reading now. 

Now, don’t go crazy. If your students are new to independent reading, you don’t want to assign a whole project or essay to go with it. That’s a fast way to kill any excitement your students might have for choice reading. 

However, I think it’s totally ok to ask students to reflect on their reading. Their choice novels can function as excellent examples for implementing other reading strategies. 

The key is to keep any assignments or tasks short and simple. (I honestly wouldn’t even call anything you hand out an assignment or homework.) 

I love short and easy exit tickets for this. Each takes less than five minutes to complete, but review an essential skill or a literary term. The task or question you put on these exit tickets should be short and applicable to nearly any novel. 

For example, having students describe the protagonist of their book reviews an important literary term, asks students to reflect on their reading, and can be answered regardless of which novel students are reading. 

You can create your own exit tickets or buy some already prepared for you. I love these exit tickets for reviewing reading strategies and these exit tickets for reviewing story elements . 

Independent Reading Activities Idea #2: Literature Circles

Once students are comfortable with reading independently and have brushed up on their skills, launch into a bigger independent reading project. Literature circles are a natural progression from independent reading. 

(Not sure how to even begin putting together a literature circle? Check out this post! )

Personally, I would separate a literature circle from independent reading activities. Either continue to do independent reading along with literature circles or suspend independent reading while doing this unit. 

Literature circles use the skills that students have built up while independently reading, but they limit choice. While independent reading allows students to choose almost any novel, literature circles are usually more limited. You might provide students with a list of possible novels or they may need to find a group willing to study the same book.

Like independent reading, students will have to use their reading strategies and discipline to read a novel on their own. They might have fewer choices to read, but they’ll have peers with whom to discuss their ideas.

Interested in a done-for-you literature circle? Try this one based on three social justice novels.

Independent Reading Activities Idea #3: Let Students Get Creative

Personally, I love letting students do something creative when the opportunity is present. It’s a fun way to engage students who might otherwise be less interested in literature. There are so many ideas out there that can be applied to any novel. 

A common activity is to have students design a new book cover for their chosen novel . This kind of activity is perfect because it can be done with any novel but still requires students to think about important symbols, characters, and events in their book.

Another activity that students love is to create an “Instagram” post. The post can be about the book or a fictional post from the perspective of an important character. So much of our students’ lives involve social media; they dive right into assignments like this. You can have students create this post on any blank paper or give them a premade template like this . 

There are innumerable ways to let students combine their creativity with analysis.

Independent Reading Activities Idea #4: Turn Choice Novels Into Mentor Texts

One of the amazing benefits of lots of reading is that it tends to improve writing as well–but only if readers are analytical about the words they read . Asking students to look to their chosen books as mentor texts is one way of helping them to make the connection.

There are many ways of doing this. You could assign a scavenger hunt and have students look through their choice novel for examples. Students can record excellent examples of strong writing, examples of literary terms, or examples of story elements. You could easily adapt this Figurative Language Scavenger Hunt to be used with novels. 

Another way to use any novel as a mentor text is to assign students an author study. Again, you don’t want to assign too much work with independent reading, so maybe you could allow students to choose an author to study from any whole-class novels or their choice novels. 

An author study forces students to examine the way words are used in writing. Eventually, they’ll try and mimic their chosen author’s style. 

One last idea is to have students pull in their books for grammar lessons. Teaching sentence types? Have students identify sentence clauses in a paragraph from their book. Parts of speech? Have students list strong nouns, verbs, or adjectives from their novels. You could even have students list sentences from their book that break grammar rules for an interesting discussion on when and why to do so. 

When trying to make the most of independent reading, it’s important to remember that it should be fun for students. Ideally, independent reading should mimic reading in real life.

“Real readers” don’t sit down after finishing a book to write an essay about it. They might, however, write a review or discuss the novel with a friend. They might create art after being inspired by a great story or imagine alternative scenes or endings.

When deciding what independent reading activities to add to your classroom, make sure they don’t detract from the pure enjoyment of reading a book for fun.

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14 Activities That Increase Student Engagement During Reading Instruction

by Stacy Hurst | Sep 24, 2021 | 6 comments

Research shows that students whose teachers spend too much time talking are less likely to be engaged during classroom instruction. Luckily, reading instruction can be so much more than lecture, reading practice, memorization, or decoding drills. We, as teachers, can do more to get our students engaged in learning to read.

List of Reading Activities

Here is a list of fourteen student engagement strategies from  a  webinar presented by Reading Horizons Chief Education Officer, Stacy Hurst,  that you can use to increase student engagement during reading instruction or reading intervention:

1. Partner Pretest

Before teaching a new decoding skill or grammar rule, preface the lesson with a pretest. Let your students know that you will not score the test, lowering anxiety and increasing student performance. Pair students up for the pretest and have them use the same set of materials. If the pretest is on a computer or iPad, have students share the device between the two of them. During the pretest, walk around the room to gauge student needs and adjust the lesson accordingly. When lesson material matches student ability and understanding, engagement is higher. Make sure that the pretest is similar to the posttest so you can see how much your students retain during your lesson.

2. Stand Up/Sit Down

You can use this activity to help students learn to differentiate between similar but different reading concepts. For instance, when you’re trying to help your students understand the difference between common nouns and proper nouns, you can give examples of each and have students stand up if it is a common noun or sit down if it is a proper noun. This is a great way to see how much of your class is grasping the material while getting their blood flowing—helping them stay alert.

3. Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down

This activity provides a quick way to gauge if your students are comprehending a story or to test them on different reading skills. Instruct students to put their thumbs up if they agree with a statement or to put their thumbs down if they disagree. When students have a low energy level (i.e. right after lunch) Stand Up/Sit Down may be a better alternative. However, if you need to maintain your students’ current energy level Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down is ideal.

4. Secret Answer

This activity is great for students that might not be confident in their answers — students that look around the class when doing Stand Up/Sit Down or Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down to see how the other students’ answer before they answer themselves. To give students a secret way to answer, assign different responses a number and have students hold up the number of fingers that correspond to the answer they think is correct. To do this exercise properly, have your students place their hand near their heart (physically) with the appropriate number of fingers raised to indicate their answer. This way, especially if all the students are facing the teacher, it is difficult for students to copy their neighbor’s answer.

5. Response Cards

This is a great way to mix things up a bit. Have students create a stack of typical responses, including agree/disagree, true/false, yes/no, greater than/less than, multiple-choice options, and everyday emotions. After students have created their response cards, you can have them use them to respond in various settings. For example, while reading a book together as a class, you may pause and ask your students what they think the character is feeling right now. The students then select one of the everyday emotion cards from their personal stack of cards and lift it up to answer the question.

6. Think-Pair-Share

This activity allows students to pause and process what they have just learned. After reading a passage in a book, ask your class a question that they must first consider by themselves. After giving them time to think, have them discuss the question with their neighbor. Once they’ve discussed the question, invite students to share their answers with the class. By giving them this time to process, you enable them to be more engaged in their learning.

7. Quick Writes

Studies show that the proper ratio of direct instruction to reflection time for students is ten to two. That means that teachers need to provide students with two minutes of reflection for every ten minutes of instruction. This activity is a great way to give students that much-needed reflection time! In this activity, ask a question about a reading passage and have students write a response to share with a neighbor or the entire class.

8. One Word Splash

After reading a passage or learning new vocabulary terms, ask your students to write down one word that they feel sums up that material. This might seem overly simplistic, but it requires higher processing skills to help your students digest what they are reading. Students can do this with pencil/paper or a dry erase marker/personal whiteboard.

9. Quick Draw

This activity is perfect for visual learners or students who aren’t entirely writing yet. After reading a part of a story or learning a new concept or topic, have your students draw a picture about what they’ve just read or understood. For example, after reading part of the story Jack and the Beanstalk, have your students draw what has happened in the story up to that point. A student may draw a picture of a boy planting seeds with a beanstalk growing in the background.

10. Gallery Walk

To help students get some of their energy out, have them do a Gallery Walk to see their peers’ work. This activity is an excellent add-on to Quick Writes and Quick Draw. Because students seek approval from their peers, they will put more effort into their work when they know the class will view it.

11. A-Z Topic Summary

Help students connect the dots after finishing a book, a learning module, or a lesson. Have your students complete an A-Z Topic Summary either as individuals or in pairs. If it is an individual activity, have students write either a word or a sentence that connects to the book, module, or lesson for each letter of the alphabet. For example, if you learned about baking, they might write a sentence for the letter A such as: “Always preheat the oven before baking.” To speed up the activity, you can assign students to work in pairs or assign a letter to each student or team and have them write a sentence for that letter rather than the whole alphabet.

This is a quick way to help students process reading or lesson material when you’re pressed for time. First, have your students write three facts they learned from something they read or learned in class that day. Next, have students write two questions about the book or topic that wasn’t covered or discussed in class. Finally, have your students write one opinion they have about the reading material or lesson. This activity can also help you plan for the next lesson on the topic or book.

13. Find Your Match

This is another activity that gets your students up and moving. Create card matches that correlate to a storyline in a book, vocabulary terms, figures of speech, grammar rules, etc. For example, your card matches might include the following concepts (depending on grade level): rhyming words, uppercase/lowercase, antonyms/synonyms, words/definitions, problem/solution, and words/pictures. Hand out one card to each student in the class and then get up and find the other student with the matching card.

14. Dictation

One of our favorite teaching activities is Dictation! It is highly effective in engaging students because it is multisensory explicit phonics instruction involving: auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and tactile senses. Having a multisensory approach increases working memory and integrates all language skills/modalities. To do Dictation, have students listen to a word, repeat the word out loud, write it out on paper, and then have them read the word out loud again. View an example of Dictation in action here .

Have you tried any of these activities in your classroom? If so, leave a comment and let us know which ones are your favorites and why.

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27 Fun Reading Activities To Try At Home or In The Classroom

Written by Ashley Crowe

Teachers and parents

Prodigy English is ready to explore! Get kids playing — and learning — today.

Fun reading activities for the classroom

Reading activities for parents & children, activities to try after reading, other educational activities to help kids learn.

Learning to read is a huge milestone in a child’s life. We all know how important a love of reading is for future learning. When children love to read, they can learn anything. 

Make sure your children keep the joy of reading alive by using fun reading activities along with traditional reading strategies .

These fun daily moments can improve reading skills and help reluctant readers find joy in the written word. We’ll be covering reading activities by grade level both for the classroom and at home, as well as some activities to improve reading comprehension after your students are reading independently. 

Though many children begin the basics of reading at home, most solidify their skills and become accomplished readers in the classroom. These activities keep early readers engaged and improving while helping reluctant readers master the basics. Here are our favorite ways to keep reading fun!

1. Find the secret word

Great for: Kindergarten to 2nd grade

Turn a reading lesson into a scavenger hunt! Give each student or pair of students a piece of text, then speak the first secret word. Once they find it, have them circle it in a specific color, or circle and number, then report back to you for word #2. 

Keep this word search up for as long as you like — we recommend choosing about 8 to 10 words for students to find. It’s one part competition, one part scavenger hunt! Choose a prize for each team to receive when they complete the activity. Or celebrate everyone reaching the end with a classroom dance party! It’s a great way to keep your kids moving and learning.

2. Read aloud as a class

Great for: All grades

Kids are never too old to hear a story read aloud. Reading aloud as a class is a great way to keep kids engrossed in a story. Since you are most familiar with the text, you can keep the flow going during the dramatic moments. Then hand it off to your students to take their turns.

Want to add a new element to your classroom read-aloud? Pass around a ball or stuffed animal to indicate the next reader. It’s a variation of popcorn reading to help minimize reading anxiety, and it gives kids the power to pass it on after spending a short time reading. 

3. Partner reading

Great for: 1st to 3rd grade

Sometimes trying to get the whole class to read together is just too much. To encourage more reading time, pair up your students for partner reading. 

During partner reading, each child will get more time to practice their skills. And being corrected privately by one friend may be better for a struggling reader’s confidence. Try to pair a confident but patient reader with those who need some extra help and watch them both learn to succeed.

4. Find the synonym

Great for: 2nd to 5th grade

Once your readers are feeling more confident, take our scavenger hunt game mentioned above and add a new twist. 

Instead of searching for the exact spoken words on your list, give students the challenge to find the word’s synonym in the text. It’s a great way to keep the game challenging for older students.

5. Word searches

For younger students, a word search is a challenging way to encourage early reading. You can do this much like our scavenger hunt-style games, but instead of saying the words aloud, provide a list. 

They can search for one word at a time, with you providing the next word to the team once the first is found. Or provide a full list from the beginning and let them work individually. Add in some color matching (marking the word in the same color as printed on the list) to keep this game fun and engaging.

6. Keyword bingo

Looking for a calmer alternative to the secret word game? Have each child work individually in a game of reading bingo. Choose a grade-level text and compile a list of words found in the passage. 

Read each word aloud, giving about 15 seconds before moving on to the next. It’s a race against your clock to find the words, or they can try to remember them while looking for the others. When they find the words, they can mark them out. Once the list is done, allow 20 more seconds to wrap up any remaining words, then pencils down and count. Whoever finds the most words, wins!

7. Decoding games

Decoding games focus on letter sounds and phonemic awareness. A favorite game for pre-readers is to say a letter and have students find an object that starts with that letter. As they bring the object back, reinforce the sound that letter makes.

Other decoding games can focus on the mechanics of reading — such as reading a word or sentence from left to right. This is a great time to utilize finger puppets, following along with a finger as you sound the words out together.

8. Thumbs up, thumbs down

Great for: Kindergarten to 5th grade

Thumbs up, thumbs down (or the higher energy variation — stand up, sit down) is a great game to keep your students engaged. 

Check reading comprehension when you ask students to give a thumbs up if a statement about a recently read story is true, or a thumbs down if it’s false. Help them grasp grammar concepts by having them stand up when you say an adjective word or sit down if you say a noun. 

It’s a fun way to keep their bodies and brains working. 

9. Discover the missing letter

When you’re teaching letter sounds, it’s fun to get creative. In this game, you’ll call your students to the front of the class by their names — minus the first letter. For example, Stacy becomes tacy and Roland becomes oland. Let the kids guess who you’re calling up, then have them decode the missing letter. 

You can do the same thing for objects, or drop middle letters for older children. Just be sure to prepare your words ahead of time to avoid any slip-ups!  

10. Guided reading ball game

Great for: 2nd to 7th grade

Grab a few beach balls from your local dollar store and get your classroom moving. Take a sharpie and write a discussion prompt on each colorful section of the ball. What is the setting? Who is the main character? What happened after…? 

Toss or roll the balls around. Students answer whichever question their thumb lands on when the ball heads their way. This is an exciting way to mix things up, practice reading comprehension and get kids thinking outside of their seats.

Not all reading happens in the classroom! Parents can play an active role in helping their children learn to read. Here are a few activities to try with your kids.

1. Reading together

Great for: All grades and ages

There’s something special about listening to a book being read out loud. It can capture your attention in a unique way. Whether your child is a baby or fully grown, it’s always a good time to read together.

Take turns reading chapters from a favorite story, or just read to your child. Enjoying good stories is a huge motivator in learning to read.  

2. Silly voices reading

Great for: Kindergarten to 4th grade

Kids love to laugh and joke, so play into this with a crazy story and silly voices. Get really high-pitched, speed it up like a chipmunk, and then pitch your voice low. 

Your kids will love seeing these stories come to life with your words, and you’ll all share a good laugh. To get them involved in the fun, ask them to do their own silly voice!

3. Dialogic reading

The word dialogic means to have a dialogue, and that’s exactly what this activity is designed to do. Instead of reading to your child while they passively listen, invite them into the story. Ask them what they think may happen next, or at the close of the book invite them to create a completely different ending. This is a great way to stretch your little storyteller’s imagination.

4. Reading outside

Kids thrive outdoors. They can run, climb, and dig in the dirt. Outside is also a great place to practice reading and letter writing. Invite your child to help you create words in a sandbox or take a stick and dig a letter into the dirt. 

Older kids can simply take their reading outside. It’s amazing how refreshing a change of setting can be. 

5. What word starts with…

Great for: Kindergarten to 1st grade

Letter sounds are an essential early reading tool. With this game, ask your child to think of words that start with “B” (or any other letter).

 Give an example, like b-b-butterfly, then think of more “B” words together. Choose your child’s favorite things to keep the game fun and exciting. Early readers especially love to talk about the letters in their names.

6. Try nonfiction

Great for: All ages

You never know what a child may love to read. Though many kids enjoy a good princess or dragon story, others will prefer non-fiction books. 

If your attempts at fiction are met with indifference, try a book about their favorite animal (sharks, dinosaurs, or lemurs are popular here), learn about space or strange weather events. Whatever your child is into, and whatever their reading level, there’s a book for them.

7. Create a “book nook”

A cozy spot dedicated to reading can add joy to the activity. Load up a corner or top bunk space with comfy pillows and blankets, make sure it has good lighting, and include some sticky notes and a dictionary. All your child needs to bring is their favorite book! Even better, snuggle in together and discover a new favorite with your child.

8. Who’s coming over?

This game can be played in a couple of different ways, and both are great for reading comprehension. First, try giving clues so your child can guess their favorite characters. These favorites can be from books or TV. You can mention physical characteristics, some of their best friends, or things that happen to them. Keep giving clues until they guess correctly.

The second way to play is to invite a favorite character over and then discuss what you’ll need for their visit. A special kind of bed, their favorite foods, or a place for their pet to stay are all things to consider. This is a fun way to create your own story around your child’s favorite characters.

9. Take turns reading

As your child begins to read you can invite them to read to you. Don’t push if they don’t want to, but as their confidence builds they’ll be excited to share their new skill with you. 

This may look like you both taking turns reading a new chapter book, or they may want to share all the creature descriptions from their favorite new computer game. No matter the topic, do your best to listen intently and congratulate them on their reading skills.  

10. What happens next?

Keep reading fun and active when you step outside the book and asking your child what happens next:

• What do they think will happen?
• What would you like to see happen? 
• What’s something funny that could happen?

Any question that gets them thinking through the story on their own is both fun and helpful for reading comprehension. 

11. Talk about the pictures

Pictures are a great way for kids to follow along with a story. When your child is beginning to read, have them look at the pictures and ask what they think is going on. As they unravel the story, point out the words they are discovering in the text. Or just let them enjoy creating their own unique version of the story based on the pictures. 

12. Try new reading apps and websites

There are some amazing reading apps for both reading instruction and digital reading libraries. If your child enjoys spending time on their tablet, give some of our favorite reading apps a try and watch them learn while they play.

After your child is reading on their own, there’s still plenty to learn. Reading isn’t effective if they’re struggling to understand the words on the page, or how they all fit together to create the story. Here are a few activities for children to practice reading comprehension.

1. Summarize the text

Once a child is done reading a text or section of a book, have them revisit the main ideas by highlighting or taking notes on the text’s biggest themes. Once students identify the main themes, ask them to break them down further and quickly summarize the story.

2. Book reports

Great for: 2nd to 12th grade

Book reports are a classic reading activity. Have the child analyze the book, highlighting the most important themes. Older children can present arguments pertaining to the story, and provide passages to support their theories. 

Keep book reports even more engaging when you invite kids to give a presentation, complete with dress-up and drama. 

3. Review the book

Ask children to rate their most recent reading. They can assign it a number of stars, but then they must also explain why. Was it too scary? Not funny? What were their favorite parts? What would they do differently?

Not only does this help students think critically about what they’ve just read, but it can also help parents and teacher identify what they might like reading next.

4. Extend the story

Great for: Kindergarten to 12th grade

“And they lived happily ever after…”

Maybe so, but what happened next? Ask your child to keep the story going. Where do they go next? Who do they meet? Favorite characters can continue adventuring when your child takes over the story. This is a great writing prompt , or just a fun dinner conversation!

5. How could it have been better?

Everyone has an opinion, so ask your child for theirs. How could this book or story have been better? Would a different ending be more fun? Or maybe they just think the main character should be named after them. 

No matter their critique, listen and discuss. Then encourage them to create their own tale.

How reading activities help kids embrace learning

Reading keeps kids learning for the rest of their lives. When a child can read, they can take more control over their education. And that’s a wonderful thing!

Fun activities are the best way to keep a child interested in the world of books. Learning to read can be a frustrating journey for some. Others may simply find it boring (especially if they’re being made to read about topics they care little about). These activities are designed to get kids moving and thinking beyond the page. Because when reading is fun, learning happens naturally.

When teaching starts to feel like a drag, or the kids are fighting their instruction, revisit this article. Mix in some fun activities and keep the learning going. Getting up, moving around, or enjoying a laugh together can help stimulate everyone’s mind. 

Looking for even more great learning activities to engage your kids? Here are some of our favorite activity posts for reading, math, and more!

• 21 Classroom Games
• 15 Geometry Activities
• 20 Exciting Math Games
• 30 Virtual School Activities
• 36 Fun Word Game for Kids
• 15 Free Multiplication Games
• 37 Quick Brain Breaks for Kids
• 27 Best Educational Games for Kids
• 25 Social-Emotional Learning Activities  

Get more ways to help kids love learning with Prodigy English , a brand-new learning adventure! Whether you're a parent or a teacher, create a free Prodigy account to access tools that help you support reading and language learning in the classroom or at home.

• Assignments , Motivating Students

Reading Assignments, Activities, and Approaches to Promote Learning

• By Maryellen Weimer
• June 1, 2017

A collection of resources on getting students to read what's assigned and strategies for developing college-level reading skills

Many students do not arrive in our courses with college-level reading skills. That usually ends up meaning a couple of things. First off, they don’t like to read and will challenge (usually quietly and covertly) teacher announcements and syllabus admonitions telling them they must do the reading. They’ll come to class, sit quietly, take a few notes, and see what happens if they aren’t prepared. If there are no negative consequences, they decide maybe they don’t have to do the reading or they can put it off until just before the exam. In the Relevant Research section below you’ll find a study that documents the number of students who come to class not having done the reading as well as what they say is the most effective tactic for encouraging them to read what’s assigned.

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• Tags: college-level reading , getting students to read , reading assignments

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15 Fun Ways to Freshen Up Your Independent Reading Activities

Inside: Is your choice reading program feeling stale? Are the independent reading activities falling flat? We can engage students and keep book love fresh by weaving in new ideas from time to time!   

Independent reading programs can be the life of your English Language Arts classroom party. Books truly can be magical for students and teachers to share together and to read independently. When inspiring stories are ubiquitous in our classrooms, vibrant discussions help to strengthen the overall community and culture.

Whether you’re just dipping your toes into independent reading or looking for ways to freshen up your existing approach, you’ll find lots of ideas here! If you’ve been around my blog or my Instagram account for long, you probably already know my strong distaste for reading logs and accelerated reader. Compliance-driven accountability tools create a negative space between students, books, and teachers.

In this post, you won’t find unnecessary strategies that frustrate or bore readers. Instead, you’ll find over a dozen fresh ideas for bringing healthy discussion and community to your independent reading program.

Previously, I’ve written about assignments we can use to assess students’ progress with reading literature standards when it comes to their independent reading books. But, beyond standards assessment, I find little to no value in layers of accountability that feel like work just so we can “make sure” students are reading.

If we establish a positive reading culture , students will read. Let’s check out the activities. Keep in mind, you won’t find predictable, structured bell-ringer type approaches here. I like to keep it fresh because that’s my style. Also, variety drives away boredom and unleashes creativity.

For the purpose of clarification, independent reading refers to when students are reading a book of their own choosing . They may be using an audiobook or even sharing the book with parents, but students are reading the book either in class or at home because it’s a book they have chosen to read. Typically, this work is a meaningful extension of additional required classroom texts.

1:  ENTRANCE QUESTIONS

Entrance questions can be a fun way to open up thinking. We can pose these questions when students walk into class or after independent reading time. The purpose of an entrance question is to get students talking about their books, which contributes to a social reading environment. Indirectly, students will be getting ideas of books they may want to read in the future, and those who are answering the questions will be reflecting on what they are currently reading.

Consider these possible examples:

• Find the most important word from the last 2 pages you read. Why is it important to the story?
• What is the setting of your book? Does the protagonist enjoy living in this setting? How do you know? How does the setting cause limitations or provide freedom for the characters?

Entrance questions provide a thin layer of accountability. Students who are not reading their books will have a difficult time coming up with authentic answers to the prompts.

You can find more entrance prompts like this here .

2:  SKILL APPLICATION

One of the best ways we can bridge the gap between whole class texts and independent reading activities is to ask students to apply the skills we are teaching in a whole-group setting to their choice reading books.

For example, if you teach students a five sentence summary strategy using a short whole-class text, ask them to apply their summarizing skills to their independent reading book. Analyzing figurative language as a class? Why not extend that practice to independent reading? Making inferences about characters? Same thing.

I like to use scaffolding tools like graphic organizers and bookmarks to make a seamless connection between whole-class texts and independent reading books. I recommend modeling with the same tools students will be using on their own.

Reluctant readers will be more likely to invest in their independent reading books if they feel the books are an important part of their learning process.

3:  READING CONFERENCES

Reading conferences are opportunities to get to know readers. During a true reading conference, the teacher sits with each student to have quick conversations about how students are approaching their independent reading books. We can ask students summary questions, inference questions, analysis questions, and more.

Reading conferences are another opportunity to bridge the lessons and skills we are working on as a whole class with the books students are reading on their own. Many secondary teachers stray away from reading conferences because we have so many students and a short amount of time to meet with them.

I’ve used five-minute reading conferences during independent reading time. This means I am able to conference with two students each day, and it takes me two to three weeks to make it through the whole student roster. That’s okay! Meeting with students one-on-one allows us to differentiate the reading skills and strategies we want them to work on, and it helps to build relationships with them.

Plus, if we can tell they aren’t really engaging with their book, we can use this time to help them find a book they will enjoy more.

If you aren’t ready to embrace the one-on-one reading conferences approach, give small group conferences a try! Meet with three to four students at a time to discuss a reading strategy (predicting, inferring, visualizing). We can talk about how dialogue impacts pace or how the author uses figurative language to engage readers.

4: BOOK CHECK-INS

In Reading in the Wild, Donalyn Miller recommends a status of the class, which is where we touch base with each student to inquire about their reading progress. When I say your name, share out what page you’re on and something interesting about your reading! We can do this while conferring one-on-one, when taking attendance, as we circulate the room during independent reading, or in small group format when sharing about our reading.

However, Pernille Ripp recommends a second option for reading checks, which is asking students to sign in at the beginning of each class by updating the current page number of their independent reading book. We can streamline this process with a digital or print whole class book check-in sheet that can later be analyzed for trends (pictured below).

At the end of a week or month, we can ask students to total the number of pages they have read and submit that number via a Google Form. This is data we can use to reflect on as a class.

5: CASUAL BOOK TALKS

What are people typically really excited to do after reading something super good? Tell others, of course! That’s why informal book talks are an engaging way to open up authentic social reading situations.

After independent reading time, ask for volunteers to share something exciting, moving, or humorous from what they’ve read, a favorite line or passage, or an impressive example of author’s style. I consider these informal book talks, but I don’t recommend titling them as such to students because it increases the formality.

Just ask who wants to share, and let a few voices shine. To make sure everyone has an opportunity to participate, keep track of who has already shared. When you run out of volunteers and still have students who haven’t shared, ask them questions about their book.

“Jaclyn, I see you are reading ___. What happened in your reading today?” 

“Nathan, what’s your favorite part of the book you are currently reading?”

The expectation to share our reading is a gentle reminder to students:  You need to be reading. It will be your turn soon.  This layer of accountability is one I’m comfortable with because sharing good books is an authentic reading practice.

6:  READING SPRINTS

Here’s another after-independent reading activity, and this one engages the whole class! Reading sprints are when students answer a standards-aligned question about their book directly following reading time. They jot their thoughts on a sticky note and then share it on the board.

As a teacher, there are multiple ways we can lead short or long on-the-spot discussions about literature skills using these sticky note collections. Students’ responses to questions will give us insights as to what skills we need to hone.

Reading sprints keep the spirit of community reading alive in our class and allow us to tie independent reading to whole-class reading lessons seamlessly!

7:  READING RATE GOALS

In 180 Days , Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle recommend having students set their own reading goals based on their reading rates. To do this, have students read for ten minutes. They should record the page they begin on and the page they end on. With that number, they will multiply by 6 to find the number of pages they can read per hour. Then, students should set a goal for the number of pages they want to read in a week.

Gallagher and Kittle suggest teachers could grade students upon whether or not they meet their self-determined goal, but my own preference is to avoid grading with independent reading as much as possible. There have been plenty of times I haven’t met my own goals for finishing a book or reading as much as I should have in a month, and I’ve needed to give myself some grace.

Of course, text complexity plays a role in students’ reading rates, and they need to be taught to set goals that are appropriate for the text they are reading. Students can also set goals for engagement, environment, stamina, and variety of reading.

8:  FIRST PAGE SNEAK PEAKS

Hooking students on good books is the first step toward a thriving independent reading program. Over the years, I’ve noticed the most engaging books often have high-interest first pages.

So…let’s take advantage of some sneak peaks! Either with physical books or digitally, have students read the first page, record their thoughts, share their thinking with a small group.

This activity is not necessarily an alternative to a reading log, but it is excellent for building our “to read” lists and promoting a positive reading culture.

9:  VIEWING PARTIES

Viewing parties have recently become popular because they enable groups of people to watch videos together even when they’re apart. When it comes to independent reading, why not host trailer viewing parties? Students can enjoy the trailers as they sit in our classrooms, or they can watch remotely.

Viewing parties are yet another way to share amazing book recommendations with others. Students can recommend book trailers they think their peers would enjoy, and teachers can generate book trailer lists based on weekly or monthly themes.

Why not host monthly viewing parties as a way to recap First Chapter Friday books (here’s a list from a friend !) you have previewed or other excerpts you’ve shared? They’re a friendly reminder that those books are still available for the reading!

Get new books on students’ radar by finding authors who are reading excerpts from their own books. Or, invite authors on Twitter like Jennifer Nielson to host a virtual book reading or Q and A with your class.

10:  GENRE EXPOSURE

I first began introducing literary genres slowly throughout the year when I read The Book Whisperer years ago. Over time, I saw the value of this approach. While older students generally already have a specific taste for certain genres, exposing them to a variety of them throughout the year helped students to expand their palettes.

Some specific ideas…

Introduce new genres with a brief set of notes. ( You can find mine here .) Discuss common characteristics of that genre. Read excerpts from those genres…first pages, first chapters, high-interest passages, and back covers. You can also hold a genre sorting activity to get more books in students’ hands.

11:  COLLECTIVE READING WALLS

After students finish a book, have them fill out a book spine and add it to your classroom decor! This simple activity gives both teachers and students a visual for community reading volume. The trickiest part of using the book spine strategy is remembering to have students fill them out! So, I recommend building in a regular space for this to happen.

Choose a day of the week, and write it into your lesson plans for that day! On a bi-weekly or monthly basis, give students 5 to 10 minutes to complete their book spines in class and add them to the wall if you desire.

12:  READING LADDERS

Reading ladders are my absolute favorite alternative to the reading log! They still allow space for students to record what they’ve read. But they feel less intrusive. Plus, reading ladders are convenient for discussing book diet, reading volume, and reading identity.

With a reading ladder, you start with a bookshelf. Then, choose how you want to label each shelf. I often choose to label shelves with words like “just right,” “entertaining,” “challenging,” “easy,” and “frustrating.” This labeling system helps readers to identify the complexity of books they are reading. We always discuss how it’s okay to read a picture book that is easy. And, it’s okay to read a classic that is challenging! The key is to know what you are reading and why.

Here are my my print and digital reading ladders.

13:  READING DISPLAYS

Another way we can make reading a visible part of our classrooms is through bookish displays. It’s hard for students to forget about reading when they are surrounded by high-interest novels! Reading displays are a non-invasive way to track collective reading.

Display novels you want to draw attention to at the front of your classroom or face-out on your library shelves. Consider having students contribute to a class bulletin board. Here are some bookish bulletin board ideas I’ve created using social media concepts.

14:  READING CHALLENGES

Engage readers with challenges to get them reading more often! Try challenges with unexpected twists. Read under a homemade fort, in a hammock, or on vacation. Expand your genre diet by dipping your toes into something new. Recommend books to a friend or read something recommended by a coach!

Format reading challenges into a tic-tac-toe choice board or BINGO board and have them submit their titles whenever they finish a certain number of novels.

You can also work with students to create individual or whole-class challenges to read a certain number of pages each week or month. Students can fill out a simple Google Form at the end of the time period to indicate how many pages they read.

15:  READING JOURNALS

After reading, we can ask students to write about what they’ve read. Connecting reading and writing is a healthy habit that encourages reflection and creativity. When students see literature from an author’s point of view or when they approach their own writing to apply the literature techniques they’ve analyzed, students are empowered!

Reading journals (whether recorded digitally or in a reader’s notebook) are one way to build in standards-aligned accountability. We can hit both reading and writing standards! Here are two sets of writing journals you can use to get started with journaling about reading:  Set 1 and Set 2 .

Want to prioritize the questions but cut the writing? Readers naturally discuss what they are reading with others! Promote a book club type culture ( even when students are all reading different books! ) by keeping high-interest discussion prompts or more basic comprehension-style questions handy.

The KEY:   Every good idea is only good in moderation.

As with reading logs, any and all of these tools could be used in a way that negatively impacts our readers…including using them too often or treating them as “I gotchas.” It’s ongoing work and reflection to identify whether what we are asking of students is drawing them closer to reading and further on their reading journeys or whether it is doing the opposite.

If we really want to know whether our students are reading, all we need it do is watch them. Are they devouring books? Sharing their favorite parts? Carrying books with them? Flipping pages with eyes tracking during independent reading time? These are authentic indications of reading. Best of all, they don’t add anything to our plates, and they won’t turn our readers away from books.

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Are you a learner at A2 English level (pre-intermediate) ? This section offers reading practice to help you understand simple texts and find specific information in everyday material. Texts include emails, invitations, personal messages, tips, notices and signs.

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Read an infographic about forgetting to practise and improve your reading skills.

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Read an email invitation to a job interview to practise and improve your reading skills. 

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Read two adverts for corporate venues to practise and improve your reading skills.

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English course prospectus

Read the prospectuses for two different English courses to practise and improve your reading skills.

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Professional profile summaries

Read two professional profile summaries to practise and improve your reading skills.

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Study skills tips

Read the study skills tips to practise and improve your reading skills. You'll learn some great study tips at the same time!

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Our online English classes feature lots of useful learning materials and activities to help you develop your reading skills with confidence in a safe and inclusive learning environment.

Practise reading with your classmates in live group classes, get reading support from a personal tutor in one-to-one lessons or practise reading by yourself at your own speed with a self-study course.

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Tools to Boost Students’ Reading Stamina

Try these strategies to help your students sustain their focus on reading for longer periods of time, and drive comprehension in the process.

Getting students to read independently for long periods of time has never been easy. Now, with devices designed to sap their attention sitting in their pockets, the challenge has become even greater. 

A new survey by Ed Week found that more than half of teachers in grades 3-8 report their students’ reading stamina has “declined precipitously” in recent years. The findings line up with a 2014 meta-analysis, which concluded that for many U.S. students, the stamina required to sustain their attention during independent reading and “interact with texts in a meaningful manner” is waning. 

While some argue students should be developing their reading stamina at home—and teachers should be using their valuable class time on other priorities—the best-selling author and former educator Doug Lemov told Ed Week that kids need consistent practice in school to sharpen these muscles. “Should there be reading at home? Yeah, probably," he conceded, "but we should also read consistently in class, because that’s when I can wire their habits for sustained attention.” 

When we turned to ask educators in our audience how they go about improving students’ reading stamina, many agreed with Lemov, saying that step one is building up the amount of daily independent reading time students receive.

As you build up students’ stamina, consider trying out some of the following approaches to ensure you’re setting students up for success—and that they’re getting the most out of the texts they’re reading. 

A Little Experiment to Surface Distractions 

To improve students’ attention spans, try calling their, well… attention to the issue. Neurologist, researcher, and classroom teacher Judy Willis writes that this could look like a self-awareness activity that helps students shatter the myth of multitasking and makes it clear just how much of their time and attention distractions consume.

First, ask students to make a list of all the potential distractions that come up for them as they read. These will likely include: cell phones, the internet, TV, and video games. Next, assign students a task to complete—like reading 10 or 15 pages of a novel—and ask them to do it one night with their main distractions available to them, and another night when their distractions are not available. 

Students can then compare and contrast how much time it takes them to complete the task in each instance, and bring the differences they notice to class for a larger discussion. “After gathering and evaluating their data, students will no doubt find evidence showing which multitasking distractions waste time and diminish success,” says Willis. “Most kids believe they can have it all by multitasking. The fallacy is that when combining these activities with homework, they are getting less done, not more.” 

The activity can also be used as justification for keeping your classroom clear of similar distractions, and for drilling down on the importance of rebuilding your students' attention span through frequent periods of sustained reading time. 

Incremental Practice

Knowing you have to assign students more independent reading time is one thing, but doing it should be less like flipping a switch and more like developing a new exercise routine, writes educator Marile Mariana Stoneburg on Facebook . Stoneburg said that it’s important to “start small, start easy” and “alternate between increasing rigor and increasing time.” 

Seventh grade teacher Katherine Marie wrote that she starts with 10 minutes of independent reading time, then builds up to 20 and eventually 30 minutes. Providing students with books they’re interested in, or the ability to choose what they read at times, goes a long way toward building—and solidifying—their endurance, according to Marie . “They build their reading stamina with books they choose and love,” she said. “Then when they have to dive into harder texts they don't get to choose, that built up stamina is there to fall back on!”

Educator Megan Reznicek Kersey adds that fun games help motivate her students to read for longer periods. Kersey’s seventh grade ELA students play “Game of Quotes,” during which they engage in silent reading—“start with a few minutes, build up to 20”—and then answer silly questions with lines from the book they’ve been reading. 

Questions include: “What’s the last thing a bug says before hitting the windshield?” or “What's something written on a note you wouldn’t want your teacher to confiscate?” Students must search through the pages they’ve just read to find “funny, relevant” responses. Knowing they’ll have to go on this hunt, Kersey said, incentivizes them to read more: “The more they've read, the more they have to choose from.” 

Chunk Material into Manageable Bites 

Assigning students 20 minutes of classroom reading without building up their stamina will likely result in a good deal of closed eyes and (clandestine) cell phone scrolling. 

Lemov told Ed Week that teachers can quickly build up to 20 or more minutes of uninterrupted reading time by breaking the time into smaller, consecutive tasks: Teacher read-alouds, student read-alouds in pairs, and silent reading on the same shared text, for example. 

This “reading-cycle” might look like teachers reading the first few paragraphs of a text, students around the room taking on a few paragraphs of their own outloud, and a final period where students finish reading for a set time silently. At the end, Lemov assigns a brief period of writing and or discussion of the text. “It’s a sustained section of text, and we are practicing sustaining attention on it, with no break, for 20 minutes,” he told Ed Week .  

High school social studies teacher Monique Anne says she takes a similar approach by applying the jigsaw method to sections of longer non-fiction texts. For example: Try asking students to take on smaller sections of a text (say, a few paragraphs) and work collaboratively to understand and explain its meaning to peers in a larger discussion about the text’s substance. 

Anne told Edutopia that after using this strategy with students she transitions from shorter texts to whole texts in class, on their own: “they can hang in there for about 25-30 minutes,” she wrote, “I’m calling it a win!” 

Breathing Exercises 

One educator who teaches language learners recommended trying out breathing practice and similar mindfulness exercises before sustained reading practice, which can “release stress and increase concentration.” 

Aukeem Ballard, a dean of students and former history teacher in California, said he incorporated mindfulness activities into each of his classrooms at least once a week. Even as little as five minutes, he told Edutopia, helped students boost working memory and tune out distractions—benefits that bode well for improved reading stamina. 

A simple activity Ballard used was asking students to put their feet flat on the ground, close their eyes, and take deep breaths—in and out. “I guide students to follow where the air from their breath goes,” Ballard said. “While students are focusing on their breath, I invite them to reflect.” This reflection could be on the reading they’re about to engage in, a theme they’ve been discussing in class, or anything else. 

Ballard invites students to spend another minute “having everyone, including myself, focus on how we’re showing up to the space.” Some students, Ballard said, might show up angry to class, or stressed because of their school work. “We always make sure to validate how we are showing up without judgment toward ourselves.” 

To help students take the exercise seriously, Ballard found it useful to point students toward a list of research-backed benefits to mindfulness activities, including improved cognitive flexibility, reduced emotional reactivity, and reduced rumination on unwanted thoughts. “It is not strictly meditation, but rather a practice in supporting your mind to take care of yourself,” Ballard told students. 

Check for Understanding

To ensure students are grasping the meaning of what they're reading while they’re building up their stamina—and not just staring at words on the page—quick checks for understanding can be useful. 

Literacy expert and researcher Timothy Shanahan told Ed Week that short quizzes right after a sustained period of reading on a shared text can help teachers gauge how well students were able to make sense of the passages, and provide clues about further supports teachers might need to add, such as vocabulary review or discussions about narrative structure or sequencing. “If you have a six-page article about something in the Civil War, for instance, have them read the six pages and then instead of doing some activity right away, quiz them—find out how well they did,” Shanahan told Ed Week . 

Do the quiz results show that they have “a better understanding about what happened earlier in the article?” Did their comprehension trail off as they continued to interact with the text? “Maybe they weren’t reading as carefully or maybe they didn’t know how to use that information and the second part just got harder,” Shanahan said. 

A short quiz could include a few basic questions about plot, characters, key details, or dates, for example, and they don’t have to be graded. 

High school history teacher Benjamin Barbour told Edutopia that he likes to mix-in short written assessments to check for understanding, even as short as a sentence or two. “When students decipher concepts simply and succinctly, they’re primed to contemplate what they read at a deeper level,” Barbour said. “Summarizing, for instance, obliges them to read the text several times, identify key concepts and main points, and decode complex passages.” 

His insights line up with a body of research which finds that when students summarize what they’ve just read—in their own words, and without the help of a text at their side—it helps them better integrate new information into their existing knowledge base.

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5 solar eclipse activities to do with children

From building an eclipse viewer to using the sun to pop balloons, here's a child-friendly activity guide for April's eclipse

By Abigail Beall

6 April 2024

There are plenty of fun eclipse activities to do with kids

Edwin Remsberg/Alamy

If you are planning to enjoy the total solar eclipse on 8 April with your children, here are a few activities you can do with them before and during the eclipse, to help them understand what causes a solar eclipse and get the most out of the experience.

1. Build an eclipse viewer

On the days leading up to the eclipse, you and your children can get excited about the big event by building an eclipse viewer . There are a few ways to do this – the first of which is a simple pinhole camera using two pieces of paper. Cut a hole in one piece of paper and cover it with aluminium foil, then poke a small hole in the foil. On the day of the eclipse, hold the paper up to let the sun beam through the hole and it will project a version of the eclipse onto a second piece of paper you place on the ground.

A slightly more complicated version involves a cereal or shoe box, placing paper at one end and cutting two holes in the other end. Over one of the two holes, you place some tin foil and, again, pierce it so that the sunlight can get through. More details on how to make both versions here .

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On 8 April a total solar eclipse will pass over Mexico, the US and Canada. Our special series is covering everything you need to know, from how and when to see it to some of the weirdest eclipse experiences in history.

2. Build a solar eclipse model

Another activity that can be done ahead of the eclipse is building, or acting out, a model of the sun, moon and Earth to understand what a solar eclipse is . To build it, all you need is three sticks and three balls to place on top of the sticks. You can paint them or colour them in so that they resemble the sun, moon and Earth. Make sure the sun is bigger than the moon. Then, you can show your kids what an eclipse is by placing the sun in the centre, and moving Earth around the sun and the moon around Earth. When the three line up, with the moon in between the sun and Earth, we get a solar eclipse. When the moon is on the other side of Earth from the sun, we get lunar eclipses.

Your kids can also act out a solar eclipse. Give one of them a torch or flashlight, making them act as the sun, and ask them to shine the torch on a wall. The other, who is the moon, can move around until they block the torch light. They can both play around with moving forwards and backwards, to show why the distances between the moon, Earth and sun matter when it comes to eclipses.

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3. Pop a balloon using sunlight

This is something that can be done on any sunny day. But on the day you are waiting for the total eclipse, you can show your kids how to use the power of sunlight to pop a balloon. You need a balloon and a magnifying glass for this activity. Blow up the balloon and then hold the magnifying glass up so that it magnifies the sunlight onto the balloon. Wait for a few minutes and, eventually, the balloon will pop. You can also make this more exciting by blowing up a white balloon inside a black one, and doing the same trick. The black balloon should pop, leaving the white balloon intact inside. You can use this to explain how black surfaces absorb sunlight, while light surfaces reflect them.

4. Play with shadows

On the day of the eclipse, while you are waiting for totality, the partial eclipse phase will last a few hours. You and your kids can get excited about the eclipse by noticing how shadows change, and playing around with this. If you have a tree nearby, look at the shadows it casts on the ground throughout the eclipse and you will see that they start to look like a sun with a bite taken out of it. This also works by crossing your fingers over each other and casting shadows on the ground. Another way to show the eclipse through shadows is using a colander, or anything with small holes in it. As the eclipse progresses, the shadows cast will start to take on the shape of the eclipse. You can punch a series of holes in a piece of paper to spell out a word or your kids’ names in these crescent shapes.

5. Draw shadows

This is another activity that can be done in the hours leading up to and after totality, again making the most of the interesting shadows created by a partially eclipsed sun. You can lay a big white piece of paper or sheet on the ground, and ask your kids to draw the shadows cast by different objects. If you do this at the start of the partial phase, and again closer to totality, they will be able to see how these shadows change as the eclipse progresses. You should notice that, in the lead-up to totality, shadows become much clearer as the amount of ambient light is reduced.

• solar eclipse 2024

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