Teaching Reading: Purposes, Principles, and Activities

taken from: www.bookriot.com

PURPOSES

1. Extensive – reading for pleasure, refers to reading which students do often, away from the classroom – novels, web pages, newspapers, magazines, students should choose what they want to read, be encouraged to read by the teacher, share their reading experiences

2. Intensive – reading texts, study activities, look for meaning, grammar, and vocabulary. (SCAN – find a bit of information – name, phone number, small detail vs SKIM – get a general idea of what the article is about, read for detailed comprehension)

PRINCIPLES

1. Encourage students to read as often and as much as possible.
2. Students need to be engaged with what they are reading.
3. Encourage students to respond to the content of a text (and explore their feelings about it), not just concentrate on its construction.
4. Prediction is a major factor in reading. (book covers, photographs, headlines, web page banner) 
5. Match the task to the topic when using intensive reading texts – the activity is important!
   *For preparation – brainstorm, discuss visuals, headlines, phrases, students predict;
   *For Skimming – identify main ideas, match subtitles with paragraphs, create titles or headlines;
   *For Scanning – pre-set questions, chart filling, lists of elements for students to find;  
   *For intensive – vocabulary, answer detailed questions, answer inferential questions.
6. Exploit reading texts to the fullest extent … activities, feedback, further tasks!

ACTIVITIES

1. Guided reading – teacher supports students to become better readers. The teacher provides support for small groups of readers as they learn to use various reading strategies (context clues, letter and sound relationships, word structure, and so forth). How?

    a. Students should be divided into small groups (4-6 students). The younger the student, the
        smaller the group.
    b. Guided reading lessons are to be about 15-20 minutes in duration.
    c. Appropriately leveled reading materials must be selected for the group and each student should
        have his/her own copy of the literature.
    d. Pre-Reading: The teacher establishes a purpose for reading through making predictions,
        vocabulary introduction, or discussing ideas that will provide the readers with the background
        knowledge required for the text.   
    e. Reading: The teacher observes the students as they read the text softly or silently to themselves,
        provides guidance and coaching to individuals based on her/his observations by providing
        prompts, asking questions, and encouraging attempts at reading strategy application.
    f. Post Reading: The teacher asks questions to ensure that the text has been comprehended by the
        readers and praises their efforts. Further, the teacher may observe gaps in strategy application
        and address these gaps following the reading in a mini-lesson format.

2. Jigsaw reading – students read different texts and share what they have found out.

3. Reading puzzles – reassembling text, out of sequence stories or dialogs, mix up two stories.

4. Newspapers – match articles with headlines or pictures, reading for opinion, read ads, reply to the letters written to the editor.

5. Fishbowl fun – students write questions about a story they’ve read on a small slip of paper, drop it in a bowl, let students fish for questions from the bowl and attempt to answer them.

6. Following instructions – put instructions in the right order, follow recipes.

7. Poetry – reassemble poems, find similarities and differences in poems, leave blanks in poems for students to fill in
 
8. Play extracts – read and act – thinking about how lines are said, concentrating on stress, intonation, speed
 
9. Predicting from words and pictures – given a number of words, students predict what the story tells then compare with the original text or given phrases – write the story or given pictures … do the same.
 
10. Different responses – answer comprehension questions, T/F, find words, put information into graphs, tables, diagrams, describe the people in the text, guess the endings of stories
 
11. Reading Activities Center - song and poetry cards, big books, other book type reading materials are at a centre so that students may browse and read as time permits.
 
12. Write the Room - students copy any print they see anywhere in the room, even if they can't read everything they write. Beginning writers draw pictures to help them remember the words.
 
13. Read the Room - reading anything that is posted in the room
 
14. Rainbow Spelling - Post the week's spelling words on a half sheet of chart paper, students write them 3 times each with colored pencils
 
15. Spelling Activity Center - using their word lists create tongues twisters, sentences, stories, word scrambles
 
16. Stamp a Word - take a tub with rubber alphabet stamps, stamp pads, and large sheets of paper to a work area and stamp any words they want to stamp (use potatoes as the stamp)
 
17. Book Bins - independent, silent, or small group reading
 
18. Star Authors - A place to read student created work
 
19. Listening Centers - Record the books you read to the class. Have parents help out - have students record for others. How nice to hear your friend, mom, dad, sister or brother read a story at center time!
 
20. Word Wall – place a list of common words on a wall, each week add vocabulary or have students add words
 
21. Making Words Centers - Throughout the week students can go up to a pocket chart when they have a few minutes and try to make words out of the scrambled Mystery Word. On Fridays - students share all of the words that they came up with and decode the mystery word. It's a great activity for your average and high students.
 
22. Bookmaking Center -place numerous materials in a basket (writing utensils, colored pens, markers, crayons, stickers, etc.), a tablet of story paper and a stapler. Encourage students to make books about topics that interest them.
 
23. Overhead Journals - Have one student write their journal entry on the overhead. The student reads the journal and gives the class permission to edit the entry. The student gets to correct the errors and the class rereads it out loud.
 
24. Puzzle Center - Find copies of appropriate word searches, laminate them, and let the students write on them with washable markers. When done, they use towels to clean them off.
 
25. Making Greeting Cards - have samples of greeting card verses, titles, etc - cut them up for students to refer to for ideas. Add anything from yarn, wiggly eyes, letter and picture stencils, etc....Encourage students to make cards for their family, teachers around the building, and students within the room.
 
26. Game Center - think word games - Scrabble, Story Scramble, Silly Sentences (cards)
 
27. Computer Center - reading of living books or student created e-books
 
28. Message Centers/Student Post Office - for writing to each other on special occasions
 
29. Dramatic Play – have students act out very simple plays - need costumes & props, give students mood cards (jealousy, silliness, fear) and have them make up a short skit or play of their own
 
30. Word Hunt - kids get a letter or digraph and see how many words they can find that start with or contain it.
 
31. Browsing Box - Take interesting writing and place in a box. Have a special privilege for a student to choose from the box and read to the entire class.
 
32. Literature Circle - A group of students will read a literature selection together and discuss their favourite part. Once they are comfortable with this process, they can map the story on large chart paper, make puppets and put on a play for the class, etc. This allows children to own literature.
 
33. Buddy Reading - The students can read with a partner, this can be familiar or unfamiliar texts. Then they work with their buddy to draw or write about their favourite part.  

34. Journal Writing - Give students content related pictures or journal prompts.
 
35. Absurd Sentences – read absurd sentences to students and have them make the corrections (The room was hot, so Jim decided to open a football. For our vacation we drove across the country in a wastebasket.)
 
36. Hidden clues – read sentences and find the hidden clues or inferences (Mr. Dobbs took the rake from the cellar and walked out to the lawn. What time of year was this? John came in from the barn and took off his dirty chaps. Where does John live?
 
37. Reactions – read sentences and have students write down how they would feel if this happened to them. (Tony spent hours building a snowman on the front lawn. When he went inside, a big branch broke and fell on the snowman, smashing it to pieces.)
 
38. Comics – cut off the last frame in a cartoon, have students draw or write to complete what they think happened
 
39. What if it happened?– read sentences to students and have them decide how they would feel …. e.g., If they heard a strange sound in the night I ... or If I received something I wanted for my birthday or If I tried and tried to do something and couldn’t.
 
40. Zodiac signs – have students read their horoscope, discuss their qualities and characteristics, decide on the sign of a character in the book you are reading, surmise about others.