4 ways to make reading lessons more interactive

8/10/2019 4 Ways to Make Reading Lessons More Interactive

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4 Ways to Make Reading Lessons

More Interactive


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How do you deal with reading lessons in

your ESL classroom?

Do you have your students read silently in class?

Do you assign the reading for homework?

Many of the ESL-Library lessons have a reading

component to them.

How can teachers make reading lessons more interactive,

communicative, and fun?I want to share four methods that have always

worked well for me.


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1) SUMMARIZE

This method incorporates manyskills: reading, listening, speaking,

vocabulary, and writing. Students

must thoroughly analyze and

understand a section of the reading,

and only by working together canthey understand the entire reading.


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Instructions:First, assign a paragraph of the reading to each student. If you have a lot of

students, assign the paragraph to a pair of students instead.

Explain that each student (or pair) will be responsible for relating theinformation from their paragraphin their own words.

Have students silently read through their paragraphs.

If you want, get them to write out their summaries, but I usually prefer tohave them give an oral, and more natural, summary.

To help them and their classmates understand the reading well, have eachstudent (or pair) choose 3-5 vocabulary words that they are unfamiliar with.

Have each student (or pair) define their vocabulary words (via a dictionary:English-to-English is best) and write out each definition in their own words.

Get each student to write down an example sentence for each word; thiswill ensure that theyve truly understood the word.

Once all the students are finished their reading and vocabulary, have eachstudent (or pair) present their vocabulary and their summaries (in the order

of the original reading).

Then, in pairs or as a class, answer the comprehension questions andcorrect them before you let the students see the entire reading.


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2) CUT UP & REARRANGE

This works best for short readings or

dialogues. This method ensures that

students think very carefully about

the meaning of each sentence.


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Instructions:

Divide students into small groups or pairs.Hand out a cut-up version of the story or dialogue.

Have students try to arrange the sentences in order. Ithelps to tell them which sentence is first.

Encourage them to tell each other whythey think aparticular sentence comes next.

Circle through the groups, pointing out sentences thatare not in the correct position. (It helps if you bring the

original around with you for easy reference.)

To make it fun, you could have a prize for the team orpair that finishes first.


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3) READ OUT LOUD

This technique easily turns a reading

exercise into a listening exercise for a

bit of variety. Students listen to you,

the teacher, read aloud as a classactivity.


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Instructions:

First, read through the comprehension questions as a class.Read the story out loud.

Give students a few minutes to answer what questions they can.

Read the story out loud a second time.

Give students a bit more time to answer the questions. Then correct

them as a class (and hand out the reading for reference or self-study, ifdesired).

Alternatively, read the story out loud twice in a row, and havestudents try to answer questions in pairs before correcting in order toincorporate some speaking. To make it even more communicative,

higher-level students can pair up and each read half the story aloud tothe other, then try to answer the questions together. If students arereading out loud, you can circulate and correct their pronunciation asneeded, or note some common pronunciation errors to go over as aclass at the end of the activity.


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4) JIGSAW

Jigsaw is a cooperative learning strategy thatenables each student of a "home" group to specialize inone aspect of a topic (for example, one group studieshabitats of rainforest animals, another group studies

predators of rainforest animals). Students meet withmembers from other groups who are assigned the sameaspect, and after mastering the material, return to the"home" group and teach the material to their group

members. With this strategy, each student in the"home" group serves as a piece of the topic's puzzle andwhen they work together as a whole, they create thecomplete jigsaw puzzle.


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How to use jigsaw?

o Introduce the strategy and the topic to be studied.

o Assign each student to a "home group" of 3-5 students who reflect a

range of reading abilities.

o Determine a set of reading selections and assign one selection to

each student.

oCreate "expert groups" that consist of students across "home groups"

who will read the same selection.

o Give all students a framework for managing their time on the

various parts of the jigsaw task.

oProvide key questions to help the "expert groups" gather information

in their particular area.


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o

o

Provide materials and resources necessary for all studentsto learn about their topics and become "experts."

Note:It is important that the reading material assigned is atappropriate instructional levels (9095% reading accuracy).

oDiscuss the rules for reconvening into "home groups" andprovide guidelines as each "expert" reports the information

learned.

oPrepare a summary chart or graphic organizer for each"home group" as a guide for organizing the experts'

information report.

oRemind students that "home group" members areresponsible to learn all content from one another.


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http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr324.s

htmlhttp://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/jigsaw

http://www.esl-

library.com/blog/2012/05/17/reading-lessons-

interactive

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/jigsaw-

reading

http://www.jigsaw.orghttp://www.esljigsaws.com/jigsaw-method/what-

is-a-jigsaw
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr324.shtmlhttp://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr324.shtmlhttp://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/jigsawhttp://www.esl-library.com/blog/2012/05/17/reading-lessons-interactivehttp://www.esl-library.com/blog/2012/05/17/reading-lessons-interactivehttp://www.esl-library.com/blog/2012/05/17/reading-lessons-interactivehttp://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/jigsaw-readinghttp://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/jigsaw-readinghttp://www.jigsaw.org/http://www.esljigsaws.com/jigsaw-method/what-is-a-jigsawhttp://www.esljigsaws.com/jigsaw-method/what-is-a-jigsawhttp://www.esljigsaws.com/jigsaw-method/what-is-a-jigsawhttp://www.esljigsaws.com/jigsaw-method/what-is-a-jigsawhttp://www.esljigsaws.com/jigsaw-method/what-is-a-jigsawhttp://www.esljigsaws.com/jigsaw-method/what-is-a-jigsawhttp://www.esljigsaws.com/jigsaw-method/what-is-a-jigsawhttp://www.esljigsaws.com/jigsaw-method/what-is-a-jigsawhttp://www.esljigsaws.com/jigsaw-method/what-is-a-jigsawhttp://www.esljigsaws.com/jigsaw-method/what-is-a-jigsawhttp://www.esljigsaws.com/jigsaw-method/what-is-a-jigsawhttp://www.jigsaw.org/http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/jigsaw-readinghttp://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/jigsaw-readinghttp://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/jigsaw-readinghttp://www.esl-library.com/blog/2012/05/17/reading-lessons-interactivehttp://www.esl-library.com/blog/2012/05/17/reading-lessons-interactivehttp://www.esl-library.com/blog/2012/05/17/reading-lessons-interactivehttp://www.esl-library.com/blog/2012/05/17/reading-lessons-interactivehttp://www.esl-library.com/blog/2012/05/17/reading-lessons-interactivehttp://www.esl-library.com/blog/2012/05/17/reading-lessons-interactivehttp://www.esl-library.com/blog/2012/05/17/reading-lessons-interactivehttp://www.esl-library.com/blog/2012/05/17/reading-lessons-interactivehttp://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/jigsawhttp://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr324.shtmlhttp://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr324.shtml

4 ways to make reading lessons more interactive

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