50 reading activities for English class

hello everyone i'm eric from etiquette and today i'm going to share 50 reading activities that you can use in your classroom reading is an essential skill that every person should learn but when it comes to teaching a lot of educators feel like this is something students should do on their own that there's not really a lot they can do apart from handing out comprehension sheets but actually reading should not be done in isolation reading should be used and integrated with other skills such as comprehension speaking and creative use of the language to form a more complete individual when you use other activities with reading you will help your students evolve into stronger individuals with a wider set of skills [Music] okay back to reading so basically there are two types of reading reading for fluency and reading for comprehension when students are reading for fluency they should do it out loud so the teacher can fix any pronunciation errors that they make when reading for comprehension they should do it alone or in a small group so that they can actually understand the content that they're going through reading happens in three phases pre-reading where the teacher prepares the students for the story while reading reading with others and checking for understanding during the lesson and post reading where they reflect on what they have read and to see if they understood it all before you start make sure to pick the right story the length should be suitable for your students and the target language should be relevant and interesting make sure that it you can also incorporate other activities or materials into the lesson to make it more interesting okay let's jump into the 50 activities you can use with your classroom when reading let's start with the first one pre-reading number one most stories have a picture or photo above the text ask your students what they think of it ask them questions about the photo number two elicit vocabulary what can students expect in the text it is useful to pre-teach some keywords that they will find throughout the story number three author and title what can students predict will happen in the story if they look at the author and the title of the story what can they imagine going forward it'll be fun to go through the class and just ask him what do you think is going to happen what do you expect what do you think this author will try and tell us in this story number four this one is broken down into three parts parts i like to call the tarantino the preview and the spoiler with the tarantino you read the last part of the text and then you ask students to predict what will happen throughout the beginning and the middle of it with the preview you skim the first paragraph and get a feel for what will happen for the rest of the book and the spoiler scan the text for any words or phrases that might pop up and then afterwards ask the students what they can expect will happen in this story the next phase while reading number five reading aloud now this isn't just students reading aloud basically you break the class up into teams and one team stands up and they have to read if it's lower level students they can read words and if it's more intermediate to advanced students they can read sentences as soon as a student makes a mistake they that group has to sit down and the other group stands up the students get super competitive over this because they try and stand up as long as possible and they really focus on getting it right number six reading race pair the students up and let them line up against the wall on the other side of the class you're going to paste strips of text from the story or if it's lower level students just words then you give them a list of questions the students have to alternate by running back and forth asking a question running forward looking it up and then running back and giving their answer to their partner the first team done wins number seven whisper race put the students into groups and let them line up at the back a student reads a text and then whispers the sentence to their friend in front and they send it all the way to the front where the student has to write it on the board i feel it's better when you let the students organize themselves who will be the writer who will be the first one to read and who sits in between this is a really fun game and by giving them the power to choose who sits where gives them a sense of authority and ownership of the activity number eight role play if the class is too large break it into groups then write down all the characters and the narrator on the board and tell the students that each student will be one of those characters or the narrator tell them that they have to make sure that everybody understands what happens in the story because you will ask them questions afterwards they will make sure that the whole group understands what happens and it will also improve their comprehension of the story number nine blank out words erase certain words in the text and students have to guess what the word is number ten pieces cut up the text into different pieces you can also use different stories so that there are multiple stories running around cut it up tell the students to read it and then they have to go around the class and reassemble their story this is a fun way for the students to read the story and also to interact with their classmates number 11 this is similar to number 10 where you cut out paragraphs or sentences and you tell students to rearrange it to form the complete story this can be done individually though number 12 add misspelled words i used to enjoy doing this as a teacher i would make a mistake on the board and i would wait for my students to correct me it had two benefits to it number one they they would see that a teacher can also do a mistake and also they would take part in the class and they would stand up for something they believed in so what you do is you intentionally add misspelled words to the text and you ask students to circle them as you read through it number 13 stop before the end so read your book or text and then before you get to the ending tell the students to close their books or to turn over their papers now they have to predict what will happen for the ending you can also put them into groups where they brainstorm together and then tell the class what they think will happen this is great for books like holes where you know there are a lot of twists and turns post reading here's where most of the activities come in because usually at the end of the text we're going to check the students comprehension so there are many activities that we can do here number 14 discussion about the text this is where your comprehension questions come in students can quiz each other ask the students to create 10 questions that they can ask their partner number 15 summarize the story ask students to retell the story by paraphrasing you can also summarize the main idea of each paragraph 16. real life share a story or situation from your own life with the student that is similar to the text students can also compare a movie or a book that they have done that is similar to the story that makes it more real to the students because they can connect it to their very own lives and things that they see in reality 17 key words ask the students why they think you pre-taught them those keywords during the pre-reading phase what do they mean in the context of the story why are they important 18. play taboo with the keywords students have to explain a word to their group without using it this is a great way for them to put the word into context 19. rewrite the story for kids this is a really fun creative activity where you can make illustrations and actually simplify the message of the story 20. debate pick an issue from the story that students can debate over this should be done in a structured manner otherwise chaos may ensue i'll do a video on how to teach debate a little bit later 21 role play students can play different characters they can role play scenes they can even create their own dialogue for the characters another thing you can do is to interview characters from the book or the story so you have two students together and one is a character from the book and the other person interviews them 22 alternate ending have students write an alternate ending to the book they can also perhaps write a missing part to the book this is really fun because it allows students to be more creative in thinking about the text 23 a eulogy for a character this is a bit dark but it helps students to actually gain extra insight into the characters they can write a eulogy about the character's life and what they did who they were 24. make new sentences students have to look up good or new words from the text and they have to make new sentences using those words 25 fake definitions tell students that they have to write different definitions for some words so you can give them five words and you say okay write different definitions for these difficult words and then the other group has to try and figure out which ones are true and which ones are false 26 new sentences find some irregular verbs and have students write out new sentences in the past form the present form or the future form 27 adjectives find 10 adjectives in the text and ask your students to write down the antonyms or the synonyms they can also act them out and have friends guess what they're acting out 28. timeline or collage this is more creative work you can have students make a timeline of the story or they can build a collage if you have enough time or you want to do something more creative 29 a different story use the same title and tell students to write a different story using the exact same title you can also use it with the characters they have to use the same characters but use it in a different story 31 special moment students pick special moments in the story and they draw a picture on it they can also comment and tell you why this is the most important part of the story to them 32 retell the story from a different point of view they can rewrite or retell the story from another character's point of view or from a third or first person perspective 33 the most list students have to make a list of things that were funny or sad or surprising in the text 34 title each paragraph this will help students think more about what each paragraph means and why writers use them in stories 35 pronouns underline all the pronouns in the story i you we they and then ask students who or what they referred to 36 write a letter students can write a letter to the protagonist or another character in the story and they can share their feelings or give advice 37 draw a story map it's a graphic organizer for students to understand the elements in a story 38. create a poster think of the book as a movie and students have to create a poster for it they have to add all the most important parts of it or some special elements that feature in the book or the story 39 new dialogue have students write and act out new dialogue between the characters never before seen situations that students can create and be more creative and add their own spin to the story [Music] 42 mime words or opposites this is a fun game for students to do especially low-level mid-level or high-level students because it gets them to actually act in class and play the game 43. secret word a student has to pick a word from the text and their partner has to try and guess what the word is it's almost like 20 questions 44 act out scenes from the story they can also act out a lost scene from the story 45. make a dance or a song up about the book or the story 46. pair interview with a partner it's almost like a man on the street interview where students interview their partner about the book what did they think how did they feel about it what did they think about the characters 47 sing the text to a well-known song or nursery rhyme 48 we're almost done now double dangers students have to put two words together that start with the same letter angry adults beautiful beatles something that has to do with the text or the story 49 who said that give students a quote from the book or the story and they have to guess who said it number 50 the last one guys thank you for listening this far i hope you picked up some ideas that you can use in your classroom this last one is really fun re-tell the story students sit in a circle and they have to start telling the story using their own words you can go part by part where they decide where they stop or you as the teacher can tell them right stop next next next and uh students really like this at first they might be nervous and shy but as they get into it and as the creative juices flow they can really enjoy this one okay everyone i really hope you enjoyed these tips please use them in the classroom if you have any ideas or games that you use in your own class related to reading please post them in the comments below remember the one thing that all successful language learners have in common is that they are dedicated readers and it's our job as teachers to inspire them to become lifelong book lovers not all readers are leaders but all leaders are readers the most successful people in the world read every day and we want to inspire our students to do the same if we do our jobs right we will create a generation of open-minded critical thinkers that will take humanity and the world to a higher level so thank you to all the teachers out there making enthusiastic readers of your students okay everyone i'm eric from etiquette thank you so much for watching like and subscribe and i'll see you next time you

Channel: Etacude English Teachers

Views: 168,396

Keywords: reading activities, reading activities for high school, reading activities for high school students, esl reading game, fun reading activities, games to teach reading, esl reading, reading games, reading activity, reading activities for kids, games for reading, esl reading activities, reading game, english reading class, reading class, post reading activities, pre reading activities, english activities, teaching reading, reading day activities for students, esl games

Id: CEFv0Fs_8k8

Length: 18min 16sec (1096 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 06 2019