4 Ways to Make Reading Lessons

More Interactive

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.

1) SUMMARIZE
This method incorporates many
skills: reading, listening, speaking,
vocabulary, and writing. Students
must thoroughly analyze and
understand a section of the reading,
and only by working together can
they understand the entire reading.

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 the
information from their paragraph in their own words.
Have students silently read through their paragraphs.
If you want, get them to write out their summaries, but I usually prefer to
have them give an oral, and more natural, summary.
To help them and their classmates understand the reading well, have each
student (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; this
will ensure that theyve truly understood the word.
Once all the students are finished their reading and vocabulary, have each
student (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 and
correct them before you let the students see the entire reading.

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.

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. It
helps to tell them which sentence is first.
Encourage them to tell each other why they think a
particular sentence comes next.
Circle through the groups, pointing out sentences that
are 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 or
pair that finishes first.

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 class
activity.

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, if
desired).
Alternatively, read the story out loud twice in a row, and have
students try to answer questions in pairs before correcting in order to
incorporate some speaking. To make it even more communicative,
higher-level students can pair up and each read half the story aloud to
the other, then try to answer the questions together. If students are
reading out loud, you can circulate and correct their pronunciation as
needed, or note some common pronunciation errors to go over as a
class at the end of the activity.

4) JIGSAW

Jigsaw is a cooperative learning strategy that

enables each student of a "home" group to specialize in
one aspect of a topic (for example, one group studies
habitats of rainforest animals, another group studies
predators of rainforest animals). Students meet with
members from other groups who are assigned the same
aspect, 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 and
when they work together as a whole, they create the
complete jigsaw puzzle.

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.
o Create "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.
o Provide key questions to help the "expert groups" gather information
in their particular area.

o
o Provide materials and resources necessary for all students
to learn about their topics and become "experts."
Note: It is important that the reading material assigned is at
appropriate instructional levels (9095% reading accuracy).
oDiscuss the rules for reconvening into "home groups" and
provide 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 are
responsible to learn all content from one another.

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr324.s
html
http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/jigsaw
http://www.esllibrary.com/blog/2012/05/17/reading-lessonsinteractive
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/jigsawreading
http://www.jigsaw.org
http://www.esljigsaws.com/jigsaw-method/whatis-a-jigsaw