How to teach reading like a pro
How to teach reading like a pro
How to Teach Reading Like a Pro
Ideas from experienced professionals in the ESL field to help you transform your students from individuals taking an ESL reading class into actual English language readers.
WHAT EXACTLY IS INCLUDED?
230 tips and tricks to give every student the best reading lessons possible
90 «must read» tips for teachers before your next reading lesson
50 ideas for enhancing lessons before, Ideas from experienced professionals in the ESL field to help you transform your students from individuals taking an ESL reading class into actual English language readers.
WHAT EXACTLY IS INCLUDED?
230 tips and tricks to give every student the best reading lessons possible
90 «must read» tips for teachers before your next reading lesson
50 ideas for enhancing lessons before, during and after reading
65 tips for incorporating resources, like comics and poetry, into lessons
This is a 42-page, 3-column PDF e-book with all the information you need to teach reading at a truly experienced, professional level.
INCREASE READING ENJOYMENT & COMPREHENSION, AND REDUCE PROBLEMS LIKE A PRO
Often, individuals who aren’t familiar with the world of teaching ESL think that teaching reading must be simple. They imagine that teaching reading in another language must be like starting with a child. As an ESL professional, you know that it’s a completely different process! ESL students are often at a variety of reading levels in their native language, and they still need books that are on their intellectual level to remain interested, even though their English vocabulary may not be at an advanced level yet. It can become complex to keep them engaged and instill a love of English reading. This book has teacher-tested methods for this complicated and important subject.
How to Teach Reading
This article was co-authored by Soren Rosier, PhD. Soren Rosier is a PhD candidate at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education. He studies how children teach each other and how to train effective peer teachers. Before beginning his PhD, he was a middle school teacher in Oakland, California, and a researcher at SRI International. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University in 2010.
wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. This article received 18 testimonials and 86% of readers who voted found it helpful, earning it our reader-approved status.
This article has been viewed 371,664 times.
Teaching someone how to read is an extremely rewarding experience. Whether you’re teaching your child to read their first book or helping a friend to improve their literacy skills, use the following steps and instructions as a helpful teaching guide.
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\u00a9 2022 wikiHow, Inc. All rights reserved. wikiHow, Inc. is the copyright holder of this image under U.S. and international copyright laws. This image is not licensed under the Creative Commons license applied to text content and some other images posted to the wikiHow website. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc.
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\u00a9 2022 wikiHow, Inc. All rights reserved. wikiHow, Inc. is the copyright holder of this image under U.S. and international copyright laws. This image is not licensed under the Creative Commons license applied to text content and some other images posted to the wikiHow website. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc.
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\u00a9 2022 wikiHow, Inc. All rights reserved. wikiHow, Inc. is the copyright holder of this image under U.S. and international copyright laws. This image is not licensed under the Creative Commons license applied to text content and some other images posted to the wikiHow website. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc.
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How to Teach Reading Like a Pro 2
Get your students on the path to reading like native English speakers. Tips and lesson plans to transition them from struggling readers into students who can tackle reading anything in English.
HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM PART 1?
29 sections jam-packed with thoughts to strengthen your students as readers
115 tips and tricks for the best reading-based activities and lessons
90 ide Get your students on the path to reading like native English speakers. Tips and lesson plans to transition them from struggling readers into students who can tackle reading anything in English.
HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM PART 1?
29 sections jam-packed with thoughts to strengthen your students as readers
115 tips and tricks for the best reading-based activities and lessons
90 ideas you must know to set up the best ESL reading classes, from why to use graded readers to best practices on teaching reading skills
TELL ME MORE ABOUT IT!
This is a 41-page, 3-column PDF e-book with our advice on how help your ESL students learn to love reading, while becoming excellent readers.!
READING IN ANY LANGUAGE IS THE KEY TO EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT AND ENJOYMENT
Your students’ ability to read in English will probably affect the entire course of their lives, so it’s imperative that you give them the best jumpstart that you possibly can when it comes to learning to read in English. This book taps into all the latest from our ESL experts on how to turn your students into champion readers.
How to Teach Micro Fiction Like a Pro
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In this blog post, we’ll explore micro fiction reading and writing. I’ve found great success with this assignment and believe it to be an engaging way to teach important reading and writing skills.
English teachers, your students are eager to tell stories.
Storytelling is a tribute to the universal human experience.
Stories connect us.
They allow us to think about and play with language.
They highlight important themes and ideas, and the list goes on.
I know that I’m preaching to the choir when it comes to the love of the written word. If I’m being honest, though, sometimes we have to “hook” students into reading and writing, am I right? Sometimes students have lost the innate love of a story.
And that’s not even addressing the fact that, as teachers, we must align our work to standards. We may feel that time spent writing fiction must be cut at the expense of other “more important” skills.
But let’s not forget the power of the story and the fact that our students are storytellers (some of them may just need to remember how and why).
What is Micro Fiction?
This type of storytelling is also known as flash fiction or sudden fiction. Unlike a regular short story, it is limited to a certain number of words, typically 1000 words or less.
When I assign micro fiction writing to my students, they are asked to write 300-500 words. Some call this short-short writing a subset of flash fiction, even longer than its cousin, the six-word story.
Why Micro Fiction?
So, those skills… what can we do with micro fiction?
Well, you can definitely teach reading strategies and discuss author choices (plot, organization, syntax, diction, etc.) and theme/author’s purpose.
➡️ Because these texts are short and accessible, they pair easily with poems, longer short stories, podcasts, TED talks, etc.
➡️ Students can make connections and discuss how a common thematic message is conveyed in both texts.
➡️ It is also interesting to examine the impact and importance of what is not said in a micro fiction story vs. a text with a theme that is well-developed.
And that’s just the reading of microfiction.
➡️ When I ask my students to write “short” stories of 300-500 words, they must be purposeful as writers. They must consider the impact of their words, practice sentence combining and the elimination of wordiness, think about show vs. tell, characterization, and plot. Most importantly, they must explain to me why they made these choices.
Starting the Unit
To start the unit, we read a variety of these short-short stories, exploring the differences between writing “long” and writing “short.”
We look at and write six-sentence stories.
We consider the following questions:
➡️ Can a story be “good” in six words or less?
➡️ How about 400 words or less?
We discuss the following six word stories and the impact of word choice, as well as what is not said. As we do this, we review elements of plot, connotation vs. denotation, syntax, and more.
We then listen to the winner of this three minute fiction contest on NPR (here’s the link to the podcast AND transcript), discussing the questions below.
I ask students to reflect overall about what is gained and lost by writing short.
From here, students write their own short, short story (20 words or less) individually or with a partner.
Here are some prompts for this initial writing exercise:
I suggest giving students a time limit and then asking them to discuss their choices.
What did they leave out? How did they start/end and why? As we talk about their stories (which students are usually eager to share), we return to discussion of some of the previous questions, but as writers instead of readers.
Next, as we progress through the unit, we work on strategies to eliminate wordiness.
We also examine characterization, along with diction and literary devices. I’m happy to share this activity I’ve had for what feels like forever. Feel free to make a copy for your next fiction writing unit.
Additional Thoughts on Writing Short
I’m always impressed with students’ work during this unit.
As I said above, the final product is a 300-500 word story. Or, to up the ante, two different stories with the same theme, a difference in tone/mood, a difference in perspective, etc.
When they are finished writing, my students leave comments in their Google Docs to explain their overall message, as well as the impact of diction, organization, and syntax choices.
It’s also really nice that this assignment is versatile enough to fit in any number of places during the year.
As a final step, I’m always looking for real-world publication ideas. There are places students can submit their micro fiction stories online such as Ember Journal or Write the World. Here is a link to their past competition which has examples you can use in your next micro fiction unit.
Micro Fiction Activities
I hope that this post met the goal which was to give you some practical ideas for teaching flash fiction in your English classroom!
As students progress through their analysis and writing of micro fiction, I love using station activities and digital writer’s notebook work.
These resources are available in my TpT store. If you feel that these activities would be helpful to your students, and you’ve enjoyed the free content in this blog post, please stop by to check them out and support my work:
Watch the Video Version of this Post
Hey, if you loved this post, you’ll want to download a FREE copy of my guide to streamlined grading.
I know how hard it is to do all the things as an English teacher, so I’m excited to share some of my best strategies for reducing the grading overwhelm.
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About Lindsay Ann
Lindsay has been teaching high school English in the burbs of Chicago for 16 years. She is passionate about helping English teachers find balance in their lives and teaching practice through practical feedback strategies and student-led learning strategies. She also geeks out about literary analysis, inquiry-based learning, and classroom technology integration. When Lindsay is not teaching, she enjoys playing with her two kids, running, and getting lost in a good book.
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How to Teach Reading with Hands On Activities
If you are stuck wondering how to teach reading while engaging your students, here is an epic list of hands on activities you can use to help your struggling readers. Find out what I put in my reading intervention toolkit and learn how you can use these hands on reading activities in your classroom too.
Reading activities to get your students engaged and excited about reading.
Engaging Reading Activities
To answer the question “how to reach reading the most effective way,” the answer is to get students INVOLVED, INVESTED, and ENGAGED. When students are active and motivated learners, they decide for themselves to learn. It works soooo much better than them just being told.
The most engaging reading activities:
Check out this epic Ultimate List of Reading Intervention Activities for some super engaging (and effective!) activities that appeal to all kinds of different learning styles!
Effective Reading Activities
However, it is not enough just to give them fun, engaging reading activities. They need to be EFFECTIVE reading activities too (see these 6 tips for making your interventions more effective).
Effective reading activities:
Make teaching reading easier by creating a toolkit of hands on activities.
Practical Ideas for How to Teach Reading
Now that you know some best practices for how to teach reading, here are some practical ideas you can put into action now. Practice is sometimes more important than theory! So, how do we make this all work, without getting stressed out?!
First off, read about the Key to Stress-Free Reading Intervention here. Then, follow these ideas!
These ideas work great with small groups (guided reading) or teaching reading one-on-one (intervention).
How to Teach Reading with an Activity Toolkit
Here are some ideas, with affiliate links, that you can fill your reading toolkit with. You will LOVE having so many engaging hands on activities ready to go to help you know how to teach reading!
Containers can make reading organization so much easier.
Hand on Activity # 1: Tote and Containers:
It’s important to have something to store and organize all of your reading tools in. I like using this crafter’s tote because of all the pockets. For little props or things that have a lot of pieces, I picked up some small containers from the dollar store. Doesn’t everything just feel good when it’s organized into little containers?? Thank you Marie Kondo!
Magnetic letters make great hands on reading activities.
Hand on Activity # 2: Magnetic Letters (and Cookie Sheet)
Use letter tiles to make and spell words. Buy magnetic letters that you can use with mini-cookie sheets for added engagement, and letter containment!
Always keep sticky notes with your reading intervention tools!
Hand on Activity # 3: Sticky Notes
Sticky notes are the “windex” of reading intervention tools (My Big Fat Greek Wedding, anyone??). They are engaging, visual, tactile, cheap, and you can use them for ANYTHING! Write letters or sight words on them, make words and change out different letters with the sticky notes, have students take notes on the sticky notes while they read and stick them in the book, the possibilities are endless!
There are so many ideas for teaching reading you can use with index cards.
Hand on Activity # 4: Index Cards
Like sticky notes, index cards are so versatile. I use them all the time for quick flashcards, writing parts of words and switching out different beginning/middle/ending sounds, or games where they draw cards.
Hands on activities like slinkies and rubber bands work great for blending words.
Hand on Activity # 5: Slinkies and rubber bands
These stretchy tools make great hands on reading activities for learning how to segment, blend, and sound words out. When you are using slinkies for phonemic awareness, students can pull the tool out for each sound, then bring it back together to say the whole word.
Fun reading activities like play dough can help get your kiddos super engaged.
Hand on Activity # 6: Play-Dough
I have an entire post about ways to use Play-dough to teach phonics, but you can also use it for phonemic awareness. Roll 3 balls of play-dough, then have them smush each ball as they say sounds in a word.
If you need teaching reading ideas, there are so many things you can do with highlighters.
Hand on Activity # 7: Markers/highlighters
I am HUGE on color-coding with highlighters. Using different colors to break up and highlight words (like described in this blog post) adds a great visual to reading and tends to stick with students better than just seeing the word written plainly. Markers are also great for highlighting and marking up texts for comprehension. And… they’re just plain fun to use. 🙂
One of my favorite fun activities in reading is to pull out white boards and markers.
Hand on Activity # 8: White boards and dry erase markers
Again with the “just plain fun to use!” You can do the same activity with paper and pencil, but if you do it on whiteboards with dry erase markers, it amps up the engagement 100%. You can do so much on whiteboards from spelling words, to color-coding, to writing answers to questions.
*Pro tip: just use kleenex tissues or a square of toilet paper for erasers!
I love teaching reading with magnifying glasses!
Hand on Activity # 9: Magnifying glass
Magnifying glasses are great for searches. Say a letter, sight word, or phonics pattern and have students search a text to find it. Have them put their magnifying glass over it when they find it. You can also use it for comprehension and text evidence. Ask a question, and have students place the magnifying glass over where they found the answer.
When reading for fluency practice, you can use pointers to help students track.
Hand on Activity # 10: Pointers
Pointers are great to have on hand for fluency practice. They keep students’ eyes on the page and focused on the word they are reading. Sometimes students get overwhelmed with all of the text on the page, and pointers help them just take it one word at a time. These fun star wands make great pointers too, especially for finding and highlighting sight words or letters.
A great reading activity for fluency is using reading trackers.
Hand on Activity # 11: Reading Trackers
Another fluency tip for students who get overwhelmed by text on a page is to use reading trackers. These things are GREAT to help students only focus on a little at a time. They also promote smooth reading by getting students to read a whole line or paragraph at a time, instead of one word at a time. The ones with the colors are particularly good for fluency, as color can help students read better (see the tip about it in this blog post).
In your activities for guided reading, use whisper phones to practice fluency.
Hand on Activity # 12: Whisper phones
Oh man, these things are freaking awesome!! Students hold these whisper phones up to their ear, and “whisper-read” their books. The whisper-reading helps keep the noise down, but the phones help them hear themselves as they read. The sound actually travels really well through them! And students loooove using them. They are super great for practicing fluency while they read.
In guided reading, try using finger gadgets while students read.
Hand on Activity # 13: Finger gadgets
These literally make great hands on activities for your struggling readers! The kiddos are so excited to put these little finger gadgets on. They put them on their pointer finger, and then point to the words as they read. The googly eyes are great because they remind students to look at the words. Little gadgets with cars can help remind students to read smoothly and fluently.
Another guided reading activity is to have students time their reading with timers.
Hand on Activity # 14: Timers
Timers are also great for fluency practice. They can give the little push students need to increase their rate. You can pick up little sand timers each student can have, and they try to finish a paragraph or passage before the sound runs out. Or, you can use little digital timers for students to start and time how long it takes them to read something. Then they can try to beat their time!
Engaging teaching strategies like tap lights can help students be more involved in your lessons.
Hand on Activity # 15: Tap lights
Tap lights are great to use for phonemic awareness and learning beginning/middle/ending sounds! Set out 3 next to each other. Say a cvc word, then say one of the sounds in the word. Have students tap the light where the sound falls. Use them for fluency reads. Students read a text as fluently as they can, then tap the light when they’re done. Or, you can use them for comprehension questions. Ask a question, and students tap the light when they know the answer.
Keep stickers with your reading tools as rewards and manipulatives.
Hand on Activity # 16: Stickers
I am a fan of sticker charts and rewards. When a student (or group of students) accomplish something, they can earn a sticker. A certain number of stickers = reward! You can also use stickers as counters (read the story out loud 3 times, put a sticker on it after each time) or tactile aids (put a sticker under each letter of a word, touch the sticker as you say the sounds of each word). Here’s a good multi pack of little stickers.
Add mini erasers to your list of reading teaching ideas.
Hand on Activity # 17: Mini erasers
I know I don’t need to preach about mini-erasers! They are little engagement gems, and come in all sorts of fun designs for different seasons. They work great as bingo chips, counters for checking off lists (like the stickers mentioned above), or for little manipulatives for identifying beginning, middle, and ending sounds.
Teach reading with fun games using dice.
Hand on Activity #18: Dice
Dice are great to have on hand for impromptu reading games. You can give one die to each student, and then assign different tasks to different numbers they roll. You can also draw a quick game board on a piece of paper, and have students roll dice and answer questions to progress on the game board. There are so many fun reading games you can play with dice! Different colored dice are extra fun and you can color code activities.
I hope this has given you an idea for how to teach reading with hands on activities that are engaging AND effective. Having a toolbox ready to go with all these materials will make teaching reading with these reading activities so much easier!