Liven up Reading!

British Council Teacher, Merryn Grimley, suggests a
few ideas and activities to help you ma ke reading in
the classroom more enjoyable

A lot of kids find reading a bore, but we know how
important it is to encourage them to read as widely
as possible. Children who enjoy reading are the ones
who succeed!

What should they read?
Try to find authentic materials. Specially written textshave their place, but there's plenty of "real" material around, fiction and non-fiction: novels, hotel brochures, tourist guides, magazine articles, and - of course - the internet. Remember the students don't have to understand every word!

Choose topics that interest them!
Find topics that children of their age will genuinely want to read about: animals, space, music, sport, film stars, fashion, stories about teenage problems ...

Before you start
Make sure you plan some kind of "Pre-Task". For example, get them to brainstorm what they know about the topic already or write questions about what they would like to know. If the text is a story, write the title or a few words of selected vocabulary on the board and ask them to predict what happens. Make them want to read!

Reading Race
Here's a fun activity, which develops students' ability to scan texts for specific information.

• Choose four or five related texts, e.g. about animals, famous people, and pin them up on the walls around the classroom.

• Write 12 questions about the texts and cut them up; place them on your desk. Tell the students to write down nos. 1-12 on a clean page in their books.

• The group disperses to find the answer and report back.

• They then return the question to the teacher's desk and take another, until they have all twelve. The first group to find the answers to all the questions wins!

Jigsaw Reading
In this activity students have to read, absorb information and report it back to others.

• Choose 2 or 3 related texts, e.g. about sports.
• Divide the students into 2 or 3 groups accordingly. Give each group questions to answer on their text or a chart to fill in. Get them to help each other.
• Re-group students to share information or complete the chart.
• There should be a final question which makes them compare the texts, (eg. Which sport is the most exciting? Which would you like to try?) It gets them talking!

Jumbled Text

• Choose a short text, especially a story.
•Cut it up into paragraphs or single lines
• Students work in groups to re-order it.
This task helps improve their awareness of text and sentence structure.

Follow-ups

Most texts will offer plenty of further opportunities for vocabulary development or grammar awareness. It can also be a take-off point for groups activities, role-play,project work or writing. Try to make the task creative and fun!

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