Quick+Ideas

Have students move to the front of the class and make a 'reading circle' before you read aloud to them. Students concentrate much more when they are away from their tables. . **2. Sharing Books** Ask students to share good books with the class. Talk with the class about what they have been reading. Bring in a book you are reading and tell the class a little bit about it.
 * 1. Reading Circles**

**3. Think Aloud**
Read to students and 'think aloud' to show then how you: For more ideas about Think Aloud : [] Talking is important (of course) and helps students clarify meaning and can be used to improve reading comprehension.Ask your students to 'turn and talk'. Try this instead of asking students to answer in front of the whole class. This gives the whole class a chance to listen and talk. For more ideas on 'think, pair, share': [] Reading comprehension skills such as thinking aloud, predicting, summarising, questioning and clarifying help students understand texts in any content area. This is a link to an article about using thinking and literacy stragegies to teach maths: [] - by Paula Miller and Dagmar Koesling.The article is in "The Right to Literacy in Seconary Schools" [] the contents of this very helpful book can be seen at [|http://tinyurl.com/2d3k7yu]You can read more about reading in content areas at: [] [] Prior knowledge helps with reading. Knowing more about the world helps you read with more understanding. Talk to students about watching news - do they know it is a good way to learn English and to learn about the world? The link above gives you news in only one minute. Watch with your class and ask them just to identify when the news item changes. Viewing is like reading - the more times you watch the more you will understand and you don't need to understand every word to get the meaning. (Even watching the one minuter news with the sound off will generate some discussion.) ​'Reading comprehension requires knowledge - of words and the world' - E. D. Hirsch, Jr. [] Tips - Teaching English with News
 * make predictions as you read
 * use pictures to help you understand the story
 * ask yourself questions as you read
 * reread some parts of a text
 * 4. Talking**
 * Ask a question
 * Tell them not to answer but to 'turn and talk' with the person next to them
 * Ask them to share what their partner said (not what they said to their partner). This give a purpose to the listening and talking.
 * 5. Comprehension skills in subject areas**
 * Ask students to skim a maths worksheet (or chapter) and predict what it will be about before they begin working on it.
 * Have students summarise at the end of a lesson - no matter what the subject matter.
 * Teach students to ask themselves questions as they read.
 * 6. BBC one minute world news**

==== This works with all kinds of books and reading passages. Show the heading only (write it on the board or cover the rest of the text up somehow) and ask students to write down words (or sentences, or notes) on what they think will be in the text. This is a good way to practise predicting. They can then share their ideas in groups. Looking at the the heading only helps to 'cue them in' to the text before they read it. ==== For more on predicting
 * 7. Use headings only - at first.**
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Other quick ideas:

 * Encourage students to read stories in their first lanaguage
 * Read big books to your class. Students really enjoy listening to teachers read aloud. Even high level classes enjoy the big books. (They are in the library at base in the room where the compactus is.)
 * Quick-Write []
 * Use books from the reading tub to read aloud to students
 * Model and teach strategies such as predicting and asking yourself questions when reading non-fiction topic based texts to students.
 * Remembering and Sharing - Ask each student to tell you one thing they remember about the lesson before they leave the class.
 * Give students time to read in class and encourage them to read at home. Remind them to finish a book and think about that book
 * Get students to write book reports for homework
 * When presenting a text allow students to read to themselves individually, then read it to them aloud, then begin work on the text. (Or read it to them and then let them read it to themselves) Re-reading helps students in many ways, for example, it helps them develop the strategy of going back to parts of a text they don't understand and clarifying the meaning.
 * Make the focus each lesson clear. Write it on the board at the start of each lesson. Leave it where students can see. Refer to the focus (or lesson objective) where apporitate during the lesson. This will help students know what is important and what they should be paying attention to.
 * In this lesson we are learning the names of the planets.
 * In this lesson we are learning how to classify animals.
 * In this lesson we are learning to predict when we read.
 * Word Walls
 * Passouts - students line up at the end of the lesson and tell the teacher one thing before they leave (one thing you remember about the story, one word you remember, one thing you learned, one thing another students said in the lesson etc) What the students tell you lets you know how much they remember and when they know they will have to tell you something about the lesson it helps them to concentrate and retain information