Dos and donts for teaching reading
- 1. Secondary Form5 1 Reading – some dos and don’ts DOs DON’Ts A. Planning DO decide beforehand what is important for pupils to do with the reading, and set SMART learning objectives: “By the end of this lesson, you will be able to...“ DO share the learning objective(s) for the lesson with pupils and ensure the objective(s) link to the Learning Standard being addressed or the Reading skills and strategies being developed. DO use pupil-friendly language when sharing these. DON’T prepare your lesson only in terms of a page number or exercise: “We’re going to do Exercise 3 on page 97.” DON’T forget to make pupils aware of the learning objective(s) for the lesson. Pre-lesson activity DO carry out a short warm-up task linked to the topic of the text, to focus pupils on the input. For example, you could use a visual (photo, video clip, cartoon or diagram) to introduce the topic, or invite pupils to think about what they already know about the topic. DON’T launch into a new topic ‘cold’ or without any introduction. Pupils need to re-focus, settle and tune in to the English lesson. B. Using general ideas: the first contact with the text DO provide a task or one or two general questions for pupils to answer when they read for the very first time. In this way, you guide them to understand the main idea or meaning of the text and give a reason for processing the input. Discuss their answers before you continue. If you want pupils to read aloud to practise pronunciation, DO this at a later stage. Only ask pupils to read already familiar material aloud. Ask them to read aloud simultaneously in pairs and tell them you are practising pronunciation. Help pupils individually with pronunciation or as a class if you notice common problems. DON’T get pupils to read new material aloud one by one. This will not help either their Speaking or their Reading development much. Reading familiar texts aloud can occasionally be useful for pronunciation practice but – if done with unknown texts – actually slows down the reading speed, hinders understanding and often demotivates. Reading silently with a supporting task is more effective for taking in new information. DON’T supply a list of ‘difficult’ words with a translation in the pupils’ first language. This encourages pupils to stop every time they meet a word that is unfamiliar. This is a poor reading
- 2. DO encourage pupils to ignore words they do not know the first time they read a text, so that they can try to understand the main points without getting stuck on individual words. strategy and gets in the way of global understanding. Similarly, DON’T over-teach vocabulary before reading. DON’T give out the texts in advance of the tasks – you may then struggle to get attention back. C. Using details: further contact with input DO provide a specific task for pupils to answer while they read for a second time. Discuss their answers to this task. If they haven’t understood the input, ask if it is necessary to read again. Provide fresh tasks each time they read. DO encourage pupils to create their own questions around the text, either by hypothesising before they are exposed to the text (e.g. predicting), or to check understanding. DO encourage pupils to guess the meaning of words from context, so that they learn that they can succeed in comprehending input without understanding or stopping at every word. DON’T forget to set a clear task before pupils read: ‘Read and tell me what it is about’ is not a task. DON’T encourage pupils to stop at every unknown word and don’t do that yourself, either. DON’T distract pupils by moving around the room or speaking during the Reading stages. DON’T give answers to hypotheses yourself, before pupils have had time to think about their own explanations. D. Applying information and concluding (post- lesson activity) DO use the topic or the language in the text as a stimulus for further activities. Help pupils at this stage to produce their own spoken or written language. Draw attention to specific aspects of language or the characteristics of texts. DO work to help pupils understand and recycle vocabulary. Ensure that pupils know both the meanings of words and their usage. Create new, active tasks to help pupils recall and process ideas and vocabulary. DON’T go immediately to whole class checks – leave time for peer feedback (in groups or with talk partner). DON’T expect pupils to be able to reproduce vocabulary as soon as they meet it; they need to come across vocabulary in several different contexts before they can use it. DON’T give a list of English words with their first language translations, either at the start of the lesson or at the end, since this won’t help vocabulary learning very much.