Reading Comprehension Activities

While almost all of us can read, the speed with which we can read and comprehend what we are reading is very important. Hence, as a teacher, it is very important that you ensure that the students in your class take up reading comprehension as an important subject early on so that they do not face problems as they grow older. Here are some reading comprehension activities that you can use in your class to help increase the interest of the students in the subject. Book Reviews I feel that this is one of the best reading comprehension activities. Here, a student is asked to pick and read a book of their choice. After reading, they have to present a review of the book to the entire class. The review can contain a small recap of the story, but other than that, the students have to speak on their own as to how they felt the book was. They have to provide inputs as to why they felt the book was good or why was it not up the mark. They can also be asked to justify why they would recommend this book to a friend and also if they have learned something from the book. The advantage of this activity is that only the students read the book, they are forced to read it to understand and talk about the book. They have to talk about the book and not about what is in the book. This will also help increase their communication skills and will also provide them the confidence to address their classmates or a gathering. These days, with the advent of the Internet, students belonging to a higher grade can be asked to post their reviews on Amazon or GeoCities. This will help increase their sense of accomplishment. Secret Story Words I read a very interesting activity that was submitted by Janice Roehr to a newsletter. After reading out a story to the class, she writes down names, place and vocabulary words from the story on small pieces of paper and pins them on the backs of the students. The students then wander around the class and ask for clues as to what is pinned on their backs from fellow students who can respond to an answer in either yes or no. Once a student has identified the word, they have to return their seats and write down the significance of the word in the story. This is a brilliant idea that will compel students (the younger the better as they will be more enthusiastic) to listen to every detail in the story. For the students in higher grades, you can select a difficult story with a large number of characters and difficult words. Title Predictions Another interesting activity was submitted by Donna Florek to a newsletter. Before reading out a chapter to the class, she reads out the title of the chapter and encourages the students to predict as to what is going to happen and what questions will be answered in the chapter. The teacher records these on the blackboard and crosses them individually as and when they the predictions come true or the questions are answered. At the end of the chapter the students can discuss as to why some of the predictions did not come true or why some questions were unanswered. For this activity to be a success, it is very important that none of the students have read the book or are aware of the story. This is a great activity that will help ensure that the students are in tune and totally engrossed on the story. This activity can also be followed with the 'Alternative Endings' activity described below. Alternative Endings Another activity that you can introduce in the higher grades is to ask students to come up with alternate endings to a story that they have read with reasons to justify the proposed ending. These will help students focus on the story and also use their imaginations to come up with alternate endings. At the end of the class, you can ask the students to vote if they preferred the alternate ending proposed by a student or were satisfied with the author.