5
Effective Teaching Strategies for Reading
By: Janelle
Cox
As
you know, reading is a fundamental skill that we all use every day of
our lives. From reading the mail to a food menu, to reading your text
messages and email, there is no escaping it, reading is everywhere.
This makes the development of proficient reading skills for primary
learners even more essential -- not only for their academic success,
but for their daily lives as well. Unfortunately, reading can be a
skill that many children struggle to master. In order for all of our
students to be confident readers, we as teachers can provide our
students with a few effective teaching
strategies for
reading. By implementing these teaching
strategies,
we are giving our students the tools that can help them succeed. Here
are five of the most effective teaching
strategies for
reading that elementary teachers use with their primary learners.
1.
Graphic Organizers as Teaching
Strategies
Graphic
organizers are an incredible teaching tool that have been used in the
classroom for decades. Even before all of the new, fancy organizers,
teachers would ask their students to fold their papers in half, and
use the two sides to compare and contrast content. Educators like the
fact that graphic organizers enable students to visually see the
connections they are reading.
There
is no doubt that each student in your classroom absorbs information
in a different way. With a classroom full of diverse learners, a
graphic organizer can help to address each individual’s needs.
While one student may benefit from using a Venn diagram, another may
benefit from using a semantic map.
There
are a million different graphic organizers to choose, from KWL charts
to sequencing events. You can even create your own to suit the needs
of the concept or student.
2.
Incorporating Technology
Many
teachers can confidently say that they have not come across a student
that didn’t like to use technology. Technology has become such an
integral part of all of our lives, that it would seem like a
disadvantage not to use it as a reading strategy in the classroom.
Aside from the obvious choice of utilizing a tablet so students can
read and play games within the apps, there are many other pieces of
technology that can help students excel at reading. There are
websites like PBSkids.org that offer a variety of different reading
games with characters the students are familiar with. There is also
Suessville.com, which offers students interactive games that bring
the Dr. Seuss characters to life. In addition to apps and websites,
there are activities that you can use on your Smartboard as well.
The
inherent understanding that our students have for technology, and the
way that they all excel so quickly about all things technology, makes
integrating it as a reading strategy extremely engaging.
3.
Activing Prior Knowledge
As
you know, when you get your students to connect what they are
learning to something that they already know, there is a better
chance that they will understand it better, and remember it longer.
To help activate students’ prior knowledge, try asking them a few
questions: “What do you know about this topic?” and “How can
you relate this to your own life?” These types of questions help
students personally connect to the text. Research shows that when
children care about something, they become more connected to it,
which in turn helps them excel academically. Here are a few more
questions to help students connect with their text.
- What event in your life does this text remind you of?
- How can you connect the text to something that happened in the past?
- Do any of these characters remind you of anyone you know?
- Does this topic remind you of anything or sound familiar to you?
4.
Using a Word Wall
A
word wall is much more than just a classroom display, it’s an
effective strategy that can help promote literacy for primary
learners. Teachers not only use them to help enhance the classroom
curriculum, but to provide students with reference and support, to
teach essential language skills, and to help students learn site
words and patterns. Besides being a direct visual that students can
reference throughout the day, teachers use word walls by
incorporating various activities. Here are a few favorites.
- I Am Thinking of a Word - Start with the phrase “I am thinking of a word that …” Then, give students clues as to what word you are thinking of. Students must use your clues to determine what word you are thinking of from the word wall.
- Spell-A-Shape – For this activity, the teacher would dictate several words from the word wall. When saying a word, the teacher would orally clap or snap for each word that he/she says. Then, the teacher would select a shape (heart, circle, and square) and have students draw this shape on their paper and write the words that were dictated from the word wall repeatedly around that shape.
- The Hot Seat – One student is chosen to pick a word for the word wall. Then, the other students in the class ask that student questions to try and figure out the word.
5.
Student Choice
One
of the best reading strategies that you can choose for your students
is the ability for students to have a choice in what they read. This
is the most effective strategy to get your students to want to
read. When you give students a voice and a choice, then they will
choose something that is of interest to them. This makes it more
likely that they will be motivated and engaged to read the book until
the end. Start by asking questions to find out what the
students interests and hobbies are.
Janelle
Cox is an education writer who uses her experience and knowledge to
provide creative and original writing in the field of education.
Janelle holds a Master's of Science in Education from the State
University of New York College at Buffalo. She is also the Elementary
Education Expert for About.com,
as well as a contributing writer to TeachHUB.com and TeachHUB
Magazine. You can follow her at Twitter @Empoweringk6ed,
or on Facebook at Empowering
K6 Educators.
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