homework reading activities

13 Fun Reading Activities for Any Book

Whether you walk into a classroom in Asia, North America or Europe, you will almost certainly see teachers and students building their understanding of the world through a dedicated daily reading session full of great reading activities.

Books allow students an opportunity to be informed, entertained or escape as they comprehend fiction and non-fiction texts against their understanding of the world, their personal insights, and opinions and finally compare those texts to others.

Whilst you may have a wealth of books in your school library, developing fresh and engaging ways to study literature can often be challenging.  So today, we will explore 25 proven activities that can be applied to any book and at any age level.

These reading activities to improve reading comprehension are easy to follow and suitable for most age groups within an elementary/junior high school level.

125 Text Response ACTIVITIES, Games, Projects for ANY BOOK

This massive collection of ☀️ READING ACTIVITIES☀️ covers all essential reading skills for elementary/primary students. NO PREP REQUIRED! Works with all text and media types.

Thousands of teachers have adopted this as a GO-TO RESOURCE for independent and group tasks.

A COLLECTION OF FUN READING ACTIVITIES

A lifetime tale in pictures reading task.

Draw the main character from a book you have recently read.  Show them as a baby, middle-aged and an older person.

Underneath each picture, write what you think they might be doing at that point in their life, and explain why they may be doing so.

For example, if you drew Harry Potter as a baby, he might cast spells on his mum to feed him lots of yummy food.

Post-reading activities like this are accessible for all age groups to adapt their skill level and text style.

If you want to learn more about characters, read our complete guide here.

TEXT TO SELF-READING TASK

Based upon a book you have just read, share a  story about yourself related to an event or character in the book.

It is probably best done in the form of a written recount. Link your experience to no more than four situations that occurred within the text.

Text to self is an excellent opportunity for students to become introspective about the content they read and compare it to their own life experiences. 

This activity is appealing to teenagers more so than juniors .

IT’S IN THE INSTRUCTIONS READING TASK

From a book you have just read, select either a critical object or creature and create a user manual or a guide explaining how to care for it.

Ensure you use any vital information learnt from the book and any other information you consider essential.

If you are writing a user manual for an object, remember to focus on using it correctly and taking care of it.

If you are writing a user guide for an animal or creature, focus on keeping it alive and healthy as well as information that explains how to keep it happy and under control if necessary.

Dear Diary, READING TASK

Place yourself in the shoes of one of the characters you have just read about and write a diary entry of a critical moment from the story.

Try to choose a moment in the story where the character has plenty of interaction and emotion to share in a diary entry.

Your diary entry should be around a page long and contain information you learned from the book when the character was in that specific place and time.

Remember, when writing a diary entry, you are writing it from a first-person perspective. It is usually but not always written in the present tense.

Diary writing has been a very popular activity throughout time, but social media tools such as Facebook and blogging have in some ways changed this.

Mapping it all out, READING TASK

How do you make reading lessons fun? This reading activity answers that question confidently.

Have a go at drawing a map of one of the places from the text you have just read. See how much detail you can include, and be sure to discuss your map with another reader so you can compare and add more if necessary.

Take some time and effort to ensure your map appeals to the same audience the book aims at.

All good maps should contain the following BOLTS elements.

B – Bolts

O – Orientation

L – Legend

S – Scale

Express Yourself READING TASK

Using an iPad or a digital camera, make faces of the emotions the main characters would have gone through in your book and take photos of them. 

Put them together in a document on your computer or device and explain the emotion below the image and when the character would have felt this way.

This is an excellent opportunity to use some creative direction for this task.

Be sure to play around with the images, filters and graphical styling available.

Travel Agent READING TASK

Think of yourselves as a group of travel assistants whose job is to promote a  city of your choice from the text you have been reading.

As a group, you need to develop a concept map of all the exciting things that happen in your city and then present it to the class.

Don’t forget all of the exciting things such as theatres, restaurants, sports, adventure activities, entertainment and much more…

If you are a little short on details of the location of your story, do some research if it was an actual location or just get creative and make up some locations and tourist attractions based on what you read.

You’re Hired READING TASK

Select a character from a book and consider what might be an excellent job for them. You can choose something entirely suitable such as a security guard job for Superman or a more oddball approach, such as a pastry chef.

Either way, you will have to write a letter from this character’s perspective and apply for a position.

Be sure to explain why your character would be a great employee and what special skills they would possess to make them ideal for the role. Sell your character by explaining all the great attributes they possess.

What’s the Status? READING TASK

Create a Facebook page for your character with some status updates about what they have been up to.

Include some pictures and ensure your status updates are relevant to the character and the story.

Around 3 – 4 status updates with mages should give an overall picture of the character.

Use your status updates to explore what your character does for a job, leisure time, places they might go on vacation and the like.

Bubbles and Clouds READING TASK

Using speech bubbles and pictures of the characters, draw a conversation between two characters from the story you have read.

Remember, thought is drawn as a cloud, and a spoken statement is drawn as a  bubble.

Be sure to look at some comics or graphic novels for inspiration and insights.

This activity is usually best done on pen and paper, but numerous digital apps and tools will allow you to make this a reality through technology.

Amazing Artifacts READING TASK

An artifact is an object that has some significance or meaning behind it. Sometimes, an artefact might even have a very important story behind it.  I am sure you have a favorite toy, or your parents have a particular item in the house that they would consider an important artifact.

For today’s task, you will select five artifacts from the text you have been reading and explain what makes them significant or essential.

They don’t all have to be super important to the story, but I am sure that at least a couple played a significant role.

Be sure to draw a picture of the artifact and if necessary, label it.

FREE READING ACTIVITIES RESOURCE TO DOWNLOAD

Thinking Differently READING TASK

Choose three important events from the text and explain how you would have handled them differently from the characters in the story.

Explain how it may have changed the story’s outcome in either a minor or significant way.

Be insightful here and think of the cause and effect.  Sometimes your smallest action can have a significant impact on others.

Popplet Mind Mapping Task

Popplet is a mind mapping tool that allows you to connect ideas together using images, text and drawings.

From a text, you have recently read, create a family tree or network diagram that explains the relationship the characters have with each other.

Some may be father and son, husband and wife or even arch enemies.

Try and lay it out so it is easy to follow.

You Have Three Wishes READING TASK

A genie lands at the midpoint of the story you have just read and grants the two main characters three wishes.

What do they wish for and why?

Finally, would their wishes have changed anything about the story?  How so?

Again think about the cause and effect relationship and how this may have altered the path of the book you have been reading.

A COMPLETE DIGITAL READING UNIT FOR STUDENTS

Over 30 engaging activities for students to complete BEFORE, DURING and AFTER reading ANY BOOK

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27 Fun Reading Activities To Try At Home or In The Classroom

Written by Ashley Crowe

Teachers and parents

Prodigy English is ready to explore! Get kids playing — and learning — today.

Fun reading activities for the classroom

Reading activities for parents & children, activities to try after reading, other educational activities to help kids learn.

Learning to read is a huge milestone in a child’s life. We all know how important a love of reading is for future learning. When children love to read, they can learn anything. 

Make sure your children keep the joy of reading alive by using fun reading activities along with traditional reading strategies .

These fun daily moments can improve reading skills and help reluctant readers find joy in the written word. We’ll be covering reading activities by grade level both for the classroom and at home, as well as some activities to improve reading comprehension after your students are reading independently. 

Though many children begin the basics of reading at home, most solidify their skills and become accomplished readers in the classroom. These activities keep early readers engaged and improving while helping reluctant readers master the basics. Here are our favorite ways to keep reading fun!

1. Find the secret word

Great for: Kindergarten to 2nd grade

Turn a reading lesson into a scavenger hunt! Give each student or pair of students a piece of text, then speak the first secret word. Once they find it, have them circle it in a specific color, or circle and number, then report back to you for word #2. 

Keep this word search up for as long as you like — we recommend choosing about 8 to 10 words for students to find. It’s one part competition, one part scavenger hunt! Choose a prize for each team to receive when they complete the activity. Or celebrate everyone reaching the end with a classroom dance party! It’s a great way to keep your kids moving and learning.

2. Read aloud as a class

Great for: All grades

Kids are never too old to hear a story read aloud. Reading aloud as a class is a great way to keep kids engrossed in a story. Since you are most familiar with the text, you can keep the flow going during the dramatic moments. Then hand it off to your students to take their turns.

Want to add a new element to your classroom read-aloud? Pass around a ball or stuffed animal to indicate the next reader. It’s a variation of popcorn reading to help minimize reading anxiety, and it gives kids the power to pass it on after spending a short time reading. 

3. Partner reading

Great for: 1st to 3rd grade

Sometimes trying to get the whole class to read together is just too much. To encourage more reading time, pair up your students for partner reading. 

During partner reading, each child will get more time to practice their skills. And being corrected privately by one friend may be better for a struggling reader’s confidence. Try to pair a confident but patient reader with those who need some extra help and watch them both learn to succeed.

4. Find the synonym

Great for: 2nd to 5th grade

Once your readers are feeling more confident, take our scavenger hunt game mentioned above and add a new twist. 

Instead of searching for the exact spoken words on your list, give students the challenge to find the word’s synonym in the text. It’s a great way to keep the game challenging for older students.

5. Word searches

For younger students, a word search is a challenging way to encourage early reading. You can do this much like our scavenger hunt-style games, but instead of saying the words aloud, provide a list. 

They can search for one word at a time, with you providing the next word to the team once the first is found. Or provide a full list from the beginning and let them work individually. Add in some color matching (marking the word in the same color as printed on the list) to keep this game fun and engaging.

6. Keyword bingo

Looking for a calmer alternative to the secret word game? Have each child work individually in a game of reading bingo. Choose a grade-level text and compile a list of words found in the passage. 

Read each word aloud, giving about 15 seconds before moving on to the next. It’s a race against your clock to find the words, or they can try to remember them while looking for the others. When they find the words, they can mark them out. Once the list is done, allow 20 more seconds to wrap up any remaining words, then pencils down and count. Whoever finds the most words, wins!

7. Decoding games

Decoding games focus on letter sounds and phonemic awareness. A favorite game for pre-readers is to say a letter and have students find an object that starts with that letter. As they bring the object back, reinforce the sound that letter makes.

Other decoding games can focus on the mechanics of reading — such as reading a word or sentence from left to right. This is a great time to utilize finger puppets, following along with a finger as you sound the words out together.

8. Thumbs up, thumbs down

Great for: Kindergarten to 5th grade

Thumbs up, thumbs down (or the higher energy variation — stand up, sit down) is a great game to keep your students engaged. 

Check reading comprehension when you ask students to give a thumbs up if a statement about a recently read story is true, or a thumbs down if it’s false. Help them grasp grammar concepts by having them stand up when you say an adjective word or sit down if you say a noun. 

It’s a fun way to keep their bodies and brains working. 

9. Discover the missing letter

When you’re teaching letter sounds, it’s fun to get creative. In this game, you’ll call your students to the front of the class by their names — minus the first letter. For example, Stacy becomes tacy and Roland becomes oland. Let the kids guess who you’re calling up, then have them decode the missing letter. 

You can do the same thing for objects, or drop middle letters for older children. Just be sure to prepare your words ahead of time to avoid any slip-ups!  

10. Guided reading ball game

Great for: 2nd to 7th grade

Grab a few beach balls from your local dollar store and get your classroom moving. Take a sharpie and write a discussion prompt on each colorful section of the ball. What is the setting? Who is the main character? What happened after…? 

Toss or roll the balls around. Students answer whichever question their thumb lands on when the ball heads their way. This is an exciting way to mix things up, practice reading comprehension and get kids thinking outside of their seats.

Not all reading happens in the classroom! Parents can play an active role in helping their children learn to read. Here are a few activities to try with your kids.

1. Reading together

Great for: All grades and ages

There’s something special about listening to a book being read out loud. It can capture your attention in a unique way. Whether your child is a baby or fully grown, it’s always a good time to read together.

Take turns reading chapters from a favorite story, or just read to your child. Enjoying good stories is a huge motivator in learning to read.  

2. Silly voices reading

Great for: Kindergarten to 4th grade

Kids love to laugh and joke, so play into this with a crazy story and silly voices. Get really high-pitched, speed it up like a chipmunk, and then pitch your voice low. 

Your kids will love seeing these stories come to life with your words, and you’ll all share a good laugh. To get them involved in the fun, ask them to do their own silly voice!

3. Dialogic reading

The word dialogic means to have a dialogue, and that’s exactly what this activity is designed to do. Instead of reading to your child while they passively listen, invite them into the story. Ask them what they think may happen next, or at the close of the book invite them to create a completely different ending. This is a great way to stretch your little storyteller’s imagination.

4. Reading outside

Kids thrive outdoors. They can run, climb, and dig in the dirt. Outside is also a great place to practice reading and letter writing. Invite your child to help you create words in a sandbox or take a stick and dig a letter into the dirt. 

Older kids can simply take their reading outside. It’s amazing how refreshing a change of setting can be. 

5. What word starts with…

Great for: Kindergarten to 1st grade

Letter sounds are an essential early reading tool. With this game, ask your child to think of words that start with “B” (or any other letter).

 Give an example, like b-b-butterfly, then think of more “B” words together. Choose your child’s favorite things to keep the game fun and exciting. Early readers especially love to talk about the letters in their names.

6. Try nonfiction

Great for: All ages

You never know what a child may love to read. Though many kids enjoy a good princess or dragon story, others will prefer non-fiction books. 

If your attempts at fiction are met with indifference, try a book about their favorite animal (sharks, dinosaurs, or lemurs are popular here), learn about space or strange weather events. Whatever your child is into, and whatever their reading level, there’s a book for them.

7. Create a “book nook”

A cozy spot dedicated to reading can add joy to the activity. Load up a corner or top bunk space with comfy pillows and blankets, make sure it has good lighting, and include some sticky notes and a dictionary. All your child needs to bring is their favorite book! Even better, snuggle in together and discover a new favorite with your child.

8. Who’s coming over?

This game can be played in a couple of different ways, and both are great for reading comprehension. First, try giving clues so your child can guess their favorite characters. These favorites can be from books or TV. You can mention physical characteristics, some of their best friends, or things that happen to them. Keep giving clues until they guess correctly.

The second way to play is to invite a favorite character over and then discuss what you’ll need for their visit. A special kind of bed, their favorite foods, or a place for their pet to stay are all things to consider. This is a fun way to create your own story around your child’s favorite characters.

9. Take turns reading

As your child begins to read you can invite them to read to you. Don’t push if they don’t want to, but as their confidence builds they’ll be excited to share their new skill with you. 

This may look like you both taking turns reading a new chapter book, or they may want to share all the creature descriptions from their favorite new computer game. No matter the topic, do your best to listen intently and congratulate them on their reading skills.  

10. What happens next?

Keep reading fun and active when you step outside the book and asking your child what happens next:

• What do they think will happen?
• What would you like to see happen? 
• What’s something funny that could happen?

Any question that gets them thinking through the story on their own is both fun and helpful for reading comprehension. 

11. Talk about the pictures

Pictures are a great way for kids to follow along with a story. When your child is beginning to read, have them look at the pictures and ask what they think is going on. As they unravel the story, point out the words they are discovering in the text. Or just let them enjoy creating their own unique version of the story based on the pictures. 

12. Try new reading apps and websites

There are some amazing reading apps for both reading instruction and digital reading libraries. If your child enjoys spending time on their tablet, give some of our favorite reading apps a try and watch them learn while they play.

After your child is reading on their own, there’s still plenty to learn. Reading isn’t effective if they’re struggling to understand the words on the page, or how they all fit together to create the story. Here are a few activities for children to practice reading comprehension.

1. Summarize the text

Once a child is done reading a text or section of a book, have them revisit the main ideas by highlighting or taking notes on the text’s biggest themes. Once students identify the main themes, ask them to break them down further and quickly summarize the story.

2. Book reports

Great for: 2nd to 12th grade

Book reports are a classic reading activity. Have the child analyze the book, highlighting the most important themes. Older children can present arguments pertaining to the story, and provide passages to support their theories. 

Keep book reports even more engaging when you invite kids to give a presentation, complete with dress-up and drama. 

3. Review the book

Ask children to rate their most recent reading. They can assign it a number of stars, but then they must also explain why. Was it too scary? Not funny? What were their favorite parts? What would they do differently?

Not only does this help students think critically about what they’ve just read, but it can also help parents and teacher identify what they might like reading next.

4. Extend the story

Great for: Kindergarten to 12th grade

“And they lived happily ever after…”

Maybe so, but what happened next? Ask your child to keep the story going. Where do they go next? Who do they meet? Favorite characters can continue adventuring when your child takes over the story. This is a great writing prompt , or just a fun dinner conversation!

5. How could it have been better?

Everyone has an opinion, so ask your child for theirs. How could this book or story have been better? Would a different ending be more fun? Or maybe they just think the main character should be named after them. 

No matter their critique, listen and discuss. Then encourage them to create their own tale.

How reading activities help kids embrace learning

Reading keeps kids learning for the rest of their lives. When a child can read, they can take more control over their education. And that’s a wonderful thing!

Fun activities are the best way to keep a child interested in the world of books. Learning to read can be a frustrating journey for some. Others may simply find it boring (especially if they’re being made to read about topics they care little about). These activities are designed to get kids moving and thinking beyond the page. Because when reading is fun, learning happens naturally.

When teaching starts to feel like a drag, or the kids are fighting their instruction, revisit this article. Mix in some fun activities and keep the learning going. Getting up, moving around, or enjoying a laugh together can help stimulate everyone’s mind. 

Looking for even more great learning activities to engage your kids? Here are some of our favorite activity posts for reading, math, and more!

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• 15 Free Multiplication Games
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Get more ways to help kids love learning with Prodigy English , a brand-new learning adventure! Whether you're a parent or a teacher, create a free Prodigy account to access tools that help you support reading and language learning in the classroom or at home.

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School marm.

I assigned a nonfiction passage and test and posted it to Google Classroom through this site. How do I retrieve the scores? Thanks!

I do not store any student data due to COPPA regulations.

Please read this for more information about score collecting / keeping: https://www.ereadingworksheets.com/e-reading-worksheets/remote-learning-resources-for-covid-19-shutdowns/#how-to-assign-an-ereading-worksheet

I am loving these online test so fun

Sometimes on the iPad the online versions of the worksheets freeze. Is there something I can do? I’m having my daughter work on the inference one specifically right now. Thank you

I will look into it…

tabletpc.news

clues climber and Super Grammar Ninja, could you recommend similar games or activities for practicing context clues and grammar? Thank you!

Leslie Sammarco

What a gold mine! Thank you so much for creating and sharing this!

Question: Is there a way to print answer keys to the context clue vocabulary worksheets? Or are they only available to view?

If you try PRINTING the page, I think they format pretty nicely. Let me know what you think.

Dominica Brandon

Can I find past scores from quizes?

No, no student data is stored on this site.

Thanks so much for all your hard work. We are not supplied adequate curriculum in our school, so are always having to hunt down the best ways to teach different concepts. Your materials are rigorous, but also easy to understand. Thanks again!

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31 Effective Reading Comprehension Activities

October 30, 2023 //  by  Sean Kivi

There are hundreds of different ideas on how to help your students develop their reading comprehension. No matter what technique you choose, the goal is to be able to check your students’ understanding of a text. Here’s a list of the top 31 reading comprehension activities that we find to be most varied and beneficial for developing numerous areas of comprehension. So, without further adieu, get exploring to find a few new approaches to try with your class!

1. Roll & Chat Dice

Who would’ve thought that die could be used to assess understanding? This activity relies on just two dies to accomplish just that! Once your students have finished their class reader, have them work in partners or small groups to roll dice and answer the corresponding questions provided. Best of all- you can adapt the questions for any grade level or subject!

Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers

Looking for fun and educational kits for kids? Check out our Favorite Subscription Boxes for Kids

2. WANTED Poster

Here’s an arty pursuit to tie into your next reading comprehension session! Creating a wanted poster for a character in the story that your kids are reading will highlight their understanding of that character. Simply have them draw a picture and add some character traits, and a few actions taken by their characters to demonstrate their knowledge.

Learn More: Education.com

3. Story Cheeseburger

Get your kiddos revved up about reading comprehensions by turning this process into a burger-building expedition! To do so, have your students link each part of a hamburger with a different element of a story! This will help you see if they’ve grasped the plot as well as the other elements, or if there are a few gaps in their understanding.

Learn More: Unique Teaching Resources

4. Reading Comprehension Worksheets 

Nothing like a good ol’ worksheet to ring a concept home! Here’s a plethora of worksheets that include reading passages with comprehension questions that you can quickly print out. They’re useful for teaching different reading strategies and don’t take up too much of your planning and prep time!

Learn More: K5 Learning

5. Make a Timeline

Test your students’ understanding by having them map out a timeline. By doing so, they’ll exhibit their knowledge of sequential events and be able to effectively relay the most important facts from their reading passages.

Learn more: Education.com

6. Yellow Brick Road Retelling

This is an excellent strategy to get your kids involved in active reading. All that’s required is for them to break a passage or story apart piece by piece. Using a piece of poster board, images, sticky notes, and markers, help your learners separate key information in terms of outlining various elements. In the end, they should be able to use the board to retell the chosen tale in a cohesive manner!

Learn More: Just Cara Carroll

7. Anticipation Guide

This is a perfect pre-reading activity to get your students to better understand the reading process in more detail. They’ll need to make some predictions about the story by sharing if they agree or disagree with the statements provided in the anticipation guide. We suggest that you return to this guide after reading to reveal whether or not their predictions were accurate!

Learn More: Reading Rockets

8. Question Ball

This after-reading activity will surely increase student engagement in your class! By taking an inflatable beach ball and writing the 5 W’s on each colored stripe: who, what, when, where, and why- your students can throw the ball around the class and answer questions about the story. Whichever question stem is touching their right hand when they catch the ball can be the start of your crafted question.

Learn More: Coffee Cups and Crayons

9. Lego Retelling

This idea is most suited for use with younger learners who may not have started reading and writing journeys in full yet. Have them retell a story by building lego images that represent different parts of the book. They can then visually piece together scenes as they describe what they’ve built.

Learn More: The Educators Pin On It

10. Story Telling Bracelet

Here’s a simple tactile tool that could be just what your kiddos need to help them retell stories. This teaching procedure involves your kids creating a beaded bracelet that assigns each colored bead to a particular part of a text. For example, yellow for the setting, green for the characters, and blue for the conflict. As you ask them to retell the story, they can touch each bead in an attempt to prompt themselves to recall some of the most important elements of the plot!

Learn More: Growing Book By Book

11. Reading Cheat Sheets

Need to help your students understand critical reading skills? Use these cheat sheets to provide them with expert details and things to bear in mind while they read a text. Simply print out and laminate the cheat sheets or bookmarks and use them to prompt your kiddos to think or discuss different elements of the text. 

Learn More: Research Parent

12. Vocabulary Skits

Improving your students’ vocabulary skills will have a positive impact on their reading comprehension. That’s why we’ve chosen this task for your students to turn selected vocabulary words into short skits. Playing charades and guessing which vocabulary word their classmates are acting out will spice up the often-dry task of vocabulary learning and improve reading comprehension that much faster!

Learn More: YouTube

13. Painting the Scene

Visualizing is a fantastic strategy that can help your students create mental pictures to better recall story elements. Ask your students to close their eyes so that they can’t refer to the illustrations as you read a descriptive book aloud. Then, have them open their eyes and share what they saw before drawing their vivid mental images on a pair of pre-cut paper sunglasses. 

Learn More: Raise the Bar Reading

14. Diary Entries from Characters

Time to get in character! After reading, task your learners with writing a diary entry from the point of view of one of the characters. Thinking like their storybook characters will nurture empathy and emotional intelligence, as well as show you the traits they’ve picked up on and can recall with ease, whilst also providing insight into which areas may need a little more revision. 

Learn More: Twinkl

15. Plotting With Mind Maps

Doodles take on a new purpose with this next idea! Ask your students to create mind maps that connect the dots between characters, themes, and events. This endeavor offers a fresh angle for grasping the narrative’s intricate storyline and is an ideal complement to verbal discussion and traditional book reports.

Learn More: Template.net

16. Expanding Vocabulary with the ‘Word of the Day’

Building vocabulary will definitely help your learners comprehend difficult text. Pick a word from your current class text each day and have your kiddos analyze and learn its definition. Then, the next time this word appears in one of their passages, they’ll already recognize it and know its meaning!  

Learn More: Lizard Learning

17. Cause-and-Effect Diagrams

This activity is great for utilization either during or after a reading session. Simply have your little detectives search for cause-and-effect relationships within their text before recording the examples in the provided diagram. You can also adapt this approach by providing them with the cause and asking them to find the effect and vice versa. 

Learn More: Mrs. Warner’s Learning Community

18. Storyboarding the Text

This activity will intrigue your up-and-coming movie directors! Your students can exhibit their understanding of a narrative by laying out key events on a storyboard. This visually captivating task will help you facilitate an intuitive grasp of the plot sequence whilst highlighting the most important parts of a story by getting your learners to develop detailed pictures and short captions. 

Learn More: Movavi

19. Reciprocal Teaching

Reciprocal teaching is all about activating peer power! Have your students break into small groups and take turns adopting teacher-student roles. The ‘teachers’ will guide discussions and ask probing questions about the text, while the students respond with what they know before switching roles. 

Learn More: Smore

20. Quiz Creation

Test makers, take your positions! Challenge your students to design quizzes about any given text. To up the stakes, their quiz should be complete with multiple-choice, true/false, and short-answer questions. Talk about a fun role reversal that lets them show off their grasp of the material while reinforcing key takeaways.

Learn More: Canva

21. Peek Into The Future

Psychic reading or educated guess anyone? Before diving into a new text, have your students jot down their predictions on sticky notes and paste them on an anchor chart that displays a crystal ball. Later, get them to compare these forecasts to the actual outcomes. 

22. Puppet Show Retelling

Budding theater producers this one’s for you! Encourage your students to reenact pivotal scenes using puppets. This role play activity will amplify their grasp of the characters, storylines, and sequences alike. 

23. Writing Alternate Endings

What if is a powerful question. Once you’ve finished a class book, urge your students to rewrite the ending or even draft a sequel. Alternate realities are more than just creative exercises; they offer a deep dive into understanding characters and their motivations. Plus, they have the potential to ignite discussions on how a single twist can alter the narrative landscape whilst working to reinforce original content and better bind it to memory.

Learn More: Teach Starter

24. Character Interviews

In this activity, one student will role play a storybook character, and the other will act as a journalist. Conducting fictional interviews to explore the psyche and motivations of characters in a newsroom-like setting is bound to get your kiddos more familiar with the content that they’ve read. 

25. Breaking Down Themes

Theme hunters, let’s go! Assign your students the task of dissecting the major themes of a story- discovering recurring motifs and underlying messages along the way. They’ll need to provide text evidence to support their claims and display their comprehension! 

Learn More: Easy Teacher Worksheets

26. Annotation Walk

Annotating is an awesome strategy that can help your kiddos actively engage with a text as they read. By using symbols like an exclamation mark to note a surprising element, or a magnifying glass to highlight something that they want to know more about, your learners can note and track their thoughts on sticky notes! Once complete, hang posters with the symbols around your classroom and have them walk around; adding their annotations onto each display. In the end, spend time dissecting the elements together. 

Learn More: Comprehensible Classroom

27. Text-to-Text Connections

Your students are bound to read tons of different stories and texts throughout the school year. This activity will prompt them to recall texts they’ve previously read and make connections with texts that they’re currently reading. They might compare characters, themes, or conflicts that appeared across texts; tapping into past learning and revising like never before! 

28. Flash Fiction

Flash fiction is a strategy that tasks your students with telling a story with not too much detail, but just enough to keep their classmates engaged. These micro-stories will have maximum impact as they display their ability to explore themes and character development in a shortened version of the plot! 

29. Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers are such a great tool that we find teachers using them across all subject areas! Here’s a plethora of options to incorporate with different reading skills. From Venn diagrams to 5-finger summaries- there’s something that each and every one of your students can use when dissecting their next fiction and nonfiction books!   

Learn More: First Grade Blue Skies

30. Newspaper Reporting

Newspaper reporting is a fun activity that allows your students to act as investigative journalists! Assign your students the task of crafting newspaper reports about significant events from a text. This real-world task will hone their summarizing skills, sharpen their focus on key points, and elucidate their importance. 

31. Book Club Discussions

Why not start a book club in your classroom? Divide your students into small groups for book club-like discussions. Here, they can swap interpretations, address lingering questions, and delve deeper into the text’s mysteries. 

Learn More: ThoughtCo

These are just a few of the best ways to make reading more accessible for your learners. The majority of these activities can be expanded upon to meet the specific needs of your readers, whether that be sequencing events or providing a detailed analysis of character.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are comprehension activities.

Comprehension activities are activities or games that can be used to help your students to demonstrate what they know about a text. This usually covers but is not limited to, setting, plot, and character. Comprehension activities can be expanded to include other ideas too, like the meaning of the text, and can go beyond the details included within the text, such as in terms of contextual information surrounding the creation of the book.

What is the best way to teach comprehension?

Unfortunately, there is no definitive “best” way to teach comprehension to your kids, as each student is different and will respond to different activities. However, one thing that will definitely work is to make comprehension an enjoyable process. Try using the activities above to help with this and avoid simply completing tests or quizzes, as these will not make your student engaged.

How can I improve my comprehension?

Try to go beyond simple ideas of comprehension. Your basic comprehension of a text should include the key events (or plot), the setting (where and when the story happens), and characters (the people or things that the text is about). You should try to expand beyond this by thinking about the meaning of the text. What message was the writer trying to put across? Reading comprehension goes beyond the words on the page – you need to think about the writer’s craft, too.

What are the 3 main types of reading strategies?

The key reading strategies that you will likely encounter are scanning, skimming, and detailed reading. Scanning involves looking for specific information in a text, such as a keyword or detail. Skimming is slightly more in-depth as it is about understanding the main idea of a text by reading small chunks of the passage. Detailed reading is the slowest reading process but is the one that can help you get the most information from a text. Using this last strategy, your kids will understand approximately 80% of the text. Even so, each of these strategies is vital for teaching your students how to read effectively for information.

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Teaching with Jennifer Findley

Upper Elementary Teaching Blog

Free 4th and 5th Grade Reading Activities

On this page, I have compiled my most highly recommended reading activities for literacy instruction in 4th and 5th grade. Under the title of each resource, you will find complete samples that you can download, print, and try out with your students.

If you see great results (I think you will!), just click the link to purchase the complete set or bundle of the reading activities or resources shown.

Curious about how I teach reading in 5th grade? Click here to read a detailed break-down of how I teach reading.

If you have any questions about any of these reading activities and resources, you can read the description found at the link to purchase for more information. If you still have questions, click here to send me a message!

4th and 5th Grade Reading Skills Bundle

This huge resource includes the reading activities and resources that I use to teach my major reading skills and standards. The reading activities included in the resource include:

• Reading Charts/Posters
• Graphic Organizers
• Reading Passages
• Small Group Reading Activities
• And often much more, depending on the resource.

—-> Click here to download a free reading passage and poster from my Story Elements set.

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4th and 5th Grade Reading Resources

5th grade reading exit slips.

Reading exit slips are an effective, easy to implement way to assess students with reading skills and standards.

—> Click here to download free reading exit slips that assess fiction and nonfiction comprehension.

Want more 5th grade reading exit slips?

Paired Passages 4th/5th Grade

Paired passages are huge on state exams now. Students need several opportunities to read paired passages and answer questions that require the students to use both passages. It is difficult to create paired passage questions on a whim. To help, I created paired passage resources. They include engaging paired passages and rigorous questions that provide the practice that students need.

—> Click here to grab a FREE paired passage set. Your students will love learning about google and Gameboy with these paired passages and reading activities.

Click here to see a discounted bundle of my most popular paired passage resources.

Reading Choice Boards

Using choice boards is an effective (and easy prep) way to offer students choice when they are learning various reading skills. These reading choice boards allow you to offer your students choice while also ensuring they are practicing grade-level reading skills. The reading choice boards are perfect reading activities for reading centers, reading homework, and early finishers.

—> Click here to download some free reading choice boards. The resource includes a free reading and math choice board for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade.

Interested in more reading choice boards? Click on your grade level to see full sets. 3rd Grade Choice Boards 4th Grade Choice Boards 5th Grade Choice Boards

Reading Centers 4th/5th Grade

Saved the best for last! These next few reading activities are my absolute favorite reading resources. They work perfectly for reading centers, reading stations, small group reading instruction, and more!

Reading Games

These reading games are prefect for small group instruction that can carry over into a reading center. This free reading activity includes one reading passage and a game-board with text-dependent questions. I like to read and discuss the passage as a whole group or small group reading activity and then have the students “play” the game at a reading center or station.

—> Click here to download a free reading game!

Reading Roll and Answer Centers

This next reading activity is pretty simple but still a nice change from just answering questions. The students read a text and then roll two dice to determine which question they will answer. You could make this more engaging by having the students play it BUMP style.

—> Click here to download a free roll and answer reading center.

Click in the box below to see a bundle of the two above reading activities, which are also sold separately.

Reading Centers and Games

Reading puzzles.

These reading puzzles are the perfect way to get your students to practice grade level reading skills in a hands-on way.

—> Click here to download a free mini-set of reading puzzles for identifying text structures.

Reading Spinners

Really want students to go deep with a reading skill or standard? Try these reading spinners. They take one reading skill and have the students dive deep by answering a variety of questions related to that reading skill.

—> Click here to download a free set of reading spinners (one for spinner for each skill: theme, text structure, main idea, and point of view).

Reading Spinners for 4th and 5th Grade

4th and 5th grade reading homework.

If you are looking for a simple to implement, but rigorous reading homework program for your 4th and 5th graders, I highly recommend checking out this resource. Here are the key features that I love:

• One passage per week to allow the students to close read, build fluency, and really dig into one text
• Skills-based sets allow you to spiral your standards and reading skills all year
• Works with any pacing guide

—-> Click here to download a free reading homework set to try out with your students.

Click here to purchase the Reading Homework Bundle for 4th and 5th grade!

3rd Grade Reading Homework

Do you have readers reading below grade level and want to make sure they can comprehend and successfully complete their reading homework? I recommend checking out my 3rd grade reading homework, which is set up the same way as my 4th and 5th grade set.

—-> Click here to download a free week of the 3rd grade reading homework to try out!

Click here to purchase the 3rd Grade Reading Homework Bundle.

5th Grade Language Resources

In 5th grade, I have found that the language standards are not often the same grammar needs that my students have. So, I teach grammar that is at my students’ level during writing workshop. For the language standards, I use a quick and easy to implement curriculum that only requires 10-15 minutes a day. Each set in the curriculum includes the following:

• Teaching Posters/Charts
• Practice Printables
• 4 Day Practice

—> Click here to try out the Figurative Language set. You will love how it simplifies your language instruction.

5th Grade Language and Grammar Resources

P.S. I also have language task cards and language centers, if you are looking for more language resources. You can view a MEGA Bundle of all my 5th grade language resources by clicking here (this includes the resource described above!)

Thank you for your interest in my reading activities and resources for 4th and 5th grade! Let me know if you have any questions! Click here to send me a message!

Welcome Friends!

I’m Jennifer Findley: a teacher, mother, and avid reader. I believe that with the right resources, mindset, and strategies, all students can achieve at high levels and learn to love learning. My goal is to provide resources and strategies to inspire you and help make this belief a reality for your students.

Free Middle School ELA Resources to Save You Time and Money

I am happy to provide you with free middle school ELA resources to save you both time and money! Here, you will find how you can use my  free ELA resources  to help teach comprehension, text structure, and inferencing: three sets of skills that always appear on reading assessments!

Comprehension Resources

First, understanding is the foundation of literacy and critical thinking. Students must first understand what they read before they can even begin to analyze it, apply it, and evaluate it. Using Bloom’s Taxonomy can be a great way to look at instructional objectives and also help students build upon prior knowledge and skills already attained to achieve more challenging objectives.

Building Vocabulary

To build understanding, we study vocabulary. Building vocabulary is one of the most important skills for elementary and even middle school readers. Students will encounter a broad range of words that will be unfamiliar to them. In order to get through difficult texts, they must be able to determine their meaning. The best way to accomplish this is to use context clues. Of course, I have the perfect daily reading activities to teach context clues for grades 5 through 8! Using the free resource  Daily Reading: Context Clues Week 1 , you can provide students with daily opportunities to determine the meaning of challenging words. Along with practicing using context clues, learners will also get a chance to practice inferencing and determining the central idea of a piece, both higher-level literacy skills. To try out another free resource for context clues, check out the   Survival Stories Week 1 free resource ! All of these activities are perfect bell ringers to get your classes ready for state assessments or just to use as review.

Text Structure

Understanding a text’s structure (and how to navigate it) is a key component of comprehension. I always tell my students that they can find the main idea by understanding the text structure! Many state and even district reading assessments include questions focused on text structure, so this next freebie is a great tool for test prep! In the   Text Structure Reading Comprehension Passages freebie , you will find three reading comprehension passages and multiple-choice questions to help your learners prepare for their tests!

Inferencing

To infer means to look at the available information you have and draw a conclusion as to its meaning. You may even phrase it as “reading between the lines.” I have students read passages daily about different informational text topics and then answer two multiple-choice questions that focus on the central idea and an inference that could be made from the passage. To support their choice, students are asked to provide a quote that supports the inference they made. These activities are great for bell ringers to start your class, to use as homework to extend the lesson, or even to use as test prep! Try it for yourself free using   Week 1 of the Daily Reading: Central Ideas and Inferencing 8 Week Bundle !

Additional Reading Passages

To keep the freebies flowing, pair the above activities with daily reading comprehension passages about  blizzards . (What middle schooler doesn’t love learning about natural disasters?) Next, try reading comprehension passages focusing on  Amelia Earhart . And to round out the free resources to teach context clues, add a little fun review into your lessons using the  Winter Context Clues Color by Number Freebie ! These multiple ELA freebies will not only save your wallet but your sanity! I love using these resources in small groups, for bell ringers, and for test preparation and to get a jump start on teaching vocabulary development, context clues, comprehension, text structures, and even inferencing! Enjoy!

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22 Effective ESL Reading Activities Your Students Will Love

Do your ESL students sometimes struggle to understand what they’ve read?

Reading comprehension is notoriously difficult for students to learn and for teachers to teach. You have to make it interesting and effective. Otherwise, your students will lose interest and get discouraged from reading in English altogether.

In this post, I’ve compiled 22 awesome and effective ESL reading comprehension activities that your students will surely enjoy. Some are straightforward, while others require a bit of preparation prior to the main activity.

1. Pick the Right Word: Which Is It?

2. picture quiz: brown bear, what do you see, 3. connect the dots: this word goes with that picture, 4. sequence: putting humpty dumpty back together, 5. story retelling: showtime, 6. cause and effect: who solves the mystery, 7. following directions: it’s a treasure hunt, 8. multiple-choice: get it right, 9. short answers: a story within a story, 10. vocabulary focus: show and tell, 11. decoding idioms: guess what the phrase means, 12. question time: prep for the real work, 13. read and repeat: get pronunciation down pat, 14. paragraph summary: tell it another way, 15. quiz writing and giving: stump your classmates, 16. true or false: give me a thumbs-up (or down), 17. puzzle making: cut and paste, 18. taboo: don’t say that, 19. class discussions: talk it out, 20. class debates: fight it out, 21. class presentations: in-class ted talks, 22. class presentations redux: tell me about [a favorite topic], why do esl reading comprehension activities.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Most ESL reading activities designed to test comprehension look like this:

Sarah went to the (beach/park). There, she met a friend who went to (science class/summer camp) two years ago.

You can usually find exercises like this for free on K12Reader.com and Mr. Nussbaum.com , so you don’t need to spend time making them on your own.

They’re rather cut-and-dry as far as exercises go, but if you’re new to giving out ESL reading comprehension activities or are looking for a safe option, you can always fall back on this one.

If you’re looking for a more creative version of “Pick the Right Word,” you can also craft an ESL reading comprehension activity that doesn’t necessarily involve words and sentences (as strange as that might sound).

Instead of giving students two options to choose from or having them fill in the blanks, you can give them a bunch of pictures and have them do some matching.

Using the example above ( Sarah went to the (beach/park) . ..), you can label several pictures as A, B, C and D. Picture A can be a beach, Picture B can be a park and so on. Students can then sort through the pictures, and write the correct letter corresponding to the correct image in the blank space.

Alternatively, you could also use “Connect the Dots” for the same exercise above. This works especially well with younger ESL learners, who’ll be more appreciative of colorful pictures accompanying their learning activities.

Feel free to throw in an irrelevant picture or two to make the activity a tad more tricky and interesting. It’ll also more accurately gauge whether your students actually understand the answers they’re giving out or are just guessing them.

Nursery rhymes like “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall” are engaging for ESL learners of any age.

For this activity, use pictures to retell the story and help your students remember the main plot points, characters and events of the text.

Preparation

• Create copies of two stories. Make sure each is single-spaced and printed on a separate piece of paper. Label each story “Story 1” and “Story 2.”
• Make a worksheet of a bunch of pictures (related to the stories you’ve created) labeled with either numbers or letters. Make sure there are spaces or lines immediately below the pictures where your students can write their answers. Depending on your class’s level, you can turn the labeling exercise into the perfect drill for practicing spelling and sentence construction.
• Give your students the picture worksheet, and talk about what’s happening in each picture.
• Ask your students to turn over the picture worksheet, and hand out the two stories to read.
• After the students have finished reading, have them flip the papers with the stories over to the blank back side. Without looking at the story, students should cut out the pictures, and glue them to the back of the right story in chronological order.

If you need some inspiration for fantastic picture reading comprehension worksheets, try ESlFlow.com . There are also some interesting picture worksheets on Cal.org that  focus specifically on health literacy for ESL adults .

You’ll probably find that it’s easier and more fun to find a story online, and download images from Google to make your own picture stories.

Story retelling involves reading a text or story and then acting it out to other students. If you have students who love role play, they’ll enjoy this one and similar activities .

• Choose from any of these short stories for ESL students , print them out and make enough copies for the whole class.
• Divide students into small groups. Make sure the size of each group matches the number of characters in the stories you’re handing out.
• Give each group a different story that they’ll need to act out in front of the class.
• Prepare (or have your students prepare) a list of short answers/multiple choice/true or false questions to engage the audience and evaluate how well the actors captured the events of the story.
• Once everything is set, it’s showtime!

Cause and effect questions help students think outside the box and better understand the ripple effect of events.

Text materials that have a mysterious plot or historical background are excellent choices, because they require students to understand the context of the mystery, the clues and the characters to fully appreciate the thrills of crime solving.

For example, you can read this interesting crime scene together with your students in class. Your objective with this activity is to answer the final question: Why isn’t Inspector Coderre satisfied with Ms. Webb’s version of the event? 

• Divide students into groups.
• Create a cause and effect map to capture the first part of Ms. Webb’s testimony, which ends right before the sentence, “The inspector was very sympathetic and told her that it was very natural to not want to damage somebody’s property.” For example, you can write something like “ (effect) Ms. Webb could see the study room → it was well-lit. (cause) ” or “ (cause) Ms. Webb broke a small window → to get into the house. (effect) ” It doesn’t matter how you order the cause and effect—the point is to help students notice details in the story and make an effective analysis.
• Ask the students to identify the part of the testimony that made the detective lose his sympathy. Analyze that testimonial section with another cause and effect chart. Do they notice any inconsistencies?
• Discuss the students’ findings in class or in small groups.

You don’t have to limit ESL reading comprehension activities to short stories. You can also facilitate hands-on activities to encourage your students to read, such as this treasure hunt game.

• Create a map. It can be hand-drawn or printed. Give unique names to the basic geographic features of the classroom/schoolyard, so students can navigate the “rainforest” or “dark caves” without getting lost.
• Put together a clue sheet to help locate the treasure. It should be filled with hints, codes and even secret messages for students to decode. For example, if you hid a diamond playing card on the third shelf of a bookcase in the corner, you can give the following clue: It stands in a corner with lots of pages for you to read. The diamond is on the third floor and right under a fairy tale. 
• Hide different treasures (cards, small balls and beanies) in the classroom or schoolyard.
• Divide your students into groups.
• Give them the map and clue sheet to locate the treasure.
• The first group that finds their treasure wins the game. But they’re always welcome to join other teams to help them find their treasures, too!

Multiple-choice is a classic, wonderful way to ease your students into new material. It’s also excellent for building much-needed confidence before moving on to more challenging ways of checking reading comprehension.

You’ll want to use “scaling” in your multiple choice questions—i.e., making each question slightly more difficult than the one before it. This way, your students will be challenged just enough to keep going.

To get started:

• Ask students to read a short story, article or blog post. 
• Give them a few concise multiple-choice questions afterward.
• Go over the questions and answers as a class.

In this activity, your aim is to get students to dig deeper beneath the surface of what they’re reading. You want them to go beyond answering questions about the events and characters in the story, and talk about related topics as well.

For example, if a short story features lovers who are of the same gender, the students might want to formulate short answers about the concept of homosexuality. (Of course, if this is a taboo topic in the area where you’re teaching, or your students aren’t at the level where they can talk about such topics yet, you may want to pick an easier subject that’s less emotionally charged or controversial.) 

There are a lot of ways to go about this activity. You can:

• Give students time to read the story in class.
• Assign the story as homework.
• Pair students up, and have them develop short answers together.
• Have pairs read their short answers to other pairs.

This exercise is a great way to put some of your students’ newly learned words to good use. Plus, you don’t have to search far for new words—the ones that appear in the assigned reading will do.

All you have to do is:

• Pair students up.
• Have them underline key words in the target text.
• Have them look up any words they don’t know.
• Have students present their vocabulary terms to their classmates.

Decoding phrases, especially idioms, can be tricky for most students. That’s why it’s a good idea to devote an entire activity to this concept alone.

• Scan the assigned or target text for idioms that may be difficult to decode based on context alone.
• Compile these words and phrases, and print them on a worksheet.
• Ask your students to read the collection of phrases, and have them write down or discuss what they think the phrases mean. Be careful not to use too many phrases, or you’ll bore the life out of your students and discourage them from reading the assigned or target text further. 
• Once everyone is done, explain the phrases to the students. If you speak your students’ mother tongue, you can also judiciously use the bilingual method of teaching English . Ask them if they have similar idioms in their language.
• Challenge your students to write sentences using the new idioms, either in class or for homework. This allows you to check for comprehension and tweak accordingly.

Often, ESL reading activities involve answering questions after the text has been read. For this activity, it’ll be the other way around. 

Pre-reading questions are great for reading comprehension because:

• They orient the reader to the genre, topic and purpose of the text.
• They allow the reader to activate their knowledge of related vocabulary, and glean the key words and phrases they should seek to understand in the reading.
• They provide a focus for the reading of the text, so students know what information is important and what isn’t.
• They save a ton of time during reading comprehension tests.

Encourage your students to underline key words and phrases, and make notes and translations where necessary. This will help them avoid the common error of not answering the question as it’s written on the paper. A little time spent going over their notes here can improve the overall accuracy and relevance of their answers.

Reading comprehension work gives you an excellent opportunity to get in some pronunciation activities for your ESL students . These will enhance their speaking and listening skills all at once.

For example, when working on a text in class, you can:

• Read a sentence in the target text.
• Have the students repeat the sentence after you, paying close attention to their pronunciation.
• If you notice anything off about their pronunciation, give them gentle feedback .
• Once you’ve worked through the entire piece, have the students read it back to you paragraph by paragraph. Again, take the opportunity to correct where necessary.

Similar to the short answer activity discussed earlier, paragraph summary activities can challenge your students and help them develop their unique English voices.

This activity could be done post-reading, but it’s also an excellent way to ensure comprehension as you work through the text with your students.

• Put students in groups.
• Give them the text as you usually would.
• Encourage your students to take notes, annotate and underline as they go. Ask them to talk about any personal connections that they have to the topic(s), or to put themselves in the shoes of someone featured in the text. Students will benefit from relating what they’ve learned to their own lives.
• At the end of a paragraph (or suitable portion of the text), have the students summarize what they’ve read in their own words. They should be instructed to write it out in no more than four or five sentences. Encourage them to use different words and sentence constructions.
• Have them present their summaries to the class. The presentations can last from 30 seconds to a minute each.
• Answer any questions that arise.

A fun post-reading activity is to have a quiz based on the reading comprehension text.

Students generally get lots of opportunities to answer questions in class, but not as many to ask them. Try checking their comprehension by having them ask their classmates questions about the passage they’ve read.

I’ll go into the specific quiz formats later, but the activity will generally go like this:

• Have them create a quiz for the other groups.
• Have the groups grade the quizzes.
• Discuss the quiz questions and answers as a class.

The quizzes don’t have to be in the usual pen-and-paper format. They can also come in the form of an:

• Oral quiz.  This gives the students an opportunity to use their new vocabulary in speech.
• Game show quiz. Set up a game resembling “Jeopardy!,” or choose from any other famous TV game show to model your quiz on.

True or false is yet another standard classroom activity that can be made fun for your ESL classroom.

• Take your featured text, and create a good number of “yes or no” questions about it. Each question should be relatively simple, covering the main topic, events, themes, characters and anything else described in the text.
• Read the questions out loud while students follow along on a worksheet. Have the students respond to the statements by giving a thumbs-up for a true statement or a thumbs-down for a false statement. This allows you to easily spot the students who are struggling to understand the piece and support them accordingly.

For longer and more complex pieces, you can review the true or false statements at the end of each paragraph or page, instead of the end like you would with simpler pieces.

This could be done as a pre- or post-reading activity and works best in groups.

• Photocopy the passage, and cut it into pieces. Chunks of one or two paragraphs are best.
• Get your students to put the reading together. 

You could also do a cloze reading exercise like so:

• From the reading, choose topic sentences that you want your students to work on.
• Using your word processor software (like Microsoft Word or Google Docs ), type or copy-and-paste the topic sentences into a blank page.
• From the sentences, cut the words you want your students to work on, and paste them at the bottom of the page. Replace the cut words in the sentences with blanks.
• Let your students fill out the blanks using the words pasted at the bottom of the page.

Luckily, here are some ready-to-use cloze activities on different topics you can swipe from. 

Taboo is arguably the best game for practicing vocabulary and livening up your lesson. If you haven’t heard of it before, it essentially involves a student explaining what the key word they’re thinking of means without using the key word itself or synonyms of any kind.

Here’s another variation:

• Put students in groups of four to five members.
• One student goes first. They draw their key word on the board. If the word is “financial,” the student won’t be able to say “bank,” “money” or “financial.” They can only make gestures or add details to their drawing.
• The student who guesses which word fits the drawing gets a point.

Class discussions can take place before or after your ESL reading activities.

If you’re doing it beforehand, your goal should be to engage the students and activate their current vocabulary, getting them to talk in broad terms about the topic they’ll be reading.

For example, if the text will be about tourism, kickstart a discussion with questions like:

• What are the benefits of a strong tourism industry?
• What are the best tourist destinations in their home country, and why?
• What are major problems for tourism for their home country?

You can put these questions on a worksheet with ample space for brainstorming and forming opinions independently.

Alternatively, you could divide students into pairs or small groups to discuss the topic before reading the text. Since you’re already familiar with the text they’ll be looking at, you can skillfully and subtly steer the conversation into issues and areas related to the gist of the text to come.

If you’re doing post-reading discussions, you can use questions from ESL textbooks , come up with your own questions or—if your students are at a high enough level—have them come up with the questions themselves.

• Have them write two to three discussion questions.
• Use the questions as a basis for class discussion.

For some fantastic ESL-oriented discussion questions on a variety of topics, click right here .

If the passage is about something topical, you could use it to organize a debate.

There are many ways to structure a class debate, but the one I usually use is pretty simple:

• One-minute argument
• One-minute rebuttal
• The facilitator (usually you or a capable student) gives feedback.

Suitable for intermediate to advanced students, a debate offers a platform to share opinions about a given topic. Often, with a little imagination, a reading comprehension topic can segue into a debate topic relevant to the students’ own lives.

You know how watching a TED Talk often leaves you with a feeling that you’ve learned something new or even life-changing afterward? Recreate that format in class to further boost reading comprehension.

For example, if the class just read an article about the qualities of a good brand, the students could deliver two-minute presentations about their favorite brand and what makes it special.

To make the most of these in-class TED Talks:

• Show them a relevant TED Talk in class, so they can get the hang of the format.
• Give students time to create their own TED Talks. You could also assign it as a homework assignment instead.
• Decide whether the TED Talk should be done individually or in groups. Both work well enough, in my experience.

Then again, your students might feel intimidated at the thought of having to recreate presentations that are given by big-name personalities and watched by millions of people around the world.

In that case, it’s okay to take a more down-to-earth approach to presentations. Give your students a bit more leeway with the format. Better yet, let them have the freedom to talk about any topic they choose.

This way, they’ll make more of an effort to communicate their passion for something in English. They’ll also have a solid incentive to brush up on the necessary vocabulary and express themselves in colorful ways. Watch them come alive as they talk about the things that matter the most to them.

• Reading doesn’t only teach ESL students grammar, word usage and sentence structure. It also enables them to acquire new information about the culture surrounding their target language.
• Reading helps students see how English is communicated through writing. As you know, good writing and being a good reader go hand in hand.
• Reading comprehension activities help students test their understanding of words in a written context. At the same time, they can get the most out of their reading assignments.

While you’ve undoubtedly used conventional tests to quiz your students, there are ways to make reading comprehension activities effective without relying on the same old methods.

For example, you can:

• Have your students listen to ESL podcasts . Some of them have transcripts, so students could read those first, then listen to the episode afterward and combine listening and reading comprehension.
• Use videos with subtitles in your classroom for a fun twist on reading comprehension. The key is to use videos that have subtitles, like YouTube and FluentU , the latter of which has authentic videos with accurate transcripts. Have students read the transcript first, then play the video in class.

Sure, there’s a time for your students to read for pleasure outside the classroom. However, in-class reading comprehension activities maximize the benefits of reading by making it more relevant and personal to them.

Also, as their teacher, you’ll have opportunities to clarify misunderstandings and ambiguities, as well as enhance students’ vocabulary, word usage and interpretation skills.

With a few dashes of entertainment and creativity here and there, your ESL students will come to love reading in English beyond its educational benefits. 

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Reading Worksheets, Spelling, Grammar, Comprehension, Lesson Plans

High School Worksheets

The 9th-12th grade band materials support student learning for students at the ninth, tenth, eleventh, or twelfth grade levels. Many items can be used to teach basic skills that will be necessary for ninth through twelfth graders to master reading, writing, and spelling skills. Locating materials by grade band can help you with students who are progressing more quickly than their grade level with their skills mastery, but it can also help with students who are still working on the core skills from a previous grade, as well as a mixed classroom of multiple learners. Below are free, printable worksheets, which are ready to be used or duplicated for home or classroom.

Narrator’s Point of View Flow Chart

This flowchart helps students identify the correct point of view. They answer “yes” and “no” questions to identify the correct point of view.

Spot It: Unnecessary Words

Practice identifying unnecessary words with this printable worksheet on editing and proofing. Students will be asked to read through a series of sentences and circle the ones that contain unnecessary words. This activity is great for use both at home and in the classroom.

Active Voice: Which One?

Students will practice identifying active voice with this printable verbs activity. This worksheet asks students to read through the given sentences and circle the number of each sentence that is in active voice. Ideal for 8th – 10th grade, but can be used where felt appropriate. This activity can be used both at home and in the classroom by parents, teachers, or students.

Charles Dickens Visits America

In 1842 Charles Dickens was probably the most famous English language author in the world. In this year he visited America. Students read about the trip and answer the questions.

Charles Dickens: David Copperfield and His Aunt

Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, published in 1849, is one of his most famous works. Students read the passage and answer questions.

Circle It! Correct Punctuation

Students will practice identifying correctly used punctuation in this printable activity. They will be asked to read through the given sentences and circle the number of the sentences that have correct punctuation. Ideal for 6th – 12th grade, but can be used where needed.

Correcting Dangling Modifiers

Now it’s time to correct the dangling modifiers in sentences!

Correcting Misplaced Modifiers

Your student will correct the misplaced modifiers in this worksheet.

Edgar Allan Poe and the Fall of the House of Usher

In this activity, students read a passage from Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and write what they think the underlined words mean.

Edgar Allan Poe: The Oval Portrait

In this activity, students read a passage from Edgar Allan Poe’s 1842 short story “The Oval Portrait” and answer questions.

Elegy for Lincoln: Walt Whitman’s Poem

In this activity, students read a “O Captain! My Captain!” about Abraham Lincoln and his death. Students then answer questions about the poem.

Explaining Oxymorons

This oxymoron worksheet is awfully good!

Figurative Language: Find the Hyperbole

This hyperbole worksheet is the best ever!

Find the Misplaced Modifiers

See if you can identify the other misplaced modifiers in this printable grammar worksheet. This grammar activity for middle school students is great for improving reading and writing skills. While it is ideal for 7th – 9th grade, it can be used where needed. This misplaced modifiers activity is perfect for both parents and teachers to use in the classroom or at home.

Higher Grades KWL Chart Template

KWL charts are helpful tools to teach students how to approach problem solving. This template is designed for students in middle school and high school.

How to Write a Thesis Statement

This activity helps students develop a strong thesis statement for their essays by providing practice writing sample statements.

How to Write an Introduction: Bridge Building Activity

This activity is designed to help students learn about writing introductions through a fun bridge building activity to join the lead noun card and thesis statement card.

How to Write an Introduction: Different Leads

This is a fun, creative activity where students explore ways to include factoids, stories, metaphors and more to create “hooks”. A great activity to help students develop strong introductions.

How to Write an Introduction: Lead Types

Creating an attention-grabbing lead isn’t always easy but it’s very rewarding to students when they are able to create engaging introductions. This activity provides great practice to build better introductions!

How to Write an Introduction: Lead, Bridge, and Thesis

Let’s combine it all! This activity helps students use thesis statements, bridges and leads to write strong essay introductions.

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Memorial Day Fun FACTS Homework Close Read Info Text 5 Level Passages PRINT N GO

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February 3rd Grade Florida F.A.S.T. Reading ELA Daily Practice

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August 3rd Grade Florida F.A.S.T. Reading ELA Daily Practice

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2nd Grade Reading Worksheets

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25 2nd Grade Reading Worksheets

Compound words #1

Some words are made up of two other words! In this language arts worksheet, your child gets practice putting together compound words such as football, playground, and pancake.

Compound words #2

Jig + saw = jigsaw! When two individual words can be added together to form a new word, that's a compound word. In this language arts worksheet, your child will find as many compound words as possible using a set of 15 root words.

Compound words: all mixed up!

These compound words are mixed up — can you fix them? In this language arts worksheet, your child gets practice decoding erroneous compound words, correcting them, and writing accurate compound words.

Conjunctions

Conjunctions are words that join sentences. In this writing worksheet, your child gets practice combining two sentences into one using different conjunctions.

Some books have a glossary. In this reading worksheet, your child learns what a glossary is and gets practice using a glossary to answer questions.

Can you figure out the word? Homographs are words with multiple meanings. In this vocabulary-building worksheet, your child will write the word that matches all three definitions given.

Write or right? In this language arts worksheet, your child will look up sets of homophones to learn the definitions of the all the like-sounding (but differently spelled) words.

How to write a story

In this set of reading and writing worksheets, your children will first read two short stories for mechanics, then draw and label a diagram about those stories, answer prompts to create their own story, and finish by writing a complete story!

Language play: sound words

Vrooom goes the car! In this language arts worksheet, your child will match each sound word to the object that makes that sound.

Poems: a mysterious story (meaning and mechanics)

Who is the Traveler? In this language arts worksheet, your child will read the poem aloud and then answer a series of reading comprehension questions about key details, overall meaning, and mechanics of the poem.

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November 18, 2023

8 top holiday literacy resources your students will love + freebies.

December is often a busy time not just in the classroom, but in our personal lives as well. That coupled with the holiday excitement that the students bring to school each day, it can feel overwhelming to manage everyone and everything. I found over the years that when I bring the holiday fun into the classroom with purposeful, engaging activities, things seem to feel a bit less chaotic. So I say let’s bring on the Polar Express, holidays around the world, and reindeer by including holiday literacy activities in lesson planning.

Today I want to share some of my favorite holiday literacy resources to add some holiday cheer to your literacy block. Additionally, many of these resources also make great displays for the hallway or your classroom.

Why I Love Integrating Literacy and Holidays

During a busy season like the holidays, you can make more time to do fun holiday activities and crafts when you get creative with how you fit them into your day. Through read alouds, shared reading, interactive notebook activities, writing crafts, and themed centers, we can easily integrate reading and writing through the season to bring holiday cheer in our classrooms while improving literacy skills.

I also love any opportunity to sneak in extra practice with writing conventions, reading comprehension, and word work. When we do activities that are truly engaging, my students don’t always realize that they are learning and practicing important skills at the same time.

Top Holiday Literacy Activities

These are some of my favorite holiday literacy activities for kinder, first, and second grades. I also sprinkled in some freebies , so be sure to check them out!

December Literacy Stations

One great way to bring holiday literacy activities to your classroom is through literacy centers. Holiday-themed literacy stations always bring cheer to your reading block time! The December Literacy Stations has seven centers for you to use this month:

• Book Making
• Sight Words
• Pocket Chart

With simple-to-prep stations, you and your students will all love these engaging activities!

Get December Literacy Stations HERE!

Gingerbread Writing Craftivity

The Gingerbread Writing Craftivity is perfect for your students to self-assess their own writing! For each writing convention, the students earn a part of their gingerbread kid. It’s a great way to integrate some meaningful writing and be purposeful with an adorable craft! Plus, the finished activity makes a great display for the holiday season.

Get the Gingerbread Writing Craftivity HERE!

Gingerbread Man Activities and Literacy Activities

With 18 different reading and writing activities for everything gingerbread, this Gingerbread Printables resource will bring a ton of fun to your literacy time! The gingerbread holiday literacy activities include retelling, sequencing, comparing different gingerbread books, a mini book, writing activities, and everything you need for a gingerbread man hunt!

Get the Gingerbread Printables HERE!

FREE Mouse and Movie Retelling Activity

After reading the book If You Take a Mouse to the Movies , use this FREE Mouse and Movies Retelling activity for students to practice sequencing. My students and I loved any chance we could to make a purposeful craft! For younger students, they can draw what happens in the book. First and second graders can write (and draw) the events.

Get the FREE Mouse and Movies Activity HERE!

Holiday Flip Books

These 19 Holiday Flip Books are perfect for your social studies or science interactive notebooks. They can be used after reading The Polar Express, after an elf visits your classroom, or as you learn about reindeer! They are also a great fit for teaching about Christmas Around the World and are a great way to integrate literacy!

Get the Holiday Flip Books HERE!

Christmas Around the World Flip Up Book Bundle

Do you teach Christmas around the world, but struggle to find a way for students to document their learning and keep up with each country’s traditions? The Christmas Around the World Flip Up Books are for you!

They are the perfect little activities for your students to be engaged as they learn about Christmas Around the World! Each flip book includes reading, sorting, and writing! It is easy to create with the printing instructions that are included.

Get the Christmas Around the World Flip Up Books HERE!

Winter Word Making Freebie

This little activity has three mystery word making activities for you to do whole group, in a small group, or even to drop in a word work center. You could also make it a competition during your holiday party. Students will use the letters provided and see how many words they can build. This activity is always a hit!

Get the Winter Work Making Freebie HERE!

Holidays Around the World Bundle

This Holidays Around the World unit helps students compare and contrast Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and Christmas. It makes it simple to learn about Kwanzaa , Hanukkah , and Christmas as you celebrate them all! You’ll easily integrate reading and writing with social studies with each of these resources.

Each resource has graphic organizers, vocabulary cards, sorting activities, and a craft. You’ll be set for social studies for the whole month with packing in lots of literacy at the same time! I bundled them together so you get all three units for the price of two!

Get the Holidays Around the World Bundle HERE!

I know the month of December can feel a little chaotic in the classroom. That’s why I like to harness the holiday excitement and integrate holiday fun into reading and writing as much as possible. All of these holiday literacy activities do just that! You can also shop my whole shop’s Christmas and holiday section of resources HERE .

Happy Teaching,

• freebie , Literacy

EASILY PLAN YOUR K-2 READING SMALL GROUPS​

Want to use the latest research to boost your readers during small groups? This  FREE  guide is packed with engaging ideas to help them grow!

Hi, I'm Amanda

I’m a K-1 teacher who is passionate about making lessons your students  love  and that are  easy to implement  for teachers.  Helping teachers like you navigate their way through their literacy block brings me great joy. I am a lifelong learner who loves staying on top of current literacy learning and practices. Here, you’ll find the tools you need to move your K-2 students forward!

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