How Can We Teach our Students to be Independent Readers?

How can we teach our elementary students to be independent readers?

The following strategies, adapted for the Israeli EFL classroom from a book called "The Reading Strategies Book" by Jennifer Serravallo, will help young learners acquire reading habits that are sure to help.

Click here to read the previous post on reading strategies for emergent readers. 

1.  Look for a perfect reading spot.

What do you think you need from the environment to get the most reading done?

Pick a spot that will work for you. Bright or dim light? Noisy or quiet? Hard or soft seating? Laying down or sitting upright?

2.  Vary the length of reading.

Plan stopping places and have short breaks. You can mark your stop with a marker or a sticky note. On the break, students can use a "look book" or another activity before going back to reading.

3.  Reread to get back to reading

When students get distracted, they can stop, notice where their attention first started to drift, go back to the last thing they remember really understanding and reread from there.  If attention shifts very often, they should consider changing something in the environment that is causing them to be distracted.

4.  Retell and jump back in

When student mind wanders, the student can pull his/her attention back, quickly retell what they remember about the text and jump right back.

5.  Fixing the fuzziness

It is crucial to make sense of what we are reading. Students should often check in with themselves while reading and ask themselves: What's happening? Do I have feelings about it? Can I visualize what is happening? If not, then back up, reread to make sure you are understanding.

6.  Prime yourself with prior knowledge

Before starting to read, think about the topic, and set yourself for success by thinking about what the text will look like, what is the structure, what do you know about the topic, the author etc.

7.  "Party" Ladder

With this strategy, students set goals while reading, draw a ladder and write each goal on the steps of the ladder. When they get to the top, they have a little celebration.

8.  Ask questions to engage with the text

Students engage their mind by asking questions as they read. For example: what will the sisters do to Cinderella? Why did the character do that? What do I think will happen next? What is the reason this happened?

9.  Look up more information online

In order to be engaged with the text, students can stop and search for more videos about the topic/reviews/posts/pictures online regarding the topic. This will enhance the reading experience and help in deepening the understanding.

10.      Stop and Visualize

When reading, try to create a picture in your mind that shifts and changes. It is essential to staying focused.

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Hili

tags: reading, english, efl