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This resource offers 36 vocabulary quizzes to see what your students have already learnt and it provides an opportunity for educators to inform further planning based on their results. Assessment is important because it enables educators to plan effectively for children’s current and future learning (DEEWR, 2009, p.17).This resource is influenced by Stages Models of Reading which indicated this is done to provide greater understanding of the reading process.By having a sense of what readers have accomplished, what stage they are in now, and what stage they are headed for (Ehri, 1994).

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Vocabulary quizzes | Printables for ESL teachers and kids

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Printable quizzes for kids to learn, practise and revise English vocabulary. Sorted alphabetically by topic, with wordlists. Resources for ESL teachers.

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This resource offers a phonemic awareness game which is simple to use and fun to play in the Early Childhood setting and this relates to reading and viewing focus area. This game demonstrates how words are made of sounds and help children understand the spelling of the capital letter of each word. This awareness is one of the strongest predictors of performance in word reading and spelling (Hoien, Lundberg, Stanovich & Bjaalid, 1995). This can be used as an opportunity to check children’s understanding of alphabetic principle and the ability to sound out printed words (Torgesen, Otaiba, Grek, 2005).

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Our phonemic awareness games are simple to use and fun to play.
Just read the rules below, and click on the printable link to get started on one of our fun, easy-to-use games.

Letter Lane Free Phonics Game

Skills: Beginning consonant sounds: b, d, f, m
Grade level: preK-1
Players: 2-3
Objective: Be the first player to reach END
Supplies: Printable game board, answer key, and cards; one marker for each player

Preparation: Print the board, key and cards. Laminate and cut apart. Shuffle the cards and place them face down on the table. Review the name for each with the players.
Printable Rules
To play:

1. Players put their markers on START.

2. The first player draws the top card. He moves his marker to the first picture with the same beginning sound. For example, if he draws M, he moves to the mushroom. He puts his card face down in a discard pile. The other players continue in the same manner.

3. When a player draws the duck or the fish (the cards with no letters), he moves his marker to that space, even if he must move backwards.

4. If no one has reached END when the game cards run out, shuffle, restack, and reuse them.

5. To move into the END space a player must draw D or F.

6. The first player to END is the winner of the round.

More Phonemic Awareness Games

We know that the best spellers are usually kids who start early to develop good phonics skills. We have several games on our site to help you help your child develop these skills, including the one on this page. There's no reading required.

Picture This - short vowel sounds

Picture Perfec t - long vowel sounds

More Early Learning Resources

If you enjoyed our phonemic awareness games, we think you'll also like some of these:

ABC Phonics Poem - A fun and funny way to learn about initial sounds!

Alphabet Phonics Booklet - Students customize their own pages in this A to Z phonics activity.

Phonics Printables - 2 super-simple worksheets for beginners, featuring the letters b, c, d, f, g, and h as initial consonants

Phonics Worksheet - Here's more practice with initial consonants. This page features j, k and l.

Rhyme Time Two cute printables to give early learners practice in identifying rhyming words with short and long vowel sounds.

Lots of Leaves! - Students will discern long and short vowel phonics sounds as they complete this appealing page.

Short vowel Worksheets - 5 easy worksheets to practice the short vowel sounds for a, e, i, o and u.

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Fun Phonemic Awareness Games Help to Teach Basic Phonics

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Our phonemic awareness games are simple to use and fun to play. Just read the rules below, and click on the printable link to get started on one of our fun, easy-to-use games.

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This resource offers a strategy for educators to use with children when reading. It helps children learn how individual sounds are put together to form words and how words are broken down in to smaller chunks. Educators could use this resource to introduce syllable as well because syllable awareness is an entry into phoneme awareness and reading (Ukrainetz, Nuspl, Wilkerson, & Beddes, 2010). Clapping and marching to syllables in a rhythmic beat is more entertaining for young children than the awkward parsing of a word into its component phonemes ((Ukrainetz et al, 2010)

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picture exchange communication system cards

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Do2Learn: Educational Resources for Special Needs

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picture communication cards, songs, games and learning activities for autism, fetal alcohol syndrome and disabilities

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This video offers an activity to distinguish short and long E in different words. Early literacy instruction typically involves teaching young children the sound- symbol relationships of the consonants and short vowels in the English language (Nolan, Leal & Dorothy, 2007). This activity enables children to recognise short vowels, common long vowels and consonant digraphs, and consonant blends (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, 2019, VCELA181).

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This resource offers an exercises for students to learn how to correctly formulate a sentence and make them make sense. This refer to a word-level phonological awareness because as Fellowes and Oakley (2014) demonstrated young children need to acquire at the word level is the fact that speech is composed of a series of separate words and is not a continuous stream of sound. This activity helps children develop reading skills by understanding sentence structure. Students are asked to unscramble sentences so that they make sense grammatically.

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Sentence Scrambles ~ Mixed Up and Fixed Up (Set 1) {Freebie}

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This cute little activity packet gives children lots of practice with sentence structure. In this cut and paste packet, the students will cut out the words at the bottom of the page, unscramble the words by putting them in the correct order to form a sentence, and paste them in the boxes provided.

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This resource encourages children to study with peers through reading the story, rolling the dice and solving the comprehension problems. This related to the Social Learning Theories of Lev Vygotsky (1978) that learning takes place when children interact with peers and teachers. Reading the story enhances students to practice oral language which plays an essential role in developing reading comprehension (Dickinson, Golinkoff & Hirsh-Pasek, 2010). Children practice skills of retelling the story, problem solving and creating visualization in this activity,which meets the claim from Harvey and Goudvis (2000) that comprehension strategies should put emphasis on thinking and problem solving.

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This resource provides some effective teaching activities which relates to reading comprehension. The part that teacher would play a CD of tropical jungle noises after reading a book about forest is very inspiring. Multimedia resources are used to encourage children to comprehend and imagine, which targets the fifth outcome of the Early Years Learning Framework that ‘children are effective communicators’(DEEWR, 2009, p.41) when they view and listen to multimedia texts. This is supported by the theory of Multimodality (Kress, 2009) as different modes are used to help children understand the content and express themselves. The resource also mentioned that children are given the freedom to choose various books they want to read, which indicates the the freedom of choice concepts of Montessori Theory (Montessori, 2013).

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This resource introduces teachers a way of using Lego to retell a story for young children. This approach shows that teacher stands on children’s perspective to help develop their interest and use children’s words to retell the story, which acknowledges and respects children’s participatory rights in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations, 1989). This is a play-based learning activity which can support children’s imagination, creativity and learning (Fleer, 2017). Children who are visual learns will be benefited more from this activity as visual learners would understand and learn better when the information is processed from the pictures than words alone (Mayer, 2009).

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Read and Build with this awesome learning activity LEGO inspired story retelling of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Inspired by Eric Carle see how to work on reading comprehension with your child.

My kids love building and reading. In fact, much of our days are spent doing both! I am a strong believer that children need opportunities to PLAY and interact with literature in a positive and meaningful way.
Disclosure: This post contains amazon affliate links.
Building Reading Comprehension Skills

Storytelling helps boost reading comprehension and we know that reading comprehension is VERY important to our little learners. Retelling gives children a chance to tell the story again in their own words.

It is, in essence, a summary of the most important parts.

This activity not only gives them repeated exposure to vocabulary, but a chance to interact with the text in another way - BUILDING!

Read and Build was created for my 4 year old as a way to keep him excited and motivated about reading! Although the activity was designed to be used for ages 3-5, but can be adapted for younger and older if needed!

LEGO inspired Story Retelling: Read and Build

The read and build concept works well with ANY book! The activity is just that; read and build

Read the story with your child.

Then, build scenes of the book with your building LEGO DUPLO bricks. We used a larger platform piece as our "stage" or paper. Encourage your child to "tell" the story in their own words as they build the scenes.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Eric Carle

I chose to feature Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar because it is a great book for preschoolers, is repetitious, sneaks in a little math, and most of us have this book in our closet - so that you too could snuggle in with your child to do this activity without any trip to the library or bookstore!
Caterpillar to Butterfly Science Activity with Balloons
Don't forget to head over to the LEGO Week series page to check out all of the other great posts using LEGO bricks from our blogging friends this week.

Buying LEGO Duplos:

When purchasing your LEGO Duplo Bricks, all you really need is a large container of bricks. We have found just one 31 piece set is not enough bricks for one child to build with (and I have three!)

We bought a large set and 2 extra boxes to extend the play. Most Duplo's are recommended for children ages 1 1/2 - 5. To keep costs low, watch for them at garage sales, thrift stores, and even your local for-sale-or-trade groups. We were able to double are collection at a fraction of the cost.

For more LEGO ideas here at The Educators' Spin On It, we recommend:

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LEGO Inspired Story Retelling of The Very Hungry Caterpillar

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Read and Build with this awesome learning activity LEGO inspired story retelling of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Inspired by Eric Carle see how to work on reading comprehension with your child.

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This resource provides five creative comprehension activities particularly the story re-creation activity and the treasure hunt activity. The re-creation drama activity enables students to contextualize what they read into their personal experiences, feelings and values (Booth, 1985). Through playing drama, children’s reading comprehension level is not only viewing but also being actively and physically involved (Arzu, 2008). In the treasure hunt activity, the teacher plays the role of a director and observer who guides students to experience, apply their knowledge and learn. This way helps students to learn through the information they have constructed by themselves and the interactions with the classroom , which is based on Piaget’s theory of Constructivism (Piaget, 1954).

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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.

Contents

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

1. Pick the Right Word: Which Is It?

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.

2. Picture Quiz: Brown Bear, What Do You See?

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.

3. Connect the Dots: This Word Goes With That Picture

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.

4. Sequence: Putting Humpty Dumpty Back Together

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.

Activity
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.

5. Story Retelling: Showtime!

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!

6. Cause and Effect: Who Solves the Mystery?

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.

7. Following Directions: It's a Treasure Hunt!

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.
Preparation

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.

Activity

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!

8. Multiple-choice: Get It Right!

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:

9. Short Answers: A Story Within a Story

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.

10. Vocabulary Focus: Show and Tell

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.

11. Decoding Idioms: Guess What the Phrase Means

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.
Preparation

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.

Activity

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.

12. Question Time: Prep for the Real Work

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.

13. Read and Repeat: Get Pronunciation Down Pat

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.

14. Paragraph Summary: Tell It Another Way

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.

15. Quiz Writing and Giving: Stump Your Classmates

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:

Put students in groups.

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.

16. True or False: Give Me a Thumbs-up (Or Down)

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.

17. Puzzle Making: Cut and Paste

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.

18. Taboo: Don't Say That!

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:

19. Class Discussions: Talk It Out

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:

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.

Then:

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

20. Class Debates: Fight It Out

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:

1. One-minute argument

2. One-minute rebuttal

3. Questions

4. Summary

5. 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.

21. Class Presentations: In-class TED Talks

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:

22. Class Presentations Redux: Tell Me About [A Favorite Topic]

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.

Why Do ESL Reading Comprehension Activities?

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.

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

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22 Effective ESL Reading Activities | FluentU English Educator Blog

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Need some new ideas for ESL reading activities to improve your students' comprehension? Check out our list of 22 ESL reading comprehension activities that will get students thinking about what they've read and remembering it! We've included activities such as treasure hunts, role plays and Taboo.

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This resource offers a comprehension activity which encourages students to create a novel bloom ball by writing 12 different questions based on a novel. The novel can be replaced by other types of books and the questions can vary from different topics including characters, symbolism, plots and etc. This is influenced by the socio-cultural theory of Freebody and Luke (1990) that children take four roles when they start to read: code breaker, meaning breaker, text user and text critic. This activity also challenges students to engage with all the levels of the Bloom's taxonomy as they do not only need to understand the book but also try to apply their previous knowledge to analyse, evaluate and discuss with peers (Bloom, 1994).

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During the school year we read Flying Solo by Ralph Fletcher. As a way to culminates the novel and review skills for our state assessment we created Bloom Balls.

A Bloom Ball is a 3D project that challenges students to use all of the levels of Bloom's taxonomy. My Smarties L-O-V-E-D this project! They had so much fun making each section and talking to each other about favorite parts, character traits, and themes.

This Novel Bloom Ball is a series of 12 circles. Students create the ball by writing 12 different activities based on the novel. The questions ask students to discuss the setting, character traits, symbolism, theme, make connections between the book and other text, draw pictures, and look critically at vocabulary. You can make the sections whatever you need them to be, and on what ever topic your students are studying. They can be fiction or nonfiction, author study, biography, you name it. This project is so versatile. Take a look at the pictures below of my student projects, and consider adding this to your "TO-DO LIST" for the next year.

I'm sure students could create amazing projects based on summer reflections or as an All About Me project for Back to School! If you are interested in a Novel Study- Book Report Bloom Ball project, you can go {HERE}.

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During the school year we read Flying Solo by Ralph Fletcher. As a way to culminates the novel and review skills for our state assessment we created Bloom Balls. A Bloom Ball is a 3D project that challenges students to use all of the levels of Bloom's taxonomy.

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This resource offers a strategy for educators to use in a whole class group where all students are able to see the same text. Shared reading is used to enable students to read and enjoy books that they may not be able to read independently and this resource is supported by Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development: where children are able to achieve more than they can alone, by collaborating with more capable peers or adults (Vygotsky, 1978). Shared reading provides an opportunity for children to hear more rare words than in everyday talk. Children’s books have more rare words to build children’s vocabulary than many children’s television programs (Hill, 2016).

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This YouTube video demonstrates a phoneme counting activity. The children learn how to hear and identify each sound in a word. This activity encourages rhyming and is supported by Early Years Learning Framework (2009, p.41), it highlights that “children listen and respond to sounds and patterns in speech, stories and rhymes in context.” This activity encourages children to be more sensitive to rhyme. Rhyme awareness aids children in reading unfamiliar words (Goswami & Bryant, 1990), adds advantage to reading by analogy (Anthony & Lonigan, 2004) and may aid in reading and spelling words that are similar (Goswami & Bryant, 1990).

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Rhyme: A phonological awareness activity

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This exercise offers a strategy for practising words and fluent sentences which helps students with pronunciation and develop their phonemic awareness. Tongue Twisters provides an opportunity for children to understand the relationship between letters and sounds (McGinnis, Wartenberg & Arlene ,2000). This resource is supported by the program, Sound Foundations, focused on phonemes by teaching the children that different words can begin, or end, with the same sound. It indicated teaching the concept of phoneme identity is a particularly effective way of increasing phonemic awareness (Byrne & Fielding-Bamsley, 1991).

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This worksheet makes use of the Betty Botter Tongue Twister to help students with pronunciation. It includes a brief minimal pair practice in which students must match the words to their phonetic transcription. I have also included a brief list of definitions for a few words. Note: there are two transcriptions, one uses a tap for the double t spelling and the other uses a t for the double t spelling. In American English, we use the tap (it looks like an upside down r) in normal speech and the t in careful speech (usually when we are clarifying the word for someone). The QR codes are for youtube and soundcloud so that your students can reference a native speaker's pronunciation when you are not around to help them. :) [youtube=youtube.com/watch?v=SLbRFGQHk-c] This worksheet was creating using the images I created for my Tongue Twister Tuesdays:
Feel free to use this as well. Have fun getting tongue tied! ;)

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Betty Botter- Visual Tongue Twister Activity

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This worksheet makes use of the Betty Botter Tongue Twister to help students with pronunciation. It includes a brief minimal pair practice in which students must match the words to their phonetic transcription. I have also included a brief list of definitions for a few words.

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This resource provides some useful suggestions for teachers about how to prepare guided reading tub. Guided reading provides students with limited guidance by teachers to understand the book almost independently (Duke & Pearson, 2002). Teachers can use teaching tools to establish routines and give instructions to improve students’ engagement to support their learning (Goss & Sonnemann, 2017). A pink lei is introduced in the resource to help the teacher set up the rules of not being interrupted. This is related to Assertive discipline approach developed by Lee and Marlene Canter (1976). This resource can be improved if suitable reinforcement can be applied to reward children’s positive behaviors to improve children’s engagement and motivation (Skinner, 1938).

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I am about to start Guided Reading Groups with my Prep students so today I would like to share my reading groups tub with you all!

At the moment I have 5 reading groups that I have sorted based on their sight word knowledge. We have been reading short, repetitive texts together in class and I am satisfied that many of the students are ready to move onto structured reading sessions. My lowest two groups are just beginning to read sight words so they will be focusing on letter/sound knowledge and word work until we can master their first group of 12 sight words. I will meet with each group once a week until we can master working independently. We are also starting the Daily 5 this term to help build our independence.

So now I would like to introduce you to my 'Work with the Teacher' tub, also known as my Guided Reading tub. It is full of goodies that I hope to use during our group sessions each week.

First up are my reading comprehension cards. Each fortnight, I am introducing a new strategy to the whole class during our modelled and shared reading time. We continue to practise the strategy throughout the week and during our guided reading time. I have these posters displayed in my room and a smaller set in my tub to refer to as needed in our group sessions. You can buy a copy of your own over at my store.

Next are my super cute and super awesome pointers. The little ones below will be used during writing time as spacers but we will also use them with our little books during guided reading. I cannot wait to introduce these little cuties to my preppies this week - I just know they are going to LOVE them!

My story wands are going to get used a lot during guided reading and shared reading sessions. Each star features a different question for the kids to answer about the books we are reading. We might use these in whole class readings and the think-pair-share strategy will work great with these!

The last thing in my tub is my beautiful pink lei. I am going to wear this in our guided reading time to symbol to the rest of the class that I cannot be interrupted! At the moment, I run my reading sessions when my teacher aide is in the room so the kids will have no reason to disrupt me! I don't know if it will work but I'll give it a go!

The next part of my post is my guided reading binder. I am a binder addict and have one for just about everything you can think of! I have five different flexible groups which I have named after jungle reasons for no reason at all haha. Each group has their own tab so that I can flip between groups easily. It also means that when the kids are doing 'Read to Self,' I can conference with students individually and find their group quickly.

At the moment, I have a group conferencing page for each group but I may switch to individual conferencing pages or use both depending on how easy it is for me to take notes.

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I am about to start Guided Reading Groups with my Prep students so today I would like to share my reading groups tub with you all! At the moment I have 5 reading groups that I have sorted based on their sight word knowledge.

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This YouTube video shows an inclusive learning environment which encouraged deaf children to read with other children together.  It is supported by the Gradual Release of Responsibility model (Duke & Pearson, 2002), during the modelled reading, the student is encouraged to be an active listener and engage with the text. Teachers can also model the comprehension of unfamiliar or complex vocabulary through this practice (Heath, 1983).

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Teacher Read-Aloud That Models Reading for Deep Understanding

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This ICT resource provides a range of digital book and all of them include a read-aloud function that enables students to have a favorite book read to them. Reading aloud expands children’s vocabulary by introducing them to new words that are defined in context (rather than learned from a word list), helping them decipher the nuances of synonyms (Beck & McKeown, 2001).It also provides a systematic approach to analytical discussion and the introduction of new vocabulary through the repeated reading of a text (McGee and Schickedanz, 2007).

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This YouTube offers a phonemic song includes lots of fun movements and simple phrases all children can do and say. It also includes patterns of sounds children hear then repeat. This song is supported by the 1998 position statement issued by the International Reading Association and the National Association for the Education of Young Children, it encouraged children to listen to patterned, predictable texts while enjoying the feel of reading and language (Ukrainetz, Nuspl, Wilkerson, & Beddes, 2010). It also emphasizes reading ability has a strong aural component and that music instruction that helps children hear the sounds that distinguish musical patterns may also help them hear the sounds that distinguish words (Lucas & Gromko, 2007).

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Party In The Jungle | Fun Phonemic Awareness Song | Jack Hartmann

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This resource introduces how to use semantic maps to improve children’s vocabulary learning in reading. Semantic maps generally emerge from the reading text and encourage student to generate a set of related words, which display the abstract connections between concepts and words visually (Johnson & Pearson, 1984). This is an instructional activity which increases children’s vocabulary knowledge through helping them recall the meaning from the text they read and compare next words to known words (Rupley, Logan, & Nichols, 1998).

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What are Semantic Maps?

Like concept webs, semantic webs are a visual organizer that help students structure information. Usually semantic maps are slightly more complex than concept webs.

Semantic maps may be used for thousands of skills. Try these ideas:

character traits - Students list character traits. They can also list connections between characters.

vocabulary development - forms of the word, synonyms/antonyms, prefixes/suffixes, roots, shades of meaning

science and social studies topics

biographies

Often semantic maps branch from the center shape called a node to more specific concepts. From these secondary nodes, additional details may be added.

This is an example of a simple semantic map. Notice that it contains three levels of information. The first names the five types of vertebrates. The secondary level provides some basics that are unique to the classification. The third level provides examples . This map is included in the handout. See the link below.

Semantic maps work well at the beginning of a unit. Have learners brainstorm information . As the unit progresses, details may be added to the map.

Semantic maps are also a great summarizing tool.

Using sticky notes is an effective way to teach students how to create a semantic map.

1. Ask students to name information they learned after reading a specified text. [To simplify this explanation, I will use the example of Olympic sports.]

2. Assign an article about the Olympic Games for students to read. Write 'Olympic Sports' on a sticky note and place in on the board. After reading, ask students to name an Olympic sport. As students name each sport, write each sport on a sticky note. Stick these on the board around the title 'Olympic Sports.' Continue until you have approximately a dozen sports.

3. Next write 'Summer' and 'Winter' on two sticky notes. Place these on opposite sides of the title. Ask students to categorize all the sticky notes that are on the board into games played in the summer or winter. Move the sticky notes with the individual sport next to the correct category 'Summer' or 'Winter'.

4. On the next level, break the summer sports into categories - types of swimming, types of cycling... Next break the winter sports into subcategories - types of skiing, types of skating... Just as before, organize the sticky notes on the board around the appropriate subcategory.

5. Finally, have students name famous athletes for each sport.

By using sticky notes that can be manipulated, students really get a feel for how this method really helps organize the information.

This free handout includes two activities. The first is the 'Vertebrate' example from the post. The second is Marquette and Joliet's trip down the Mississippi River. The handout includes "Marquett in Iowa" from Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans. Students map the information in the story using the map found in the resource. Answer keys are provided for both maps.

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Semantic Maps - A Teaching Strategy - Book Units Teacher

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TweetEmail TweetEmailWhat are Semantic Maps? Like concept webs, semantic webs are a visual organizer that help students structure information. Usually semantic maps are slightly more complex than concept webs. When to Use Semantic Maps Semantic maps may be used for thousands of skills. Try these ideas: character traits - Students list character traits.

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This resource provides many useful activities for teaching children vocabularies particularly the ‘Famous Quotes’ activity and the ‘Vocabulary memory matching’ activity. The Famous Quote activity values the importance of experiencing multiple exposures to words and encountering words in multiple contexts. The matching activity allows students to learn through play, which is quite a natural way for them to learn and they do not realize they are learning (Akdogan, 2017). This activity also provide student a chance to learn with and learn from peers, which admits the contribution from the peer collaborative interactions (Aschermann, 2001). Both of the resources are related to the Social Learning Theories of Lev Vygotsky (1978) that learning takes place when children interact with peers and teachers.

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We've all been, at least once in our lives, handed a long list of new vocabulary words and been forced to look up and write down the definitions, study them, complete a quiz, and move on.We also all know that the process is far from an effective method of vocabulary instruction. It can be hard to know how to teach vocabulary to make it stick. Read below for some tips and activities to liven up your vocabulary instruction to allow students to not just memorize and regurgitate definitions, but actually consider, discuss, and have fun with new words.

First, vocabulary instruction is always more relevant if students select the terms whenever possible. I usually have them peruse something we will be reading (novel, short story, poem etc.) and highlight terms and categorize them as either unclear or unknown words to create a short vocabulary list.

If you aren't reading a text to draw new words from, a fun and easy way to bring new vocabulary into your classroom is to have an interactive bulletin board that introduces a new word of the day/week. This is a low-stress way to expose students to new vocabulary and provides a bank of terms for you to use for vocabulary instruction.

Avoid the traditional method of having students look up all the words in the dictionary.This is usually a very dry process that doesn't engage students.Instead, provide a context for the term by teaching new words using images, stories, videos, or experiences.For example, if you are teaching the word mortified you might consider the following:

- Tell students a story of when you felt mortified.

- Show them a picture of someone who is mortified

- Show a video clip from a TV or movie where a character is mortified.

After you feel you have provided students with a deep, engaging explanation of the new words, have them show their understanding to clarify any misunderstandings.You can do this by having them share their understanding of the terms in their own words (aloud or in writing), write their own examples in sentences, or draw or find an image that represents the new words.It's important that students don't simply restate your definition or ideas, but rather provide their own original examples to show that they fully understand the meaning. Try this free vocabulary card to have students examine a word in great detail: FREE VOCABULARY CARD

You might also consider helping students deconstruct the word at this point if there are any prefixes, suffixes, or root words to examine.

After students have learned and shown understanding of the new words, come back to the terms a few days later to have students engage with them in a fun and creative way. Read below to see some of my favorite ways to engage students in vocabulary practice!

Have students find or examine famous quotes that contain the words they have learned by searching for quotes that use the word online (example search: "mortified quotes"). I also use them as a way to introduce new vocabulary by having students guess the meaning of words in the context of how it is used within the quotation. Try this activity in your class by clicking here:FAMOUS VOCABULARY QUOTES

Have students interact with the new words by having them perform a short vocabulary theater skit. Students work in groups to write and perform an original skit that includes the new vocabulary terms.

Have students play a game of "Word Sneak." Inspired by The Tonight Show game (click here to see an example), students will each get a unique short list of vocabulary words that they need to casually sneak into a conversation with a partner. They check off the words they are able to incorporate for one point each. It's also fun to add a few silly words (ninja, guacamole, race car etc.) to each list to liven up the game.

Have students play a game of Vocabulary Bingo. Students write the words they learned into the bingo squares. You read out the definition (or provide a synonym or antonym) of the word and students have to color in the appropriate word (or use paper squares or a bingo dabber). When they get a line colored in, have them yell out, "I love vocabulary!" A small prize is always a nice touch. Use these free bingo card templates by clicking here:
VOCABULARY BINGO

Play a game of Vocabulary Memory. Give students small squares of paper (preferably a thicker paper to avoid cheating). Students make matching cards, one with the vocabulary word and one with the definition. They mix the cards up and place them face down on the table. Each partner takes his or her turn to flip 2 cards over attempting to match the term with its proper definition. If they make a match, they keep the card and earn one point!

If you are looking for other resources to teach vocabulary, the ladies of the coffee shop have you covered! Click below to check out what they use to teach vocabulary.

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We've all been, at least once in our lives, handed a long list of new vocabulary words and been forced to look up and write down the definitions, study them, complete a quiz, and move on.We also all know that the process is far from an effective method of vocabulary instruction.

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sAkdogan, E. (2017). Developing vocabulary in game activities and game materials. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322291866_DEVELOPING_VOCABULARY_IN_GAME_ACTIVITIES_AND_GAME_MATERIALS

Anthony, J. L., & Lonigan C. J. (2004). The Nature of Phonological Awareness: Converging Evidence From Four Studies of Preschool and Early Grade School Children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96 (1), 43-55.

Arzu, G. (2008). Effects of drama on the use of reading comprehension strategies and on attitudes toward reading. Journal for Learning through the Arts, 4(1). Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1094993.pdf

Aschermann, J. (2001). Children teaching and learning in peer collaborative interactions. Unpublished masters thesis, Virginia Polytechnic and State University.

Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. (2009). Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia. Retrieved from http://files.acecqa.gov.au/files/National-Quality-Framework-Resources-Kit/belonging

_being_and_becoming_the_early_years_learning_framework_for_australia.pdf

Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. (2011). Australian Professional Standard for Teachers. Retrieved from https://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/teach-documents/australian-professional-standards-for-teachers.pdf

Beck, Isabel. L., and McKeown, Margaret.G. (2001). Text talk: Capturing the benefits of read-aloud experiences for young children. The Reading Teacher. 55(1), 10-20.

Booth, D. (1985). Imaginary gardens with real toads: Reading and drama in education. Theory into Practice, 24, 193-198.

Byrne, B., & Fielding-Bamsley, R. (1991). Evaluation o f a program to teach phonemic awareness to young children. Journal o f Educational Psychology. 83. 451- 455.

Dickinson,D, Golinkoff, R & Hirsh-Pasek, K. (2010).Speaking out for a language: Why language is central to reading development. Educational Researcher, 39(4), pp.305-310.

Duke, N.K. and Pearson, P.D. (2002). Effective reading practices for developing comprehension. In A.E. Farstrup and S.J. Samuels (Eds.), What research has to say about reading instruction, (3rd Ed.), (pp. 205-242). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Ehri, L.C. (1994). Development of the ability to read words: Update. In R.B. Ruddell, M.R. Ruddell, & H. Singer (Eds.), Theoretical models and processes of reading (4th ed., pp. 323-358). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Fellowes, J., Oakley, G. (2014). Language, literacy and early childhood education (Second ed.).

Goswami, U., & Bryant, P. E. (1990). Phonological skills and learning to read. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Harvey, S. & Goudvis, A. (2000). Strategies that work: Teaching comprehension to enhance understanding. Markham: Pembroke.

Heath, S.B. (1983). What no bedtime story means: Narrative skills at home and school, Language in Society, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 49-76.

Hill, S. (2006). Developing early literacy : Assessment and teaching. Armadale, Vic.: Eleanor Curtain Publishing.

Hoien, T., Lundberg, I., Stanovich, K.E., Bjaalid,I. (1995). Components of phonological awareness. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 7 , pp. 171-188

Kress, G. (2009). Multimodality a social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. London ; New York: Routledge.

Lucas, J., & Gromko, J. (2007). The Relationship of Musical Pattern Discrimination Skill and Phonemic Awareness in Beginning Readers. Contributions to Music Education, 34, 9-17.

McGinnis, K., & Wartenberg, Arlene. (2000). Phonemic Awareness Training by a Classroom Teacher: Its Relationship to First Graders' Phonemic Awareness, Spelling Acquisition, and Word Recognition Skills, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.

McGee, Lea M., and Schickedanz, Judith A. (2007). Repeated interactive read-alouds in preschool and kindergarten. The Reading Teacher. 60(8), 742-751.

Montessori, M. (2013). The montessori method. Transaction publishers.

Nolan, S., & Leal, Dorothy J. (2007). A Spelling Error Analysis of Words with Closed Syllables for At-risk Readers, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.

Torgesen, J.K., Otaiba, S., Grek, M. (2005).Assessment and instruction for phonemic awareness and word recognition skills. Language and reading disabilities (2nd ed.), Allyn & Bacon, Boston, MA, pp. 127-156

Ukrainetz, Nuspl, Wilkerson, & Beddes. (2010). The effects of syllable instruction on phonemic awareness in preschoolers. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 26(1), 50-60.

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. (2019). English. Retrieved from http://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/english/curriculum/f-10#level=1&search=af9878ca-b549-43a0-9e9f-9e4600a2a402

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978) Mind in Society:  The development of higher psychological processes.  Cambridge, MA:  Harvard University Press.

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This resource introduces a reading intervention program which took place in a school in a low socioeconomic area of Adelaide. The program used the five 5s approach raised by Clay (2005) to support children who have difficulty in reading. Preparing the intervention program indicates that teachers acknowledge the professional knowledge and practices such as knowing learner’s diversities, how they learn and etc, which are the requirements of the Australian professional standards for teachers (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, 2011). One of the approach mentioned in the intervention program is providing Grade 1/2 students with one-to-one instruction help from Grade 6/7 students. This is tied to Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development that children children can achieve higher level through collaborating with more capable peers (Vygotsky, 1978).

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Susan Hill

This is a short story about a six-month reading intervention that took place in a school in a low socioeconomic area of Adelaide, South Australia.

At the beginning of Term 1, Toni, a Grade 1/2 teacher, found that 60 per cent of her students were reading below book level 5 (or books with one or two simple sentences per page). The state target for students like Toni's, who have completed the first year of school, is to read at book level 10.

Most of the students were easily distracted and frustrated with their own progress. Additionally, the needs of those two or three students who could read fluently were not being met because of the greater demands of others in the class.

By the end of Term 2, Toni was exasperated by the lack of progress in reading. The class could be described as four quartiles: the first group could read at level; the second quartile could read at about book level 10; the third quartile, comprising four students, formed the case study group for our reading intervention; and the fourth quartile were students with special learning needs who received literacy instruction outside the classroom.

I became involved in the volunteer tutor program that Toni and the school set up with expert retired teachers and others in the wider community, like me-a literacy researcher.

The reading intervention program consisted of intensive literacy support for the case study students in the following ways.

Tutors: 30 minutes of one-to-one instruction per week

Buddies (Grade 6/7 students): one-to-one instruction three times a week for 15 minutes

Using the right type of books: high interest books, scaffolded with controlled sight words and phonics

Documenting progress: tutors and buddies noted what the students did and recorded progress

Consistently using the five 5s approach to teaching reading strategies (Clay, 2005a, 2005b)

The five 5s approach
1. 5 minutes discussing with students what's happened since the last meeting and how they feel about their books
2. 5 minutes of talking through a book
3. 5 minutes of the student reading the book (sometimes this takes longer)
4. 5 minutes to write, make and break words, or create books with the iPad
5. 5 minutes to document progress: the title of the book, the teaching focus for the buddies. At this time the student rereads the book, completes an activity or selects a new book.
(Clay, 2005a, 2005b)

As you can see in the table, after six months of the reading intervention program, at the end of Term 4, the students had made amazing reading gains.

Case study students' progress

*Names have been changed.

Toni observed not only a noticeable improvement in reading skills but also in the students' behaviour.

References

Allington, R.L. (2013). What really matters when working with struggling readers. The Reading Teacher, 66(7), 520-530.
Clay, M.M. (2005a). Literacy Lessons Designed for Individuals. Part One. Why? When? and How? New Zealand: Heinemann.
Clay, M.M. (2005b). Literacy Lessons Designed for Individuals. Part Two. Teaching Procedures. New Zealand: Heinemann.

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second edition ofdeveloping early literacy: assessment and teaching

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developing early literacy: assessment and teaching

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Susan Hill This is a short story about a six-month reading intervention that took place in a school in a low socioeconomic area of Adelaide, South Australia. At the beginning of Term 1, Toni, a Grade 1/2 teacher, found that 60 per cent of her students were reading below book level 5 (or books with one or two simple sentences per page).