Reading, like no other skill, empowers children to learn independently. Helping our students become confident, comfortable readers is an incredibly valuable gift.
However, many children develop a great deal of anxiety when faced with the written word. A huge part of the process of becoming a reader is developing confidence. One way to help children become confident readers is to start with simple and fun pre-reading activities that introduce words and stories in pressure-free ways.
The following are a few simple pre-reading activities I like to use to help ease students into reading content-rich readers like the Story Street series.
ABCD Search!
Have the students stand on one side of the room, with their books on the other side of the room. Play "The Alphabet Song" as the students sing along. Stop the music. The students run to their books and find as many words as they can that start with the next letter in "The Alphabet Song."
For example, the students are singing, "A, B, C, D, E, F...", and then the teacher stops the music. The next letter in the alphabet is G, so students must run to their books and search for words that start with G. Have the students help you make a list of all or some of the G words and write them on the board. (You can make this into a team competition if you like, but it's fun even without the competitive aspect.) Try again with a new letter! By the end of this activity, the students will have become familiar with the words that you have written on the board, and they will have skimmed the entire book.
Yes! No!
Place a sign reading "Yes" on one side of the classroom, and a sign reading "No" on the other side of the classroom. The students stand in the middle. Open the book you are planning to read in class and make sure all the students can see the pages. (For this example, I'll refer to Playing with Pip from the Story Street, Step 1.)
Ask yes/no questions about the picture. (Is this Jojo? Is she eating? Is this Mouse? Is he eating a banana?) The students move to the appropriate side of the classroom depending on their answer. You can encourage the students to answer in full sentences, but I prefer to keep it really simple at the start and just encourage the students to answer "Yes" or "No". Remember that your goal with pre-reading activities is not to test the students, but to introduce them to the material in a way that helps them feel confident about their knowledge and curious about the story.
What's in the news?
Hold up an English newspaper and pretend to read it, peeking out at the students every few seconds to build interest and anticipation. Tell the students, "I'm reading the newspaper!" Ask, "Do you want to read the newspaper?"
Put the students in small groups and give each group a page from the newspaper. Identify one or two high-frequency words (can, look, go, etc.) that are featured in the book you are going to read that day in class. Write one of the words on the board and introduce it to the class. Ask the students, "Can you find this word in the newspaper? Please circle (or underline, or highlight, etc.) the word as many times as you can!" Give the groups several minutes to skim the newspaper. Then have them count all the circled words and share their number with the rest of the class. You can save the newspapers and search for new words in the next class (try using different colored pens or highlighters).
Children really enjoy looking at and "reading" an English newspaper. When you are finished and start reading your book for the day, the students will find it very easy to identify the featured words in the story because they will have encountered the word many times already in a much more difficult setting.
Successful pre-reading activities allow the students to encounter words frequently in a variety of contexts and to become familiar with the stories while encouraging some curiosity. Remember to keep your pre-reading activities simple, fun, and active.
And never forget:
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” - Dr. Seuss
Devon Thagard is the co-owner of Super Simple Learning (creators of the award-winning Super Simple Songs CDs), and co-organizer of the Kids English Education Project (K.E.E.P.). As an ESL/EFL teacher for 16 years, his focus has been on helping teachers and learners approach English education with confidence.
