How to teach reading comprehension?

 

What is Reading Comprehension?

Reading comprehension is the ability to understand and interact with written texts. It is a crucial skill for ESL students who want to improve their language proficiency, academic performance and cultural awareness. However, teaching reading comprehension can be challenging, especially when dealing with texts that are unfamiliar, complex or culturally specific. In this blog post, I will share some tips and strategies on how to teach reading comprehension to ESL students effectively and engagingly.

Some useful strategies to handle reading comprehension.

1. Choose appropriate texts. The first step in teaching reading comprehension is to select texts that are suitable for your students' level, interests and goals. You can use authentic materials such as newspapers, magazines, websites, books or podcasts, or you can use adapted materials that are simplified or modified for ESL learners. The texts should be relevant, interesting and motivating for your students, but also challenging enough to stimulate their cognitive and linguistic skills. You can also choose texts that relate to the topics or themes you are teaching in your curriculum, or that expose your students to different genres, styles and perspectives.

2. Pre-teach vocabulary and background knowledge. Before reading the texts, it is helpful to activate your students' prior knowledge and prepare them for the new words and concepts they will encounter. You can do this by pre-teaching some key vocabulary words that are essential for understanding the main ideas or details of the texts. You can also provide some background information or context about the topic, author or culture of the texts, or ask your students to share what they already know or want to know about them. This way, you can build your students' confidence and curiosity, and help them make connections between their existing knowledge and the new information.

3. Teach reading strategies. Reading comprehension is not just a passive process of decoding words and sentences, but an active process of constructing meaning and interacting with the text. To help your students become better readers, you need to teach them some reading strategies that they can use before, during and after reading. Some examples of reading strategies are:

- Predicting: making guesses about what the text is about or what will happen next based on the title, pictures or prior knowledge.

- Skimming: scanning the text quickly to get the main idea or gist.

- Scanning: looking for specific information or details in the text.

- Inferring: using clues from the text and background knowledge to figure out the meaning of unknown words or implied messages.

- Summarizing: restating the main idea and key points of the text in your own words.

- Evaluating: making judgments about the quality, accuracy or relevance of the text.

- Synthesizing: combining information from different sources or texts to create a new understanding or perspective.

You can model these strategies for your students by thinking aloud as you read a text together, or by providing explicit instructions and examples on how to use them. You can also encourage your students to use these strategies independently by giving them tasks or questions that require them to apply them.

4. Check comprehension and provide feedback. After reading the texts, it is important to check your students' comprehension and provide feedback on their performance. You can do this by using different types of questions or tasks that test different levels of comprehension, such as:

- Literal questions: asking about facts or details that are directly stated in the text.

- Inferential questions: asking about meanings or messages that are implied or suggested in the text.

- Critical questions: asking about opinions or evaluations of the text.

- Creative questions: asking about personal connections or extensions of the text.

You can also use other methods such as quizzes, worksheets, graphic organizers, discussions or presentations to assess your students' comprehension. You should give your students immediate and constructive feedback on their answers or responses, and help them correct their errors or misunderstandings.

Some other strategies include:

- Previewing: This involves looking at the title, headings, subheadings, pictures, graphs, captions, and other features of a text before reading it. Previewing helps readers activate their prior knowledge, make predictions, and set a purpose for reading.

- Questioning: This involves asking questions before, during, and after reading a text. Questioning helps readers clarify their confusion, monitor their comprehension, and deepen their engagement with the text. Some types of questions that readers can ask are: What do I already know about this topic? What do I want to learn from this text? What is the main idea of this paragraph? How does this information relate to what I already know? What is the author's purpose and perspective? What are some new words or concepts that I learned from this text?

- Summarizing: This involves identifying and restating the main idea and key details of a text in one's own words. Summarizing helps readers check their understanding, remember important information, and synthesize their learning. Some steps that readers can follow to summarize a text are: Identify the topic and the main idea of the text. Find the key details that support the main idea. Use transition words and phrases to connect the key details. Write a concise summary using one's own words.

- Visualizing: This involves creating mental images of what is described in a text. Visualizing helps readers enhance their imagination, make connections, and recall details. Some ways that readers can visualize a text are: Use sensory words (words that appeal to the five senses) to imagine what the text looks like, sounds like, smells like, tastes like, and feels like. Draw or sketch what is described in the text. Compare what is described in the text to something familiar or personal.

5. Foster a positive reading culture. Finally, teaching reading comprehension is not only about developing your students' skills and knowledge, but also about fostering their interest and enjoyment in reading. You can do this by creating a positive reading culture in your classroom, where reading is seen as a valuable and rewarding activity. Some ways to do this are:

- Providing a variety of texts that cater to your students' diverse preferences and needs.

- Allowing your students some choice and autonomy in selecting what they want to read.

- Encouraging your students to read for different purposes and audiences, such as for pleasure, information or communication.

- Creating a supportive and collaborative environment where your students can share their opinions, insights and experiences with each other.

- Celebrating your students' achievements and progress in reading.

By following these tips and strategies, you can teach reading comprehension to ESL students effectively and engagingly. Reading comprehension is not only a skill that will benefit your students academically and professionally, but also a skill that adds fun to your classroom.