Reading Activities

     In this opportunity we will see an activity we could use to help students to better reading. As we know reading is a receptive skill, every skill needs a lot of practice to master them, but it should be step by step or one step at a time. Thus, as teachers (or prospects of) we should use every tool we know to make students be familiar with, and then they will read with less problems, I mean they will be able to guess the meaning of the word because of the context they have in the text. I entirely agree with the comment Mr. Michael Hoey made about reading “What I did not realize was that it is often possible to guess the meaning of rare words from their context…” Here is the reading activity:

     
     First of all, teacher should talk about headlines he or she just saw or read on the newspaper before coming to class. Then, show worry or surprise because of one of the headlines impacted him/her. After that, ask students if they remember headlines that impacted them as well.

     
     Second, find some headlines in old newspaper or on the Internet and bring them to the class. There should be at least two headlines per student. For example:

Difficult Times Ahead
Forgotten Brother Appears
James Wood to Visit Portland
Landscaping Company Disturbance Regulations
Man Killed in Accident
Mayor to Open Shopping Mall
Mustang Referral Customer Complaint
Overwhelming Response of Voters
Passerby Sees Woman Jump
President Declares Celebration
Professors Protest Pay Cuts
Tommy the Dog Named Hero
Under Pressure from Boss
Unexpected Visit
Widow Pension Pay Committee

     Once, students have headlines in their hands. Teacher should give them two minutes to think about the meaning of each headline (they are, at least, two headlines). When students finish, teacher ask them to read their headlines aloud and give an explanation of what they think about the article would be. After it, teacher should brainstorm on possible meanings behind the weird words or grammars points found in headlines.

     Next, students interchange their headlines. After, they should take two minutes to think about the meaning of each new headline they have. Teacher gets in pairs the students to talk about the headline they just got. Finally, students should give an explanation about the meaning of the headlines. 

Students will love reading!

     In conclusion, I think this reading activity will help students to be familiar with the newspaper topic before they read any paragraph. Furthermore, they will improve the ability to guess or infer the meaning of words in newspapers, and give opinions about what the headlines want to say.