Becoming a Better Reader
Using Reading Skills in Class: A Reading Lesson Plan
At-risk readers need a lot of practice and reinforcement in their reading skills in order to close the gaps, so more and more teachers are trying to find that special reading skill or reading strategy they perhaps overlooked during their lesson planning.
When these gaps are acknowledged either via a diagnostic or intake exam yet not dealt with sufficiently in the classroom, the gaps can become bigger resulting in an even lower sense of self-esteem. The challenge is to find the right mode of teachability that addresses the right amount and kind of reading skills that can help increase their level of understanding in a relatively short period of time.
If your students are at-risk for basic reading skills, try using the scan-skim strategy - a much less narrow reading mode that will prepare for reading for more in-depth reading comprehension later.
A Generic Reading Lesson Plan
After brainstorming or using pictures or even a discussion as a lead-in to an unfamiliar text, encourage the students to scan for specific names, dates, places and numbers and how them what they refer to and/or their significance in the text. It may be helpful to encourage them to read the sentence inclusive of the targeted word or number in order to make firmer predictions based on content material.
Try limiting to pre-reading activities to no more than ten minutes. This will give you time to focus on working in-depth with specific chunks for these at-risk students.
Begin by paragraph by paragraph and if necessary, try reading a few sentences orally. This will confirm the value of in-depth reading; at-risk students aren't used to doing this on a constant basis. Ask questions relating to: Who? What? When? How? Why? How much/many? This is a relatively deeper skill called skimming, less quicker in terms of searching for information that necessitates a slower rhythm and skill.
Becoming a Better Reader
When you feel that the students have understood the basic content, you can alternate between more word-attack exercises and basic reading comprehension exercises. This can vary from working with elicitating a word in context to using a variety of phonic skills. Remember the older the at-risk student, the more childish phonic exercises appear.
Practice and reinforcement are key to developing reading awareness. Use a variety of vocabulary techniques. Working on the word level in addition to sentence level is important for the cohesion of a reading lesson plan. If you find yourself lacking time in a reading lesson, make it a point to do a follow-up on the important vocabulary connected to text on the following lessons.
