Preparing reading lessons can touch on a wide range of skills that take the reading text as the

point of departure. For example, it's important that students understand the difference between
skimming, scanning, intensive and extensive reading. One of the most common ways to use
reading in class is to focus on comprehension exercises. This should be an integral part of the
lesson. However, there are many opportunities to go beyond this layer in class. This reading
lesson plan template provides an outline to use when use new texts in class. These texts can be
a simple as newspaper articles, or as lengthy as short stories. Activities can be adapted and left
off depending on need and class duration.

Pre-teaching Vocabulary

The first and foremost activity in any reading class is a focus on reading comprehension.
Unfortunately, some students dont get as far as understanding the story due to difficulties with
new vocabulary. You can help students get over this hurdle with these activities.
Pre-teach difficult vocabulary by providing a list of the most difficult vocabulary words.
Instead of defining these words, ask students to work together in groups to find definitions to
vocabulary. In the case of longer vocabulary lists, ask each group to be responsible for part of
the list. The class can then put their lists together to keep things moving.
Use word form lists of the vocabulary leaving out certain forms. For example, provide the
noun form of a word and ask for the verb, adjective and adverb forms. Explain to students that
not all words have each word form.
Working through word forms will help students develop more context for learning once they begin
reading the selection.

Reading the Selection

Make sure students understand the concept of reading for gist.

Encourage students to work towards more freeform reading by allowing for timed reading
in class during which students may not use a dictionary.
As a class, work through general questions about the gist of the story.
Choose reading selections that are slightly above students current reading levels. Ideally,
students will be able to understand the gist while also being confronted with new vocabulary.
Assign sections of the reading to small groups of students. Each group should prepare
five specific questions on that section. Encourage students to write information questions (where,
when, how, what, etc.) rather than yes/no questions. Use group generated questions as to create
a comprehension activity for the entire class.

Include an activity asking analytical questions such as:

Who is your favorite character in the story? Why?

Explain the relationship between X and Y.

What reasons did A have for doing Z?

Follow-up Activities

Ask students to create a role-play or write a script based on the reading selection.

With texts that include various characters, have students read the passage as a group.
Each student should be a specific character in the story while you, or another student, can read
the narration.

Create an audio book as a class based on the reading selection. Each student is
assigned a section to read. Record and give an .mp3 file to students to listen to.

Have students an analytical essay based on the text.

Ask students to create Mindmaps based on the reading selection. Using this exercise
allows students to include new vocabulary acquired during the lesson.

Encouraging Students to Continue Reading

One of the larger challenges is to encourage students outside of class. In this case, it is
important that students read at an appropriate level. Using Penguin Readers is a great way to
find interesting, appropriate levels. Another possibility is to help find blogs and other websites of
interest to the student. Beyond using a search engine, a great way to find good material is
through Twitter. Do a hashtag search on interests. You should be able to quickly find some of the
most interesting blogs on the topic.