How boring is it to read a passage, article, or story and just do reading comprehension questions? You can only do this so many times before the students start to lose interest. When reading, it is important to become invested in the passage and to really analyze it. Here are some ideas for reading comprehension activities in the world language classroom. You can vary these activities to fit different size groups, levels, and genres. Bonus idea: Most of these activities can even be used for videos and movies!
-
Re-tell the Story: Find clipart images (create your own, have students draw images, or use screenshots from a movie) that represent the main parts of the story. Each group of students gets the images and must put them in logical order from the story. Then, they write a short synopsis of what is happening in that part. When done, they will have retold all the main parts of the story in order.
-
Listening with Pictures: Each group should have images from the story (see above for ideas). The teacher can read parts of the story or paraphrased pieces, and as students listen to the teacher, they will hold up the picture that corresponds to that part of the story.
-
Skits: In small groups, your students would be responsible for a specific part of the story or movie. They can do so much with skits! Specifically for reading comprehension, the students could act out that scene, using their own words to recap that part. For additional, fun activities, maybe they create an alternate ending, add in a new character, retell from someone else’s point of view, etc.
-
Question Words: This activity helps students to form elaborate, detailed sentences by answering the main interrogative questions. First, determine if students will be writing a summary of a portion of the reading/movie or the entire text. Then, use this resource (a question mark graphic organizer) to guide students’ writing. Each box contains a question word, and students will fill it in appropriately (just brainstorming, not complete sentences). Once complete, students can combine the boxes in any order to create elaborate sentences, recapping the story.
-
On-the-spot Speaking: The teacher should have a PowerPoint prepared with different images or screenshots from the text or movie. It would be best if the slides were on a timer for about 20 seconds (you can edit the time based on your students’ abilities). One student will have to talk for the entire time limit, describing what is going on in that picture or that part of the story. They are to use detail and description to fill the time. Once that 20 seconds is up, the next student immediately picks up the story where the first student left off.
-
Grammar/Vocab Search: This activity is not so focused on reading comprehension, but it is a great activity to squeeze in some grammar review. Take a specific part of the reading and have students take it apart, searching for nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. They could also look for new vocabulary and create definitions. You can focus on a very specific grammar concept and they could be searching for this.
What reading comprehension activities have you found successful in the classroom?
