Making reading fun

Questions and answers
Making reading fun
The question
Yesha, Mauritius I am an English teacher in Mauritius teaching students aged from 11-16 years old. I have to teach reading comprehension passages and this can get quite boring at times. How can you make a comprehension passage interesting for teenagers?
What's your opinion?
Nadezhda, RussiaI ask them to read the first sentences and then stop and think what may happen then. Kids like making their own stories - that's why reading may be boring for them. After that go on - they will be eager to know what will happen in the book. They will be more attentive to details and comprehention will be successful.
Reema Jamal, Palestine I think connecting the material with the the students' life is a really good way to inspire them. Also asking them to read silently and prepare their own simple questions to ask the each other instead of just using the questions in the book... Asking them to then choos the best question for each paragraph will encourage them, too.
Barbara Phippen, UKOne way that I have found to be effective with students is to get them to imagine that they are detectives looking for clues in the text that will enable them to answer comprehension questions. Another is to give students a copy of the text that they can freely annotate its features.
Ameya Vaidya, IndiaI'm sure that in the passage there would be words that, as a teacher, you'd want the students to learn. What I do is write these words on the board, and every time any of these words is reached the students make 'a beep sound', and also try to explain the meaning of the word. There is a small reward too for the first pupil to do so correctly!Hope this helps.
Muammer, TurkeyI sometimes do this to motivate my students to read: I photocopy the reading text and cut it into paragraphs and give them to the students. They read their pieces and try to decide which should be the first, second, etc paragraph. They can then make questions to understand the passages better. All good wishes to you!
Muhammada Dahiru, NigeriaI have tried and observed that forming the students into groups to discuss questions on a passage then come back to make presentations as answers easily gave them that desire to read critically, actively and correctly for comprehension. Reading in the class is what I observed as boring but allowing them to go into smaller groups produces the desired result in comprehension.
Esperanza S. Ramos, PhilippinesLiterature Enrichment exercises are usually received well by students because they are able to share their multiple intelligences. When teaching a short story, the lesson does not have to end with the comprehension questions. One activity that can be used is "Design Me the Cover". Short stories don't have covers since they are only a part of a collection. The following are the steps of the activity: 1. Form groups of four or five. 2. Pre-assign each group to bring drawing materials, coloring materials and poster paper. 3. After the discussion, each group will design a cover page for the short story that has just been discussed. 4. Remind the students to visualize the cover based on the content of the story. 5. Use a rubric to evaluate output.
Hala, OmanOne good way is to give students first some general questions before they read the text for the first time... This will guide them to get a general view about it. Then for specific information give them some specific questions before they start reading for the second time...so that they will read for details and understanding.
Simon Mumford, TurkeyTake 4 or 5 shorter sentences out of a text and mix up each one. Put the students in groups to put the words in order. When they have finished, tell them the sentences come from the same text and ask them to put the sentences in the order that they think they appear in the text. When they have finished, tell the students to look at the passage and check if they were right. Give points to the groups for correct word/sentence order. This is a fun way of doing prediction and scanning activities.