Many teachers may see reading as one of the more boring things to teach, but with just one student, the possibilities open up. The teacher and student can work together to find reading activities that appeal to the student; by giving the students options and allowing them to pick out materials will level the playing field and help his or her confidence grow. The lack of classmates also gives the student undivided attention and the ability to work at a customized pace.
Reading doesn’t have to be quiet. The student and teacher can take turns reading, or the student can read along to an audio book and then try reading the same passage, mimicking the speaker’s tone, pace and intonation. A class focused on reading can easily incorporate listening and grammar skills as well as focus on poetic devices like alliteration, consonance and many more.
Young adult literature is currently experiencing a renaissance and is no longer relegated to just younger readers. If a whole book is too long for the course, try a short story. Ray Bradbury’s All Summer in a Day remains a classic that presents a complex situation in simple, clear language. The universal theme of alienation can easily be applied to conversation and writing activities as well. This particular short story works well for lower-intermediate up to advanced readers, and the follow-up questions can be reworked for a certain level.
For more traditional reading, the news is always a good choice. This doesn’t solely have to be a reading experience; NPR has transcripts online to go with their reports, and the BBC’s ESL site has a radio broadcast and vocabulary practice to go along with the readings. If the student reads a certain article in their native language (either as homework or in the class) and then the same story from an English-language news source, they may be able to read from context and figure out new vocabulary more quickly. For an extension, the student could also see if the two articles have a different bias when reporting the same story.
Reading doesn’t have to be quiet. The student and teacher can take turns reading, or the student can read along to an audio book and then try reading the same passage, mimicking the speaker’s tone, pace and intonation.
One exercise to focus on is timed reading. This is a good way to test the student’s overall comprehension or specific skills like skimming and scanning, if you choose to teach these. Teachers can use timed reading as a sort of treasure hunt for students to find the main point, dates and places, cause and effect, or any other number of details.
For a less traditional reading class, the teacher can bring in materials that relate to the student’s interests. Reading recipes, travel guides, blogs and comics or graphic novels all contain a non-traditional format, loads of new vocabulary and are a welcome break from more everyday reading materials. Since these types of reading materials are not made for a classroom setting, they may require a more specialized lesson plan, but that shouldn’t deter the teacher. The student can have a say in what book they’d like to use and how to use it, and they will feel more involved and will be likely to follow-through if they know it’s being built just for them.
One last way tip is to go through song lyrics. More than likely, lyrics will be more interesting to students than poetry, but most still rely on a pattern or certain verb tense. Students can correct bad grammar, identify any rhyme scheme and compare and contrast songs of the same genre.
How do you keep one-on-one reading activities interesting?
