Understanding and comprehension by analysing and looking at the written lessons and texts are known as reading. Effective education is incomplete without the ability to read. Reading abilities and skills are very important for the learners. Let us discuss some tips which teachers can use to improve the reading of the students. Also, we will be discussing the tips which students can use to improve their reading skills. But before that let us read some of its benefits are
- Better understanding and learning.
- Improved vocabulary
- Helps in boosting writing abilities
- Broadens knowledge.
- Makes memorization easy for the students.
- Improved focus and concentration power.
What should teachers do?
- Daily reading: before teaching any topic, ask students to read first. This will help in making students inculcated in the lessons properly. If only a teacher will read from the textbooks and learners will listen, it will turn out to be a monotonous practice. Therefore it is important to ask students to read first. Today online teaching is increasing rapidly. All online teachers should make sure that learners are involved in reading habits here as well.
- Ask what they read: after self-reading, ask students what they read from the given task. When students know that teachers are going to ask questions they will read with more focus and concentration and this will be very beneficial to boost their understanding of the subject. Also, some students are active at responding while others hesitate a lot and hence participate less. Teachers should try to ask questions from all. Develop an environment where students feel comfortable to answer without the fear of being judged, or scolded. All online teaching instructors must focus on this.
- Turn by turn aloud reading: teachers don’t teach or explain for an entire class. Some time can be given to turn by turn reading as well. Reading qualities are very important. The students who have good reading abilities understand and comprehend the lessons better. For example, if you have forty to fifty minutes of a lecture, give half of it to the reading practice, twice or thrice a week.
During this, ask the learners to read one by one aloud. When they read aloud, you can hear how they pronounce the words. By making the required corrections in pronunciation, you can improve the reading quality and language of the students. How to teach online effectively can be achieved by this process. When you teach students via presentations, modules, and worksheets, ask the learners to read from their phone or computer screens.
- Give reading homework: along with making students read in class, giving them some reading work for a home will be beneficial. For example, you are starting a new lesson for tomorrow, ask your students to read that before coming to the classes. This will help them in acquiring pre-knowledge. With preoccupied knowledge, students perform more actively in the lessons. In online classes, teachers must do this. Since face-to-face interaction is not possible, how to teach online effectively can be done by giving and checking homework. Reading new topics, revising the previous and completed ones can be given for homework.
What should students do?
- Use attractive objects: if you find the printed words in textbooks boring, using attractive objects such as sketch pens, highlighters, bookmarks, and colored pens is a good idea. While reading you can highlight the important words, news phrases, and definitions. This will make the reading interesting for you. Also, it will boost the interest in re-reading the same information. The highlighted and colourful words will surely catch your attention to read them.
- Make it a habit: to develop a skill, everyday efforts are required. Often, students neglect reading because they feel it is not important. But it is a wrong assumption. The more you read the better you understand the information and the easier it becomes for memorising. All learners should develop a habit of reading every day. In your self-learning plan, include the timing for reading as well. Along with this, before bedtime, you can read too. Slowly and gradually, reading will become a part of your learning, and you will enjoy it too.
- Jot down what you don’t understand: many times students avoid reading because they don’t have good vocabulary knowledge. But instead of doing this, what students must do is jot down the words which they don’t understand. Either ask those words from your teachers or find them from the dictionaries and google. When you will be able to understand the meaning, your interest in reading will also be enhanced. Also, write the meaning in front of the noted words. This way you can prepare your vocabulary notebook and can refer to it whenever you face any difficulty.
Conclusion
Reading is very important to achieve quality education and high academic scores. Teachers can use the above-mentioned tips to make students more involved in reading. Also, we read some effective tips which students can follow in this regard.