If you celebrated World Book Day this year, I’m sure you got to see plenty of mini-Harry Potters, Mary Poppinses or even Hungry Caterpillars arriving in your classrooms. In this article, Cambridge researcher Graham Seed reflects on the importance of teaching reading skills on this year’s World Book Day. He looks at why reading skills are so useful in the real world, the challenges English teachers face, and gives 3 tips for teaching reading skills in the classroom.
Reading helps to promote independent learning
World Book Day serves as a fantastic reminder of the importance of teaching reading skills in classrooms around the world. It’s such a useful skill to learn, and teaching it helps to promote independent learning. If we look at language learners specifically, reading has a special place because it really helps learners to contextualise grammar and pick up some new vocabulary.
World Book Day is not just for kids!
When I was at primary school, World Book Day didn’t exist as an official day, but we were asked to dress up as our favourite book characters one day for school (perhaps we started the trend?). I chose Christopher Robin from Winnie the Pooh by children’s author AA Milne. It was one of the first books read to me. I don’t remember too much about the day, but I do remember I had a teddy-bear which I pretended was Winnie the Pooh and dressed up in my best Wellington Boots! Little did I know that decades later I would be working at a department of Cambridge University (which in fact houses AA Milne’s original Winnie the Pooh manuscript in the Wren Library at Trinity College). I chose Winnie the Pooh because the character really had an impact on me and inspired me to read, read and read! In fact, the philosophy of Winnie the Pooh centres around friendship and community, and it’s something that has stuck with me all these years.
The challenges of teaching reading in the classroom
Reading can be a challenging skill for you to teach. As you will know your learners will face the challenge of English spelling, which is much less consistent and predictable than many other languages. We also find that one of the big challenges for teachers is motivation, because let’s face it, not everybody is an avid reader.
3 tips for teaching reading skills
Here are three tips to help you teach reading skills in the classroom.
Tip 1: Familiarise your students with the Cambridge reading test
If you’re preparing students for the reading part of the Cambridge English exam, it’s important to understand more about what’s in the test itself. This will help to make sure there are no surprises for your students on exam day and will help you develop appropriate classroom activities. So how do we test reading?
At Cambridge, we assess reading skills in different ways, depending on the level. So, at higher levels, we will test things like being able to identify inferences, or to put it another way, the ability to read between the lines. Whereas for the lower levels, it’s more about trying to understand simple details in the content. We also test other skills within reading, such as reading for the main idea, or getting the gist, within a text; and being able to read two separate texts in order to combine and summarise that information.
Tip 2: Quick ways to find resources at the right level
As you will know, texts that are too hard can leave students disengaged, or something too easy might be boring for them. I’m sure you’re already using graded reading books which offer fantastic stories and factual books.
You could also try Read and Improve – our AI-powered tool which gives students access to thousands of reading texts at different levels, with tools to help them understand the vocabulary in the text. This then allows your learners to write about it and gives instant feedback (Read and Improve is work in progress, but you’re welcome to give it a try). We also have lots of free resources on our website where you can search for materials, classroom activities and more, which are specially designed to help you teach reading skills at different levels.
Tip 3: Make it fun and engaging!
Of course, the best way of teaching reading skills (or any skill for that matter) is to make it fun and engaging. I’m sure you’re already doing this, but here’s a quick checklist of things to remember when teaching reading skills. So, it’s important to remember:
- It’s not all books, books, books: Reading is not just about getting through the big chunky novels. Of course, books are important (especially on World Book Day!) but encourage your learners to read in their everyday daily lives. So, get them into the habit of reading in English, so look online for blogposts, authentic signs, labels or even bus timetables.
- Go with their interests: Children like things to be on demand, relevant and very personal to them. So, find out what your learners like and go with it! So, if they like football get them reading and discussing the latest scores, football magazines, sports news pages and websites.
- Set the right pace: Doing reading exercises in short bursts can really help with students’ motivation. This is because children like to do things quickly and then move on to the next task. So little and often is a good approach for reading in the classroom.
Don’t forget: World Book Day is for teachers too!
World Book Day has become such an important date in the diary for school children all over the world. I know from my own experience, my children plan their costumes months in advance. It’s also important to remember, that World Book Day is for you too. I know my children really look forward to seeing their teachers dressed up as part of the celebrations! In fact, one year my children’s Head Teacher came as a huge dinosaur which was rather surprising! When the teachers take part, children will remember that, and this will encourage their love for reading! So what will you dress up as this year?
Discover more insights, activities and top tips about teaching Reading, on our Reading skills hub.