Easy Steps for Effective Reading Lessons
So you want to improve your instruction to make sure you are providing effective reading lessons but do not know where to start? I am here to help! I have 4 easy steps to share that can transform your teaching from ordinary to powerful! If you are an auditory learner, I talk in detail about these in video form here.
4 Easy Steps to Effective Reading Lessons
I am calling these steps but there is no specific order to using them in your classroom. Choose one that hits close to where you see a need and start there. You can use all of just a few of them. Each “step” is a powerful change you can make in your elementary classroom to increase successful instruction.
Download the free guide below to refer back to the other steps later!
Choose books that reflect your students
When you are choosing a book to read aloud to your class, this is an incredible opportunity to show them something special.
Mirrors
It is so important for students to have experiences with books that show people who are like them. Even the smallest connection like that family eats the same breakfast can make a child feel validated and important.
Windows
Books are also a chance to show students parts of the world that they do not regularly encounter where they live. If you live in the sunny desert part of the country with cactus outside of your window, read books about children who live on the Midwest prairies or dense forests of New England.
Things to Think About While Choosing Books
•culture
•holidays
•family dynamic
•foods
•music
•home type
•landscape
•hobbies
•experience
Think about each of these topics in the context of what your students see in their homes as well as what they are not being exposed to in their environment. Jot down some ideas for topics to look for books!
Use Reading Centers to Engage and Empower
If you are able to incorporate reading centers with your ELA instruction set up, here is your sign to do it!!
What are reading centers? (also known as reading stations, literacy workshop, etc.)
• physical area that is set up for a specific learning goal or activity
• the way in which individualized instruction is delivered
It does not have to be time consuming or difficult but it can be a meaningful way to deliver individualized instruction.
People groan and think that reading centers take so much time to get ready each week. They can be as simple or as complicated as you want. It is important to customize your reading stations to fit both your teaching style and students’ learning preferences.
Read about how I set up my reading centers here. If you are ready to dive in, check out my step by step system for implementing the perfect centers for you and your students.
Reading centers are an opportunity to empower learners to take responsibility for learning. They can make choices to guide their learning based on their needs and interests.
Wondering where to start?
Start simple, if you are new to centers ease your way in and see how you like it! I have 4 interactive vocabulary activities in the PDF free guide if you want ideas for a meaningful way to some activities out.
Effective Reading Lessons Model and Encourage Ways to Talk About Text
When choosing a book to read aloud to students, it does not have to be on all of the students’ reading levels because the teacher will be reading it. I refer to this read aloud as shared reading. This is an opportunity to use books that could be considered easy for some students or hard for others while reaching everyone with an effective reading lesson.
While reading, pause and use think aloud sentence starters to show purposeful ways to comprehend the text. Encouraging students to also use these same sentence frames creates consistency, builds confidence in talking about text, and instills the meaning of the reading strategy.
The printable guide that summarizes all of these steps has free sentence frames for you!
This image is from the free training I give on how to easily use these 4 ideas in your ELA instruction. I give examples of how I use these steps to model think alouds in the video!
Discuss Social Emotional Vocabulary with Every Book
Consistently use SEL words to make them a regular part of student’s vocabulary. This can be easily worked into any lesson with any text!
There are two types of social emotional learning reading lessons:
1. book created to explicitly show correct and incorrect behavior
These are the books everyone uses these texts at the beginning of school or when a behavior arises, they are perfect to show explicitly what a social emotional word means
2. any text with a story
These are the books that you are reading every single day. However, as you are reading you point out the hidden magic moments. This means that when a character falls off of their bike and gets back up, you point out how this shows perseverance.
The download that you can grab for free here gives some steps on how to do this as you are reading and make it a natural part of your everyday reading lessons!
Infusing these vocabulary words provides a powerful way to connect reading to real life.
