Here are a few fundamentals I’ve picked up over the years. I’ve outlined them in a nice slide show.

Please add your own ideas. Get more pics and videos of other teachers’ classrooms HERE. [note: these thoughts are mostly for young learners and larger class sizes ie. Public schools]

One great recipe for teachers to use is to just give students the prompt and have students complete the prompt (in a full sentence, the whole thing).

Example – If it hadn’t been for … Students: If it hadn’t been for your teaching, I’d be worse at English right now!

You can list the prompts before the lesson, on cards and then get students to respond to them. The prompts can be geared to all levels, ages and topic, language functions.

Get prompting your students to “finish it off”. See our cards and also, online generator for more prompts!

How to –

Find a job.   Learn more English words.  Get fit.  Lose weight.  Be happier.  Make $.  Save $.  Live ’til 100.  Cut down on social media.  Quit X.   Help others.  Get people’s respect.  Fix X.  Prepare eggs. Prepare potatoes. Make more friends. …

Get the free organizer here.

These tried and true watching activities will help you get your students watching and communicating in English. The recipes work with most teaching scenarios and situations. Modify with your own basic ingredients (age, level, topic).

This is the fourth in a series of 5 posts. See the posts about Speaking, Writing, Listening and Reading. Also, view our full handbook – Using Video In The Classroom. Also, Using Silent Video.

1. A Hook. Motivation.

When you think of watching, you think of students truly engaged, glued to the screen. You can use this affordance to activate student interest and background knowledge.

Suggested Level: All Levels.

Ingredients: A high-interest video on the topic you are teaching. See this example for a lesson on “Why are you learning English?”

Instructions: Low prep. Just tell students they are going to watch an interesting video. Play the video. Ask students probing questions after. What is the main topic? Do you relate to the message?

Cooking Tip: There are great videos to introduce any topic. Vimeo and Youtube are now fantastic stable libraries. As with all video you use in class – screen for appropriateness. See our own Top 100 Videos For Teaching English.

Serves Up: interest, motivation, background knowledge, context

2. Retelling. Rewriting.

Video and watching can be used in class as a prompt. Students enjoy and take in the content, language. Then after, they retell the story in their own words or rewrite the story in some form.

Suggested Level: B1 and above

Ingredients: Video with a narrative thread, a story. Here is a nice example.

Instructions: Students in small groups re-tell the story. One student starts and others must continue to re-tell by adding a sentence. Re-ordering activities are also great. Students are given sentences or pictures and must put them back in the right sequence while re-telling the story.

Cooking Tip: Practice the activity beforehand by getting students to retell a story from class or that they are familiar with. Also, with news, a 5 Ws organizer works wonders.

Serves Up: extensive watching, input, repetition, speaking, writing

3. Extensive Watching

Too much of teaching can be “intensive” and kill the enjoyment provided by the content. While it is important to provide students with a task while watching, keeping it simple and also allowing students to relax and “uptake” the language and content is a great strategy.

Suggested Level: All Levels.

Ingredients: high-interest video that supplements your lesson.

Instructions: Provide a very simple task for students to do while watching. It could be just, “What is the main idea?”

Cooking Tip: Students learn a lot of incidental vocabulary while watching with interest and enjoyment. Add SLS (same language subtitles to help student understanding. See a full post on Extensive Watching.

Serves Up: acquisition, motivation, interest, top-down processing

4. Remixing. Remaking.

The remix movement takes an original video and transforms it into something personal and creative. Students as “makers” and creators learn lots of English while making a product they can be proud of. Plus, most students have powerful phone cameras for recording.

Suggested Level: B2 and above

Ingredients: video model for students to reproduce.

Instructions: Show students an example of a video you know they’ll think is very creative and which has a strong structure. Watch. Discuss how it was made. The steps, list together. Then group students and get them making their own “copy” of the video. Share after.

Cooking Tip: Provide students with a structured plan and stage of steps they must complete. See this Lemon Tree remix students made!

Serves Up: personalization, PBL – Project Based Learning. TBLT

5. Analysis. Appreciation. Report.

Students can watch, review and “think about” the video content they watched. It’s a great “extensive watching” activity. Students share their own analyses and grow their media literacy.

Suggested Level: B2 and above

Ingredients: categories for review, video report templates.

Instructions: Provide students with a list of things you want students to look for or rate/review. Compare with each other afterward. What’s similar? What’s different?

Cooking Tip: Do this activity with multiple videos. Also, use commercials, a strong watching material! Students compare commercials for effectiveness.

Serves Up: media literacy, writing, response, critical thinking skills

6. Vocabulary. Grammar. Linguistic Features.

Many videos have thematic vocabulary and examples of “language in use” that students can focus on and pull-out. These words and structures offer students the chance to see how they are used in context.

Suggested Level: All Levels.

Ingredients: video with examples of the language you are teaching.

Instructions: Let students the first time, watch the video and “have a go”. After, ask what in the video was highlighted for learning. Then, watch again and ask students to note the vocabulary and language forms you want to focus on.

Cooking Tip: See the powerful video “Words” with collocations. Or Ikea: Homes.

Serves Up: vocabulary, chunks, collocations, grammar, linguistic features, functions.

7. Prediction

Teachers should not think of video as an “unmalleable” material. It’s so flexible. Rewind, repeat, slow down and pause are just some easy affordances. Prediction offers a powerful form of getting students to respond to their watching.

Suggested Level: All Levels

Ingredients: a video that has a strong narrative thread or one purposefully made for prediction like “What Happens Next?”

Instructions: Preview your video. At selected points, pause and ask the students to predict what will happen next. Then, play and see if student predictions were true. Continue until the watching is complete.

Cooking Tip: Add subtitles to help student understanding. Provide structures for students to make prediction statements. “I think …” “My guess is …” etc … See this story for a great prediction activity.

Serves Up: guessing, future tense, opinions, engagement, story

10. Enjoyment. Your Own Way

There are so many ways to use video. As mentioned, it is a very flexible, malleable material and use in ways that work for both you the teacher and your students.

I also want to stress, that teachers need to provide more opportunities for students to just “take in” the video and even enjoy it. Too often, lessons are too “micro” and complex and “full” and really demotivate students with small tasks when all they really want to do is concentrate, try to understand the video.. Focus on the bigger picture when using video. Use one you know will engage your students and aim for student general understanding. Support as needed.

Plus, a good tip is to offer students a transcript to support understanding and/or access to the video so they can review it pre or post-lesson. A kind of flipped video lesson approach.

Enjoy watching activities with your students online or face to face in the physical classroom.

These tried and true listening activities will help you get your students listening and communicating in English. The recipes work with most teaching scenarios and situations. Just modify the basic recipe with your own basic ingredients (age, level, topic).

This is the fourth in a series of 5 posts. See the posts about Speaking, Writing and Reading. Also, view these tips and these activities.  

1. Fill In The Blanks

When you think of a listening lesson, you probably think of this standard. Commonly known as a “cloze” activity, it’s used by almost every textbook.

Suggested Level: A2 and above.

Ingredients: Individuals. Handout with text of a song, a conversation, any audio.

Instructions: Provide each person with a handout [1]. Read the script provided or play the audio with your own words filled in. Students listen and fill in. Repeat as necessary. Check the answers together.

Cooking Tip: Get students to practice what they’ve listened to and also “rewrite” the script to produce their own version and personalize. Have them perform it for the class who’ll be listening!

Serves Up: top down processing, intensive listening, transactional listening

2. Comprehension. The 5 Ws

Of course, you can play some audio and have students

take notes, listen and then complete a series of comprehension questions. No problem with that. But this 5 Ws activity can be used with any audio that is a narrative and really tests students listening skills. The news also provides ready made context and background.

Suggested Level: B1 and above

Ingredients: Individuals. 5 Ws handout. News report audio or audio of a story.

Instructions: Play the audio once. Then give out the handout for students to take notes. Play the audio again letting the students take notes. Finally play the audio again pausing and taking up the answers.

Cooking Tip: Use a popular news story of the day or this Newsround, fun, news audio.

Serves Up: background knowledge, comprehension check, note-taking

3. Extensive Listening

Too much of listening in class is “intensive” and bottom up, not for overall understanding and pleasure. We should allow students more opportunities to listen just to appreciate the audio.

Suggested Level: B1 and above

Ingredients: individuals, song audio or music videos.

Instructions: Provide each person with a song or video appreciation handout. Play each song or video and get students to then, fill in the chart. Repeat as necessary. Compare with other students.

Cooking Tip: Sometimes this can turn into a good debate. Be prepared for that. Also select audio or video that your students will enjoy and want to listen to. Ask them!

Serves Up: critical listening, extensive listening, top-down processing

4. Listening For Differences

Students need to listen closely to note differences with an original text or knowledge set. Test students by reading out loud the text with differences from the one provided to the student. Also, this activity can get students listening to each other and being a source of listening material.

Suggested Level: B2 and above

Ingredients: Pairs. Text differences handout.

Instructions: Each student has a handout that is slightly different. One is a correct version, the other incorrect. The student with the incorrect version reads out their script. As they read the passage, the other student must listen for errors and stop and say – “No, no, no, that’s wrong! It should say _______. Correct together as a class to have one good script.

Cooking Tip: Read out loud the good stories prior as a whole class to prepare students for the activity.

Serves Up: selective listening, noting differences, interactional listening

5. Note Taking

Bottom-up processing activities involve students listening and correctly identifying sounds. It can be as simple as testing student knowledge of minimal pairs (boat or boot) or stress (13 or 30). This activity involves students correctly listening to others and recording the correct information.

Suggested Level: All levels

Ingredients: pairs, handout with information to test student listening.

Instructions: Provide each person with a handout. Partners take turns saying their sentences and recording the information. Encourage students to ask for corrections and check to understand. Check after – did they get all the information correct?

Cooking Tip: Do this activity first as a whole class with the teacher reading out the information and students recording. This will teach students how to do the activity. Then you can do this with any 2 sets of information.

Serves Up: bottom-up processing, note-taking, listening for detail

6. Storytelling. Prediction.

Stories and narratives have built in motivation for

listening. Everyone loves a good story! Choose stories to read to students and stop at times and have them predict what will happen next. If they are listening well, they’ll be able to predict. See this funny story or also this one.

Suggested Level: B2 and above

Ingredients: whole class or groups with one reader.

Instructions: Read to the students the handout [6]. Pause at times and ask, “What will happen next?” Continue to the end and ask the students the last question. Did anyone listen well enough to answer correctly?

Cooking Tip: Short jokes and funny stories with punch lines work well with this activity. See our full Best Funny Stories.

Serves Up: top-down processing, prediction, social listening

7. Describe. Do. Draw.

These are always a fun activities. Students love acting and drawing. The teacher simply asks students to do certain things and students must act it (like “Simon Says”). Fun to tell students they are robots under your command! Here is a variation where students draw.

Suggested Level: All Levels

Ingredients: whole class. Simple drawing or photograph. Blank pieces of paper.

Instructions: Provide students with a blank piece of paper. Tell them you will describe a picture and they have to listen and draw it. Allow students to ask question as you go along. Describe the picture – handout. Pause to let students draw. Compare student drawings to the original (show it on a screen, overhead or on the board).

Cooking Tip: One nice option is for the teacher to describe their apartment floor plan and have students draw it and ask questions to elicit the locations of things.

Serves Up: active listening, drawing, interactive listening

8. Instructions. Explanations.

Instructions get students listening intently to

complete a task. It can be done simply by having one student explain the steps to do something to another student who completes the task (ex. folding paper to make a model plane) or as a TPR activity (Total Physical Response). Here is one variation.

Suggested Level: B2 and above

Ingredients: pairs, handouts with grids and differing information.

Instructions: Provide each pair with the grid containing information. In pairs, students explain where and what is contained in each square. They continue listening to each other to complete the activity.

Cooking Tip: For lower level students provide an X and Y index for easier explanation. Also model for the whole class first.

Serves Up: top-down processing, instructions, selective listening

9. Listening Cloze

Songs are perfect materials for a listening activity. Make sure though to choose an appropriate song for listening – speed and tempo, vocabulary, clarity etc.…

Suggested Level: B1 and above

Ingredients: individuals. Song audio or music video. Lyrical listening sheet.

Instructions: Ask students about the song topic or some pre-listening questions to prompt schema. Play the song once allowing students to just listen to the song. Provide each student with a song listening cloze handout. Play the song again while students listen for the words and fill in the listening cloze. Take up by playing the song and pausing one last time.

Cooking Tip: Add a word bank with possible answers for lower-level students.

Serves Up: music, transactional listening, top-down processing

10. Lastonestanding

A classic song activity that is super simple to do in class and which will get students practicing their listening skills like nothing else!

Suggested Level: A2 and above

Ingredients: whole class, a popular, faster song. Blank pieces of paper.

Instructions: Choose a song students enjoy (for example Hello Goodbye, The Beatles). Write 5 words on the board from the song that repeat often ( Hello – Goodbye – Go – High – Low ). Students choose a word and write it large on a sheet of paper. Play the song. When students hear their word they stand. If they hear it again, they sit. Last students standing win!

Cooking Tip: You can also put students in groups so the group with the most standing will win. See example games.

Serves Up: selective listening, bottom-up processing, fun, game

11. Dictation. Running Dictation.

There are many ways to do a dictation. We practiced one earlier, dictogloss where students reconstruct a short text read by the teacher. Students get motivated by the need to be accurate and the challenge to repeat the original.

Dictation can be as simple as writing sentences on the board and covering them. Then read them for students to listen and copy. After, uncover the sentences and take up the answers. Running dictation is a variation that makes the activity more fun and active. Here’s how you do it.

Suggested Level: B1 and above

Ingredients: Small groups. One “recorder” per group. A text for each group on the wall of the class.

Instructions: Provide each group with a handout to write down the text (or just use a blank piece of paper). Assign each group a text on the wall of the classroom. Students in the group run to their text and read. They return and tell the recorder what it says and it is written down. Continue until the text is completely recorded.

Cooking Tip: Students will be very excited and noisy. Try to keep the noise level down by asking students and signaling them to speak softly.

Serves Up: accuracy, communication, game

12. Listening Games

There are many quick listening games that a teacher can do quite quickly in class. Here are a couple of classics.

Suggested Level: All Levels

The Telephone Game: Put students into lines or rows. Whisper a sentence into the first student’s ear (make sure you write it down on paper!). That student then whispers what they heard to the next student and so on. The final student in line runs to the board and writes the sentence on the board. The closest to the original sentence wins.

The Memory Game: Start with a sentence like, “Today I went shopping and bought some cheese.” The next student must repeat, adding a vocabulary item. “Today I went shopping and bought some cheese and an apple.” Continue. If a student can’t remember or repeats an item, they must sit down.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

These tried and true lesson activities will help you get your students writing and communicating in English. The recipes work with most teaching scenarios and situations. Just modify the basic recipe with your own basic ingredients (age, level, topic). This is the third in a series of 5 posts. See the posts about Speaking and Reading.

Also, see this full list of many activities for writing lessons. View this post in your browser.

1. Grammar Poems

A grammar poem is a wonderful guided writing activity with structure and support to help emergent writers.

Suggested Level: A2 and above.

Ingredients: printable graphic organizer. Easy to prepare. View some examples here.

Instructions: 1. On the board write out the grammar poem with blanks. See this example handout for writing but the topic can be about almost anything and so can the grammar prompts. Ask students to suggest answers and complete the grammar poem on the board as a call. 2. Provide students with a grammar poem template (or just get them to copy it off the board. 3. Students write out their own grammar poems. 4. Share with groups and the whole class. They’ll be proud!

Cooking Tip: Monitor students and provide help during the activity. After their rough draft, get the students to write out a good copy and display on a bulletin board!

Serves Up: creativity, grammar, self-expression, poetry, poster

2. Guided Writing

Guided writing provides students with modifications

and support so they can complete writing assignments. They can just as simple as sentence starters where students complete the writing of a sentence to MadLibs where students write in their own information to complete the story.

Suggested Level: A2 and above

Ingredients: provide students with a sentence stretching card.

Instructions: Students fill out the information then write their “stretched” sentence and share with the class. Do one together on the board. Fill out the Who, What, Where info. and then write the sentence together. Next, students write their own including all the information.

Cooking Tip: It’s easy to provide students with guided writing exercises. Simply list some sentence starters and have them finish the sentences and share.

Serves Up: grammar, syntax, vocabulary, scaffolding

3. Story Writing – Narratives

Almost all students love stories and being creative

in writing them. It’s a lot of fun! Here are a few suggestions for stories.

Suggested Level: B1 and above

Ingredients: blank paper, imagination

Activities

Story Chains: Provide each student with a blank piece of paper. Get students to write at the top a story starter. I often have used, “A man walked into a bank”. Students pass their paper, all in the same direction. The second student continues the story with a new sentence on a new line. Then tell the student to fold the paper so it hides the first sentence. Pass on and students continue writing and folding. To finish, read out the chain stories – they’ll be lots of laughs!

Free Writing: Provide students with a blank template like [3a]. Students draw a picture and then write a short story under the picture. Share with the class.

Story Maps: Students use a story map as a pre-writing activity. After completing the story map, they write out their first draft of the story.

Story Dominoes: Provide students with 4 or 5 random pictures (get them from magazines). Students write a story connecting the pictures. See some examples.

Storybook writing: Put 4 pieces of blank paper together. Fold once and then fold again. Cut the fold. Staple. You have a storybook and students then draw pictures and illustrate them to create their own storybook and addition to the class library.

Serves Up: stories, narrative, bookmaking

4. Writing Prompts

Writing prompts stimulate students to write about a specific topic. Students can keep a writing notebook where they can record all their free writing.

Suggested Level: B2 and above

Ingredients: paper and pen, notebooks, blog or journal

Instructions: Provide students with many writing prompts. Students choose a prompt and write about it. See examples here or use our online generator.

Cooking Tip: You’ll need to read student notebooks and provide feedback and correction as necessary. Make this a daily class habit with higher level students.

Serves Up: creativity, free writing, expression

5. Cards

Any special occasion can be a good time for students to write cards and deliver them to class members.

Suggested Level: A2 and above

Ingredients: individual writing, blank paper.

Instructions: Provide students with blank paper and get them to make and decorate cards. Pre-teach typical salutations and card-related language. Postcards make a great writing activity and way to practice writing in the simple past tense.

Cooking Tip: Appoint one person in class as the mailman – they will deliver the cards in class to students.

Serves Up: register, travel, communication, holiday

6. Blogs. Journaling.

Advanced students will enjoy keeping a school or class blog or online journal and sharing their interests.

Suggested Level: B2 and above

Ingredients: private blog accounts – see Edublogs.

Instructions: Students will love creating their own blog and updating it regularly. Provide students with topics to write about and conference with students regularly about their blog. Highlight student writing in class.

Cooking Tip: Be aware of online and digital safety. Students should have a high level of privacy and class blogs should have levels of permitted sharing.

Serves Up: technology, personal writing, media literacy

7. Magazines and Newspapers

Students enjoy creating their own class magazines and newspapers to share with the wider school body.

Suggested Level: B2 and above

Ingredients: Groups. Newspaper or magazine template. You will be able to find many options online.

Instructions: Provide students with some examples of other newspapers or magazines created by students (you’ll find many online). Create groups with each group having a specific task related to the newspaper or magazine (editor, journalist, photographer, interviewer etc. …..

Cooking Tip: Publishing is key. Set dates and then celebrate after you print your edition for distribution to the school and parents.

Serves Up: media, publishing, writing process

8. Learning Logs. Reflective Journals.

Writing can be an activity to help students reflect on their own learning while at the same time, build their writing fluency and skills.

Suggested Level: C1 and above

Ingredients: Individuals. Learning logs or journals.

Instructions: Provide students with some structure and questions you want them to reflect upon in their learning journals. Make it a daily or weekly habit to have students record reflections about their studies in their logs. See some example templates.

Cooking Tip: You will have to be very strict and keep a tight schedule to keep the journals filled with valuable comments. Read them and find out lots about your students and even your own teaching. Remember, keep your comments positive!

Serves Up: journals, writing product, reflection

9. Biographies. Obituaries.

Students research and find out about their favorite celebrities and people from history.

Suggested Level: B2 and above

Ingredients: small groups, individuals

Instructions: Provide students with a model text about the life of a celebrity (Ex. Prince, Muhammad Ali etc …). Students then use a research template to record important information about the person. Next, students write out their full report or obituary.

Cooking Tip: Focus on the model so students have a good example for their final draft.

Serves Up: genre, research journalism

10. Film And Book Reviews

Writing is the perfect post – reading or watching activity! Students respond to a film or book.

Suggested Level: B2 and above

Ingredients: Individuals. A graphic organizer for film or book reviews.

Instructions: Read some film or book reviews with students. Note important features. Provide students with a graphic organizer to record their thoughts about a film they watched or book they read. Guide students in the writing of their final draft.

Cooking Tip: Sharing is the final stage of the writing process. Share student reviews and see if classmates agree!

Serves Up: writing process, digital media, reviews.

11. Filling Out Forms

Students need to practice filling out forms in English and recognizing the specific writing of this format. A lifeskill for any student going to work or live in an English speaking country.

Suggested Level: B2 and above

Ingredients: Individual. Spare copies of forms.

Instructions: Provide all students with the same form. Go through it step by step so students understand it fully and answer all questions. Next, provide a slightly different form for students to complete independently. There are many different kinds of forms and official documents students can practice filling out in English (credit and bank applications, checks, rental applications, job applications etc. …)

Cooking Tip: Pre-teach a lot of the individual headings and terms.

Serves Up: employment, life skills, travel abroad

12. Comics And Cartoons

Anything funny always works in class. Students love writing for an audience and also the pictures as prompts that cartoons and comics provide really help get their engines started.

Suggested Level: B1 and above

Ingredients: Blank cartoon templates for students to fill in.

Instructions: Read some comics together, project them on the screen. Or even Anime or Manga. Then, inspired, show students a comic that has the writing erased (you can do this with many programs – see some pre-made here. Fill in together. Then students can do the same individually and come up with their own creative comic or cartoon. After, read and compare the versions. Also, you can just use a storyboard and have students also draw the comic.

Cooking Tip: Providing examples and modeling is key. Lower-level students can be paired with those of higher ability. This activity works well in pairs or small groups.

Serves Up: media, drawing, prompts, design

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These tried and true lesson activities will help you get your students to read and communicate in English. The recipes work with most teaching scenarios and situations. Just modify the basic recipe with your own basic ingredients (age, level, topic).

Download the handy infographic.

Pre–Reading Recipes

Before reading, students need to do pre-reading activities in order to prepare for the reading and activate schema, knowledge of the subject and language plus get motivated to want to read the text. It’s not sufficient to merely tell students about what they are going to read. Students need to use their own minds to engage with the topic and the text to be read.

1. Graphic Organizers
A graphic organizer is an organizer that helps students categorize and list their knowledge.
Suggested Level: B1 and above
Ingredients: printable graphic organizer

Activities:
There are many types of graphic organizers that might be suitable as a pre-reading activity. Here are a few common ones.
1. KWL Chart. Students brainstorm what they know about the topic or reading. Students note what they Want to know. Finally, after the reading, students reflect and write down what they found out.
2. Venn Diagram. Students compare two different topics related to the text or story. They detail what they have in common and what is different about them.
3. List. Group. Label. Perfect to prepare for the vocabulary students might encounter in the reading. Select a main topic for the reading. Students LIST all the words related to the topic. Next, students GROUP the words into categories. Finally, students LABEL the groups of words. * this activity also can be used as a post-reading activity.
Chef’s Tip: You don’t need to photocopy many of the graphic organizers. Just provide a blank sheet of paper to the students and let them draw it from your copy on the board or screen.
Serves: making inferences, predictions, question making
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2. Short Video Watching
These days, teachers can access many videos related to a reading topic. These short videos help students prepare and review the language they’ll encounter while reading.
Suggested Level: B1 and above
Ingredients: short video (under 3 minutes long is perfect). Discussion or comprehension questions. For books, video book reviews work well!
Activity: Chose a video related to the reading. Watch the video once completely as a class. Next, watch again and pause, asking students discussion or comprehension questions.
Chef’s Tip: After watching the video, it is very powerful to ask students to write down questions about what more they want to know about the topic.
Serves: technology, question making, vocabulary
……………………………………

3. Previewing & Pre-teaching Activities
Previewing activities are those where students are guided through the text by teachers in advance of reading. Pre-teaching activities involve explicit teaching of concepts, vocabulary and grammar to be encountered in the reading.
Suggested Level: B1 and above
Ingredients: whole class, reading passage or book.
Activities: Provide each student with a copy of the text.
Previewing: The teacher asks students about the cover page, the title, the author, pictures and headings in the text. Students gain familiarity with the organization of the writing and the content.
Ask students to scan the text and find information. Ask students to skim the text and come up with the main idea or gist of the reading.
Pre-teaching: Teachers choose some vocabulary or grammar that will be difficult for students. Teach and do exercises to assure student understanding.
Chef’s Tip: Previewing is a skill that a teacher develops over time. Prepare a list of text features and related questions that you want to prompt students with.
Serves: print awareness, background knowledge, teacher-directed

……………………………………
4. Prompts
A teacher can prompt students about the reading topic. It’s a quick way to get ready for the actual reading!
Suggested Level: B1 and above
Ingredients: small groups or whole class
Activities:
Question Prompts: Create a discussion about the reading topic. Prepare some questions about the topic or 4-5 “For or Against” statements. Have students discuss.
Quotation Prompts: Get some quotations related to the topic or from the reading. What do they mean? Do students agree with them? Why/Why not?
Word Prompts: Write 5 or 6 words from the text on the board and asks the students to guess what the topic is and how they are connected.
Picture Prompts: Show the students some pictures or objects which are connected to the reading and ask the students to guess what the reading is about.
Chef’s Tip: With higher-level classes, discussion works well. Lower levels – word and picture prompts.
Serves: speaking, schema, making connections
…………………………………………

During Reading

Activities during reading can range from just allowing students to enjoy and read (Extensive Reading) to activities where they gather information, organize information, confirm predictions and think about what they are reading.

5. Free Voluntary Reading
Research suggests that when students read what they enjoy, they acquire language and make rapid gains in reading fluency. There is a strong positive relationship between the amount of free voluntary reading a student does and their corresponding overall English fluency (Krashen, 1993).
Suggested Level: A2 and above
Ingredients: individual
Activity: Provide students access to leveled readers, stories, books, eReaders. Oxford and Penguin have sets of leveled readers. You might also provide authentic reading materials like magazines, comics, newspapers, brochures and others.Students choose what they want to read and read in class for a set amount of time. Many classes practice DEAR – Drop Everything And Read. Students will also benefit from “narrow reading”, reading materials only from one specific author or genre.
Chef’s Tip: The teacher should act as an intermediary and help the students find books at their right level. A good rule of thumb – the 3 finger rule. Students read a page and each time raise a finger for a word they don’t know. If they raise more than 3 fingers, the book or material is too high a level.
Serves: extensive reading, reading for pleasure, narrow reading
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6. Beginning To Read
Beginning readers need to make the sound–symbol connection and improve their phonemic awareness. Teachers should spend time allowing students to see how spelling is related to sound.
Suggested Levels: A1 and A2
Ingredients: phonics materials, related worksheets, picture books
Activity: There are many ways to model reading and get students to see how sounds are related to symbols (text). They range from phonics-related activities to whole language activities. Here are a few for beginning readers.
Read Alouds. Chose a picture book that will be of interest to your students. Read the book to students in a reading area (if possible different from where the students usually sit). Stop during the reading and check understanding, ask students to predict what will happen next, etc …. Repetitive readers, books where the language repeats during the reading (Example. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See – Eric Carle).
Choral Reading. Similar to read-alouds but all the students have a copy of the reading text and follow along as the teacher or strong reader reads the text. Get students to follow the reading with their fingers. After, reread the text together with all students read out loud together.
Word Recognition. Phonics. Students match words to pictures and pronounce the words. Students can also complete the spelling of words to show they understand how to decode text. Also rhyming activities like Rhyme Time. Also, use phonics flashcard sets where students put pictures or words into the correct word family.
Guided Reading. Students read text where more difficult words are represented with pictures.  Also, students may read text where some words are missing and they predict the text and finish the sentence.
Chef’s Tip: try to keep these activities simple and fun. It can be frustrating for beginning readers and best to provide them with success and a good feeling.
Serves: phonemic awareness, modifications, beginners, learning to read
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7. Webquests
Webquests activate student reading skills, especially their digital literacy and scanning skills.
Suggested Level: B2 and above
Ingredients: individuals, pairs. Webquest activity sheet
Activity: Provide students with a webquest handout. Set a time limit to complete the activity. Students browse the internet to record and find answers to the questions on the worksheet. Once most students have completed the webquest, take up the answers together.
Chef’s Tip: If your students finish much earlier than others, have some extra work for them to do.
Serves: internet, digital literacy, scanning, reading to learn
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Post – Reading

8. Literature Circles
Literature circles get students responding to what they have read and making connections between fiction and their own lives.
Suggested Level: C1 and above
Ingredients: Small group.
Activity: Assign students to groups based on their reading level. Assign a role to each group member (Thinker, summarizer, director etc. …) Each group chooses a book to read. Each class group members read independently and then meet back to discuss their day’s reading and complete tasks. You will find many literature circle-related task materials online but also try these “reading response” questions.
Chef’s Tip: Book choice is critical and help student groups to choose the right book by providing a list if possible. Monitor during the activities and guide student discussions.
Serves: fluency, critical thinking, discussion, making connections
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9. Comprehension Questions
This is a standard post-reading activity. Students read the text individually and then show their understanding by completing comprehension questions and responding with understanding to the text.
Suggested Level: A2 and above
Ingredients: individuals
Directions: Provide each student with a copy of the story and questions. Students read the story silently (or you can read as a group). After, students complete the comprehension questions and take up the answers.
Chef’s Tip: Rewrite questions in simpler language for lower-level students. Or get the students to write their own sets of questions. Also, challenge students to write their own comprehension questions and quiz after!
Serves: comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, reading to learn
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10. Story Sharing & Retelling
Retelling is a great activity to help students both read and practice the language that they encountered in the story.
Suggested Level: B1 and above
Ingredients: individual, small groups
Activity: Provide students with a short story or text. These work well. Even better if it has a funny or suspenseful ending. Each student reads their story and tries to understand it. Next, make groups and have the students read their stories to their group. Students can stop and ask group members to predict what will happen next. After all group members have read their story, make new groups. Students again share their story with new students but this time try and not read but retell the story. After, ask students which was the best story they heard – have a stronger student retell the story.
Chef’s Tip: You can easily model this activity by asking a few students to wait outside the class while you read the story to the rest of the class. When the students return, take turns retelling the story to the students who didn’t hear the story.
Serves: stories, speaking, comprehension, reading aloud
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11. SQ3R
You may also use graphic organizers after reading. The SQ3R organizer is one such activity. It is a proven aide to text comprehension. Survey, question, read, recite, and review.
Suggested Level: B2 and above
Ingredients: individuals or pairs. Non-fiction reading or textbook.
Activity: Provide all students with an S3QR handout. Prior to reading, students survey (preview) the text and also record questions about what they will learn. After reading, students “recite” and try to recall the answers to their questions. Finally, students “review” all that they have learned.
Chef’s Tip: Do the graphic organizer together as a class the first time you do the activity.
Serves: comprehension, academic reading, reading to learn
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Get a photo collage of many celebrities.  A student starts talking about one celebrity and others must then guess who it is. Only one guess each allowed!

Or play the game differently.  A student thinks of one celebrity and the other students ask questions to narrow down the possibilities. Again, only one guess per student allowed!

Here is a pre-made game pdf.