Reading comprehension lessons for primary/primary students that you can do with any text.
1. dictionary meaning – Select a paragraph of a text and ask your students to circle the words whose meaning you do not know (or the class can choose them together). If there aren’t enough of these, include words that might have an alternative. Look up these words in a dictionary and write their meaning. Then, rewrite the entire text using the words found in the dictionary as replacements.
For example, “Spring came and the silver railway tracks began to push past the village and into the fortress of the great steppe” becomes “The trees began to blossom and the parallel silver railway lines began to push out “. past the small community and into the fortress of the vast prairies.”
two. Conversation – Take any story or part of a story and ask your students to rewrite it as a conversation.
3. character focus – Take any story and take a closer look at the characters asking you these questions. Who are the main characters? Draw them and write two sentences that describe them. Write two more sentences that describe what they do in the story. You could fold a page or paper in half. On each half draw a character and write the information below.
Four. Another point of view– Rewrite a known story or a story that the class is reading from the point of view of one of the characters. The Three Little Pigs becomes a very different story if told by the wolf or by Grandma.
5. acting – This works well with lower grades when you are reading a story or picture book. As the characters are introduced, ask students to act out what is happening. If you’re doing the three little pigs, you should end up with three students cowering in the brick house with a wolf blowing outside. Students become highly engaged, and you’ll find that even dreamers stay on task, which is helpful when you want to use the text as a guide for another activity.