Engagement Introduction Activities for Whole Groups Read Aloud

Philip Haines is originally from London, England but lives in Mexico City, where he has been working as a teacher and teacher trainer since moving there in 1995. He is an author/co-author on several ELT serial published in Mexico, in the primary, secondary and adult segments. Philip works as the Senior Bookish Consultant for Oxford University Press Mexico.

In most ELT classrooms there are at least a few students who do not particularly like reading. There are many possible reasons for this, but one cistron is that students often do not find the act of reading in the classroom very engaging, despite potentially interesting content. Teachers often capture students' interest with pre-reading and post-reading activities, simply when it comes to the actual procedure of reading some students are simply not engaged.

A common while-reading activity is to have one student read aloud while the residue of the students follow along in silence. While this way of working has some merits, information technology also has its drawbacks. Information technology can be both stressful and boring at the same time. It tin be stressful for the private student who is reading aloud and it can be boring for all the other students who are listening and following along in silence.

Beneath are 25 while-reading activities that reduce the potential stress and colorlessness described higher up. These activities are designed for classes where all the students are working with the same text. It must be pointed out that these activities exercise not always atomic number 82 to maximum comprehension, but we sometimes need to sacrifice this for the benefits of more engaged, participative and motivated students.

The activities are based on iv principles:

The activities tin can exist done with practically any text
All the students accept something to do while reading
The activities should be low-stress
They tin can be washed with piddling grooming

The activities have been categorized by how the students are grouped:

capture

The activities have also been categorized by the kind of response students demand to give.

Perform actions
Underline
Say part of words
Say words
Say phrases
Say sentences / lines of text


i	Perform actions	Stand / sit down downwards – The teacher chooses six words from a chosen section of the text and writes these on the board. Each student chooses 3 of these words and makes a note of these in their notebook. The teacher reads the called section of the text aloud and students read forth in silence, just stand up and and so quickly sit downwards once again every time they hear/read their called words.
2	Perform actions	Perform the activeness – The teacher chooses some important/common words from the called section of the text. Students and the instructor decide on a specific activeness to perform for each of the chosen words. The teacher reads the chosen section of the text aloud and the students listen and read in silence, but perform the appropriate action whenever they read/hear the corresponding word.
iii	Perform deportment	Click / clap – The instructor reads the chosen department of the text aloud and students read along in silence. Every time the teacher gets to a full stop/menstruum the students clap their easily once. Every time the teacher gets to a comma the students click their fingers once.
4	Perform deportment	Follow with finger – The teacher reads the chosen section of the text aloud and students read forth in silence and follow along with a finger. The teacher can bank check that every student is following the text by seeing where their finger is on the page.
5	Underline	Fill in the blank – The instructor chooses and circles several words in the called section of the text. The teacher read the chosen department of the text aloud, but says 'bare' in place of those chosen words. Students listen and follow the text at the same time and underline the words that were substituted with the discussion 'blank'. Students so compare with each other and cheque with the instructor.
6	Underline	Spot the missing words – The teacher chooses and circles several words in the called section of the text that tin can be omitted without the text sounding foreign. The teacher reads the chosen section of the text aloud but misses out the circled words. The text needs to exist read in a natural way so that it flows and sounds normal. Students listen, follow the text and underline the words that were omitted. Students and so compare with each other and check with the teacher.
seven	Underline	Spot the mistakes – The teacher chooses and changes several words in the chosen section of the text. The teacher reads the chosen section of the text aloud and the students read along in silence and underline the words they think the instructor has inverse. Students and so compare with each other and check with the teacher.
8	Underline	Clandestine message – The teacher s elects some words from the chosen department of the text so that the first letter of e ach of these words spells out a underground word or short phrase. The teacher reads the c hosen section of the text aloud and students listen and r ead along in silence. However, e very time the teacher comes one of the previously selected words the teacher substitutes the give-and-take with a funny noise. The students need to underline each of these words. The students t hen need to work out the secret message.
ix	Say parts of words	Cease off words – The teacher reads a chosen department of the text aloud and the students listen and read forth in silence. However, every now then the teacher says only the commencement ane or two syllables of a word and then pauses. The students need to say the missing parts of the give-and-take in chorus. The teacher continues reading once the students have completed each word.
ten	Underline and say parts of discussion	Say merely that role of the word – The teacher chooses a feature of word morphology that is common in the called section of the text. This could be the plural 'southward', ing-endings, ed-endings, –tion, etc. The students become through the department of the text and underline all the examples of that feature of linguistic communication. The instructor so reads aloud and the students need to call out in chorus only that role of the word at the same time as the teacher reads it.
xi	Say words	Banana – The teacher reads the called department of the text aloud and the students listen and read along in silence. Every at present and then the instructor substitutes a word in the text with the word 'assistant'. The students need to call out the word from the text that was substituted. Special thanks to Quyen Xuan Vuong for sharing this activity.
12	Say words	Say only those words – The teacher chooses and identifies about iv or five words that appear frequently in the chosen section of the text. The teacher writes these words on the board. The teacher reads the section of text aloud and students listen and read in silence, just say just the chosen words in chorus every bit the teacher reads them.
thirteen	Say words	Every third discussion– The teacher starts to read the called section of the text aloud and students listen and read along in silence. Notwithstanding, the teacher reads only the showtime ii words and the student need to say the third give-and-take in chorus. The teacher then reads the side by side ii words and so the students say the sixth word in chorus. This continues until the end of the chosen section of the text.
14	Say words	What'due south the next word? – The teacher reads the called section of the text aloud and students mind and read along in silence. However, every now and then the teacher stops reading aloud and the students need to read the next word in the text in chorus. Once the students have said the discussion, the teacher continues reading simply stops every now and and so and the students need to say the next word in chorus. This continues until the terminate of the called section of the text.
15	Say words	I give-and-take at a fourth dimension – Students take turns reading ane discussion at a time effectually the group until the end of the chosen section of the text.
16	Underline and say words	Alphabet words – The teacher assigns each member of the group dissimilar letters of the alphabet; then that all the letters of the alphabet are assigned and then that each student has several messages. Each student needs to look through the chosen department of the text and underline all the words that start with their assigned messages. Then the group reads the chosen section of the text aloud, but each student only says his/her corresponding words.
17	Say phrases	Mind, read and repeat – The teacher selects a short department of the text. The teacher read the section aloud one brusk phrase at a time. After reading each phrase the whole class repeats in chorus. This continues until the end of the called section of the text.
18	Say phrases	Cease off the sentences – The teacher reads the chosen section of the text aloud to the form. Before the stop of some sentences the teacher stops and the whole course has to read the residuum of the sentence aloud in chorus.
19	Say phrases	Judgement tennis – The instructor chooses a section of a text with ii paragraphs of like length. One educatee is assigned the first paragraph and the other student is assigned the second paragraph. The offset pupil reads part of the showtime sentence aloud but stops part of the style through whenever they desire. The other student has to listen and read in silence, merely read the rest of the sentence aloud from where the beginning student stopped. This is repeated for the rest of the paragraph. For the second paragraph the students swap so that the 2d student starts reading each sentence.
20	Say sentences	Every third sentence – The teacher divides the whole class into 3 groups. The groups are chosen ane, 2 and three. Group 1 reads the first judgement aloud in chorus, group 2 then does the aforementioned with the second sentence, and group iii does the same with the third. Group 1 then reads the quaternary sentence and this continues until the cease of the chosen department of the text.
21	Say sentences	Dice sentences – The instructor divides the whole form into six groups and assigns the numbers one-half dozen to the groups so that each group has a different number. The teacher roles the dice and all the students in the group with that number read out the first judgement in chorus. The teacher roles the dice again and the corresponding grouping reads the 2nd judgement in chorus. This continues until the stop of the chosen department of the text.
22	Say lines of text	Secret lines – The teacher chooses a section of the text with plenty lines of text for every student to take one or ii lines each. The teacher assigned one or two lines to each student in a random guild. The could be by handing out numbers at random to each student or by cut upwards a photocopy of the text and giving out a line or two of text to each student. Each student identifies their lines in the original text. The whole text is read in the correct order by each educatee reading their line(due south) of the text aloud.
23	Say sentences	Nominate side by side reader – One student reads the get-go sentence aloud from the chosen department of the text and the residuum of the group listen and read forth in silence. When the student finishes the sentence, he/she nominates the next student to read aloud past saying the name of that pupil. That educatee then reads the second sentences aloud and and then nominates the next reader. This continues until the end of the chosen section of the text.
24	Say sentences	1 sentence at a time – Students take it in turns to read one sentence at a fourth dimension around the group until the end of the chosen department of the text.
25	Say sentences	Buzz / buzz / bang – The teacher selects three words which announced often in the chosen department of the text. The teacher writes these iii words on the board and next to the ane^stword write 'fizz', next to the ii^ndwords writes 'buzz', and adjacent to the three ^rd discussion writes 'bang'. Students and so have it in turns to read one sentences at a time and substitute the selected words with 'fizz', ' buzz' or 'bang' as indicted on the board.