Reading comprehension - A few simple methods for primary students

Reading Comprehension – How to begin?

Before going into the main activity (reading comprehension), if students are struggling to read, a pre-reading activity can be done to help students familiarize with the vocabulary in the passage. 

Pre-reading activity – 1 (for Worksheet 1)

Interact with students using the picture in worksheet 1.

Sample Questions:

1. What do you see in the picture?
2. How many children are there in the picture?
3. What are they doing?
4. Do you like playing football?

Capture students’ responses on the blackboard. If they are not able to respond in English, they can attempt in Tamil. Teacher can then support with corresponding English words.

Possible responses for sample questions:

1. Boy, football, two boys, children, play, playing football.

(Ask the students to come in pairs and read from the blackboard. This will help them to familiarize with the words and sentences in the passage.)

After the pre-reading activity, teacher can distribute the worksheet (worksheet 1) to students. The activity can be done by students individually or in groups. 

Pre-reading activity – 2 (for Worksheet 2 - Page 2)

Interact with students using the picture in worksheet 2.

(Give an introduction about the coloring activity. Students are going to color the picture according to the information given in the passage.)

Sample Questions:

1. Can you identify the color of these items (teacher can show a few materials in the classroom, such as water bottles, bags, pencil boxes etc.)?
2. What is your favorite color?
3. What colours will you give for this picture (in the worksheet)?  (Teacher can ask students’ suggestions for different parts of the picture.)

Capture the responses on the blackboard (black, blue, white shoes, black hair etc.) (Ask the students to come in pairs and read from the blackboard.) After the pre-reading activity, teacher can distribute the worksheets to students. The activity can be done by students individually or in groups. 

Similar pre-reading activities can be done for the other activities (worksheet 3, 4) as well.