Recently I have been discussing the ways that teachers can knock out the excuses that students give on why they do not enjoy reading. There are several little things that teachers can do to help encourage students to read.
Many students are not completely against reading. They feel that they are not good at it so they simply give up on reading. Teachers can help students in this situation by giving them hope to be a better reader.
Taking reading tests of any type can be very stressful for students who struggle in reading. Before administering these types of tests to students, try giving them a pep talk. As silly as it may sound to cheer on a student before a test, it does give them more confidence in their abilities. The more confident a student has, the less test anxiety that occurs. When the level of test anxiety is lower, a student can focus more on the questions and the answers and have a clearer mind for thinking and comprehension.
In this talk, be certain to refresh the students’ minds with reading and comprehension strategies. Discuss the various skills that you have practiced in class.
In addition to working on test strategies with struggling students, teachers should also stress to students that their reading level does not necessarily have to match their grade level. A reading level simply lets the teacher know how the student reads with a specific level of vocabulary words and complexity of text. Students can enhance and raise their reading level by broadening their vocabulary. Work with students on deriving the meaning of unfamiliar words through context clues and the structure of the sentence. Remind the students that practicing their reading skills will also help.
Students and teachers alike can monitor their process in order to see improvement and gains in reading speed and comprehension.