Reading is more than just sounding out letters. Its about finding the meaning, the purpose, and your own reaction to the sentences and stories that those letters create. In this more holistic view of what constitutes reading, activities that contain the high standards of comprehension and critical thinking are needed to deepen and assess these skills. Below is a list of such activities from materials from a lecture on reading in EDS 130 at UCSD.
After Reading Activities
Compare the story/text to a personal event
Poster Report
Mural
Compare/Contrast the characters in a Venn diagram.
Write a new ending for the story.
Write a report card for one of the characters.
Create a skit about the characters in the story.
Read a favorite passage into a recorder.
Play the part of a character and have someone interview you.
Write an advertisement of the book.
Make a TV scroll of a part of the story or historical event.
Write a letter recommending the book to a friend.
Write a diary entry from the point of view of the main character describing a main event in the story.
Make a timeline of events in the story, historical, or scientific event.
Prepare a newspaper article about the story.
Write a sequel to the story.
Give a book talk about what you read.
Write a cinquain or acrostic poem about the main character, historical figures, or events.
Create a puppet for one of the main characters.
Write a conversation between two characters.
Pretend you are a newspaper reporter writing a news article about a major event in the story.
Write a different ending to the story.
Create a book jacket for the story.
Research the author. Find out interesting facts to share with others who have read the book.
Make a diorama of a main event in the story.
Debates.
Choral speaking.
Retell a story or event using overheads/document camera.
Other Ideas:
Act out a scene from the story.
Choreograph a dance for a scene from the story or about what a character may have been feeling.
Create a comic about the story or an important part of the story.
Write a song from the point of view of the protagonist or antagonist.
Change the sex of the main character and discuss its effects on the story.
Another important aspect of reading is discussion questions, especially those with no clear answer. This challenges readers to construct hypotheses based on their observations of characters or situations in the text and prove them with evidence. Below are some open ended questions from the same lecture.
Did the author tell you enough?
What else would you like to know?
What did you find out that you didn't know before?
Tell me the main things that happened.
Were you able to guess what was going to happen?
Can you think of another way the story might have ended?
What do you remember most?
Why do you think the author wrote this?
Do you think there is a message in the book?What is it?
Do you like the illustrations? Why? Why not?
What do you think the illustrator needed to know in order to illustrate this story?
What puzzled you?
Have you ever read other books/stories/poems like this?Tell me about htem.
What character/part interested you most?
Is that character the most important person in the story? Why?
What characters didn't you like? Why?
Did any characters remind you of people you know? How so?
Did the characters change? In what way?
Has anything like this ever happened to you? Did you feel the same as the people in the story?
Have you read a story like this before? If so, was it different this time? What did you notice this time?
Were the events in this story realistic? Tell more.
How could these events really have happened? Explain
How did suspense/excitement get built up in this story?
What problems did the characters face? How did they solve them?
How/why is the life of this family similar/different from your own family life? Give some reasons.
Try to place yourself in this piece. Would you have reacted in the same way or would you do things differently? Why?
Its important to note what these questions are doing to the reader. Many of them ask the reader to relate the story back to their own lives as a sort of "litmus test" for creditability. Instead of simply studying at the story within its own context, these questions reach out to the reader's life to find truths as well as create relevance to the material. This technique is not only useful in reading and language classes, but in any course. When the material covered is brought back to the individual and their life the individual cane become motivated by the meaning derived from this interaction.
If you have any other reading activities or questions that should be on these lists please suggest them!
