How to Teach a Reading English Mini Lesson
Teaching reading should be done in a quiet supportive atmosphere, especially with children with learning disabilities. Research has shown that soft music in the background is conducive to relaxation during the learning process. The mind can read text at infinitely faster speeds than the mouth can verbalize them. This process should take about 30 minutes.
Instructions
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Play some music, preferably classical or at least instrumental in the classroom as you begin teaching the mini lesson. There are professionally recorded CDs available with Baroque instrumentals which can assist in focusing and providing student attention.
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Begin the reading lesson by writing the first line of the text to be read on the board, and ask random students to read the line. Depending on the aptitude of each student they will read at different skill and speed. Many students will read each word individually; your aim is to have them view ahead of where they are reading.
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Cover all of the words and then show them to students three at a time. Have the students read each word until they can see the words and know them at a glance. Have them practice this in pairs until they are confident with the passage.
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Expand this to showing six words at a time and repeat the process. The aim is to get students to multi-task by looking ahead of the word they are saying and therefore the words are already in mind before the need to verbalize them comes in turn.
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Tips & Warnings
Remember to always be positive about the student’s progress; an ounce of encouragement brings a pound of performance.
There are reading machines called optical character recognition (OCR) systems available that can cover words as they are read, thus increasing speed.
These machines can be set to increased or decreased speeds depending on the level of student ability.
Resources
- Photo Credit Mark A. Hicks
