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3 Stages of a Reading Lesson (Plan)

Reading is a process involving word recognition, comprehension and fluency.

1. Word recognition is the ability of a reader to recognize written words

correctly.
2. Comprehension is the ability the ability to read text, process it, and
understand its meaning.
3. Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately and quickly

Stages for Teaching Reading

There are 3 Stages for Teaching Reading

1. Pre-Reading Stage
2. While-Reading Stage
3. Post-Reading Stage

1. Pre-Reading
Purpose of Pre-Reading Activities

The purpose of pre-reading activities is to:

• Establish a purpose for reading

• Improve vocabulary so students can complete the reading task successfully
• Predict what they are going
• Establish what they know about a topic

Pre-Reading Activities Examples

Some examples of pre-reading activities are:

KWL Charts: Have you ever used KWL Charts in the classrooms, KWL Charts
are simple. Just have students write everything they know about the topic (K
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column) and everything they want to know (W column) and what they learned
after the reading (L Column)

True or False: Let’s take the example of the influence of social media on
teenagers again, you can come to the classroom and read a few statements and ask
them if they think those statements are true or false. Don’t reveal the answers and
let them confirm if they were right or wrong when they are doing the reading.

Videos: There is so much good free content available these days. First, find a short
video relating to the topic of the reading. I would suggest something around three
minutes long. After watching the video yourself, prepare some simple discussion
questions. Play the video and then ask the students to talk with a partner about
what they saw.

I’m listening to You: Ask students to work in pairs. Challenge them to talk in
English for 1 minute about a topic. Repeat with a new topic, students change roles.
(For more information on pre-reading activities, please check pg. )

2. While Reading

While-Reading Activities are defined as activities that help students to focus on

aspects of the text and to understand it better. The goal of these activities is to help
learners to deal as they would deal with it as if the text was written in their first
language.

While-Reading Activities Examples

1. Identify topic sentences and the main idea of paragraphs. Remember that every
paragraph usually includes a topic sentence that identifies the main idea of the
paragraph.

2. Distinguish between general and specific ideas.

3. Identify the connectors to see how they link ideas within the text. For a full list
of linking words, have a look at these linking words grouped by category.
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4. Coding text involves teaching students a method of margin marking so they can
place a question mark next to a statement they don’t understand or an exclamation
mark next to something that surprised them.

(For more information on while reading activities, please check pg. )

3. Post-Reading

Post-reading activities help students understand texts further, through critically

analyzing what they have read.

Post-Reading Examples

1. Creative Discussions: Prepare four or five simple questions and ask students to
talk about those question for 3 minutes and after that ask one member of each pair
to go and talk to another person of the group.

2. Quiz Your Classmates: Ask your students to prepare 5 questions about what
they read, once they have them ready, you can tell the students to make groups of 4
and then they can ask those questions to each other.

3. Finding Related News: After students have finished reading, they can browse
on the internet for a new related to something they read, for example: if they read
something about moral and values, they can find examples of altruism on the web
and they can share that information with their classmates.

(If you need to learn more about post-reading activities, please check pg. )
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15 Examples of Pre-Reading Activities

The Pre-Reading section consists of activities and exercises to prepare students

before they do the actual reading.

Why are Pre-Reading Activities Important?

Pre-reading activities help students prepare for the reading activity by activating
the relevant schemata, and motivating them to read.

Pre-reading activities can also help learners anticipate the topic, vocabulary and
possibly important grammar structures in the texts.

Pre-Reading Activities that You can Implement in the Classroom:

Here are some pre-reading activities that you can implement or modify to meet
your student needs.

#1 Discussion
Create a discussion about the topic.

Teacher prepares 4 sentences expressing opinions about the topic, then sticks them
in the 4 corners of the classroom.

Students go and stand near the opinion they disagree with the most.

The groups explain why they disagree about the topic.

#2 I’m listening to You

Ask students to work in pairs. One of them talks while his or her partner listens.

Challenge them to talk in English for 1 minute about a topic.

Repeat with a new topic, students change roles

#3 Quotations
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Find a quotation about the topic, students make groups of three and discuss the
quotation.

Students think about and answer questions like these:

• What does it mean?

• Do they agree with it? Why/Why not.

#4 Guessing from Words

Before students look at the text they are going to read, the teacher writes 5 or 6
words from the text on the board and asks the students to guess the topic.

Students brainstorm ideas and then the teacher confirms how close or far they
were.

#5 Guessing from Pictures:

The teacher finds 3 pictures or objects which are connected to the story and ask the
students to guess how they are connected.

Students read the text to check if they were right or wrong about the story
connections they made.

#6 Pictionary
Select some of the key words from the text.

Put the class into two or three groups. A learner from each group (at the same time)
comes to the whiteboard.

They are told the word and they have to draw that word. They are not allowed to
use letters or numbers in their drawing.

The other students try to guess what the word is and earn points for their team.

#7 Guessing from sentences

The teacher dictates 3 sentences from the passage. Students write them down and
check with a friend.
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The sentences go on the board if necessary as a final check. Then the teacher asks
how these sentences might be connected. What is the text about?

Students predict then read the text quickly to check their predictions.

#8 How many words do you know?

The teacher prepares the board by writing the letters of the alphabet in 3 or 4
columns.

The students form two lines standing behind each other.

Use 2 colored markers so you know which team wrote what. The first student at
the front of each team gets the board marker.

The teacher gives a topic to the class.

The 2 students move to the board and write one word related to the topic on the
board next to the letter it begins with, then pass the marker to the next students in
their team and go to the back of the queue.

The 2 teams compete to write as many words as possible on the board in 3 minutes.

The team with the largest number of appropriate and correctly spelled answers
wins!

#9 Speed chatting
Prepare one or two simple questions related to the topic of the reading.

Ask the class to make two rows facing each other. Then, encourage your learners
to ask each other the questions, but warn them that they only have 60 seconds to do
so.

Once the 60 seconds are up, one of the rows rotates so each learner has a new
partner. Repeat the process several times.
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#10 Videos
There is so much good free content available these days. First, find a short video
relating to the topic of the reading.

I would suggest something around three minutes long.

After watching the video yourself, prepare some simple discussion questions. Play
the video and then ask the students to talk with a partner about what they watched.

#11 Brainstorming
The teacher gives the title of the reading to the learners and students have to share
their all their knowledge about the topic.

The goal of this activity is to help learners create expectations about what they are
about to read and then see if their expectation were met.

For example if you have to teach about the influence of social media on teenagers,
students can take turn and talk about the topic, as they read they can confirm if the
study they read confirm their expectations.

#12 True or False

Let’s take the example of the influence of social media on teenagers again.

You can come to the classroom and read a few statements and ask them if they
think those statements are true or false.

Don’t reveal the answers and let them confirm if they were right or wrong when
they are doing the reading.

#13 Introducing Vocabulary

In the context of an ESL Classroom, it will always be important to introduce key
vocabulary so students don’t get discouraged by unknown words while they read.

Introducing vocabulary doesn’t have to be a boring task, you can easily create a
word with key vocabulary and see if students can tell you something about those
words.
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#14 KWL Charts

Have you ever used KWL Charts in the classrooms?

KWL Charts are simple.

Just have students write everything they know about the topic (K column) and
everything they want to know (W column) and what they learned after the reading
(L Column)

#15 Quotations
Prepare some quotes related to the topic and ask students to comment on them.

They don’t have to do that as a class, they can make groups of 3 to 5 people and
then a member of each group can share the ideas with other groups.

Conclusion
Remember that the pre-reading stage is the first of three stages, you should learn
what types of while-reading activities you can do in the classroom and also the
most common types of after-reading strategies. When you manage all of them, you
reading lessons will succeed

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While-Reading Activities

These are defined as activities that help students to focus on aspects of the text and
to understand it better.
The goal of these activities is to help learners to deal as they would deal with it as
if the text was written in their first language.

During this stage, students will be able to:

1. confirm predictions
2. gather information
3. organize information
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Examples of While-Reading Activities

These are some examples of while-reading activities that you can use in the
classroom:

1. Identify topic sentences and the main idea of paragraphs. Remember that every
paragraph usually includes a topic sentence that identifies the main idea of the
paragraph.

2. Distinguish between general and specific ideas. If you want to know what I
mean, have a look at this reading exercise

3. Identify the connectors to see how they link ideas within the text. For a full list
of linking words, have a look at these linking words grouped by category.

4. Check whether or not predictions and guesses are confirmed. A reading

class might start with one of these pre-reading activities. Some pre-reading tasks
might go beyond its stage.

5. Skim a text for specific information. Skimming is the ability to locate the main
idea within a text, using this reading strategies will help students to become
proficient readers.

6. Answer literal and inferential questions: Literal simply refers to what the text
says and inferential is using the text as a starting point to get a deeper meaning

7. Infer the meaning of new words using the context: All language learners rely
on context to decipher the meaning of a word, a reading strategy used quite a lot
when you do extensive reading.

8. Coding text involves teaching students a method of margin marking so they can
place a question mark next to a statement they don’t understand or an exclamation
mark next to something that surprised them.

9. Student-to-student conversation, you can ask students to have a conversation

after they have finished a paragraph or a stanza of a poem so they can clear up any
confusions they might have.
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10. Scan a text for specific information: You scan when you look for your
favorite show listed in the TV guide, when you look your friend’s phone number in
your contact list.

If you want to use this reading strategy successfully, you need to understand how
the reading material is structured as well as have a clear idea about what specific
information you have to locate.

This technique is key if you need to find information in a hurry.

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Post-Reading Activities

Post-reading activities help students understand texts further, through critically

analyzing what they have read and these are carried out after you have
implemented successfully Pre-Reading Activities and While-Reading Activities

Examples of Post-Reading Activities

1. Creative Writing
Ask students to choose 10-15 words from the text. You can provide categories for
the words e.g. the most interesting words / the most important words. Students then
write a text using the words.

This text could be a story, poem or news report.

2. Areas of Interest
Ask students to say which part of the text is the most important/interesting and
which part is not interesting or important.

3. Creative Discussions
Prepare four or five simple questions and ask students to talk about those question
for 3 minutes and after that ask one member of each pair to go and talk to another
person of the group.

4. Quiz Your Classmates

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Ask your students to prepare 5 questions about what they read, once they have
them ready, you can tell the students to make groups of 4 and then they can ask
those questions to each other.

5. Finding Related News

After students have finished reading, they can browse on the internet for a new
related to something they read, for example: if they read something about moral
and values, they can find examples of altruism on the web and they can share that
information with their classmates.

6. Prepare a Survey
Students can prepare a survey about the information they just read, using again the
example of the moral and values reading, students can prepare questions such as:

1. What would you do if you found a wallet near to your house?

2. What would you do if you found a five dollars bill in the classroom?
They can prepare the survey in class and ask the survey to their classmates or they
can go home and bring the results and report them during next class.

7. Parts of the Speech

Ask students to spot the different parts of the speech from the reading, then they
quiz their classmates asking questions such as:
1. Why type of word is moral?
2. How would you use that word in a sentence?

8. Questions from Pictures

Teachers shows a collage and ask student to look at the collage carefully and how
some of the pictures relate to the reading they did.

9. Character Analysis
If you read a story, there must be one or two characters involved, analyze those
characters and prepare a set of question that you would like to make them.
When all classmates have prepared their questions, ask them to give you their
answers and then as a group try to answer the questions.

10. A Graphic organizer

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(Also known as a concept map or mind map) is usually a one-page form with blank
areas for learners to complete with ideas and information which are connected in
some way.’

How can Graphic Organizers Improve Learning?

1. Can help convey large chunks of information concisely.
2. encourage strategic thinking: describing, comparing and contrasting,
classifying, sequencing, identifying cause and effect,etc
3. can be used to aid reading comprehension, students can brainstorm around a
topic, summarize texts and do other learning activities, such as organizing
and storing vocabulary, planning research, writing projects, etc.
4. are easy to use with all levels and ages
5. are non-linear and thus allow for multiple connections between ideas

#11 Questioning the Author of the Book or story

Ask learners to prepare a set of questions that they would make to the author of the
book or story

#12 The End of the Story

Another post-reading activity is asking learners to change the end of the story.
Changing the ending of a story to something unpredictable requires some thinking.

#13 Designing a Poster to Advertise the Book

This activity could easily linked to the use of technology in the classroom. Simply
ask learners to create a poster using a tool like Piktochart or Canva

Final Thoughts
Remember that teacher must start a reading lesson with a warm-up followed
by pre-reading activities and while-reading activities, finally he or she must apply
some of the techniques featured in this handout to end that reading successfully.