Before reading activities

Philip Prowse

'My students don't read in their own language. How on earth can I get them to read in English?' The best pre-reading activity is when a student picks up a book, looks at the cover, flips through the book and then settles down to read. But how can we get to that point? The tried and tested activities presented here are all aimed at stimulating that desire to read. They can be used to foster individual reading or to introduce a class reader.

They are described here largely as whole class activities but are well suited for use on pre-reading workcards. The advantage of keeping the activities on workcards is that individuals can do them when they are choosing what to read next. Remember that you don't have to prepare these activities yourself. Nearly all of them are ones that the students can prepare themselves.