When you teach reading in small groups, it is helpful to have a variety of seat work for students to complete while you work with another group. The best way to handle this seat work time, is to have students complete assignments that are an extension of what they learned about during their reading instructional time. These ideas can easily be made into worksheets for the students to fill out.
Reading Response Sheet
A reading response sheet asks students to respond to what they read in writing. This not only helps to reinforce reading comprehension, but helps to improve writing skills at the same time. The student should put their name, title of the book, author’s name and the date at the top of the page. If the book is long, they can also include which pages they read that day.
The student should then write two to three sentences that describe their reaction to the pages that they read, a couple sentences about what they like about the book so far, and a couple sentences about what they do not like about the book so far. For vocabulary enrichment, students can also pick one word that they find interesting from the book, and both the word and the definition for the word.
Write a New Ending
Create a worksheet that has students write a new ending for the story they read. The student should write their name, the date and the book title at the top of the page. The page should include lines for the student to write on, with directions for the students to write a new ending for the story. If students are too young to expect a lot of writing, have the bottom half of the page a blank box with directions for students to draw a picture that illustrates the new ending to the book.
Fill out a Story Map
Story maps are very useful in writing class to help students organize a story. These maps can also be great comprehension tools for reading class. Have students fill out all the information on the map, tweaking the categories. You can include the Title, setting, main event, Main character, author, favorite parts and a list of other characters. To promote deeper thinking, you can also ask questions that require students to infer information, instead of simply recalling basic facts from the story, such as how the main character felt, or the lesson that the character learned.
When coming up with extension activities for students during the language arts block, think of activities that reinforce and extend student knowledge. Ask students to think about what they learned from previous lessons. The more interesting the activities, the more engaged your students will be.
Learn more tips for teaching reading.
Jennifer Wagaman - Jennifer is a mother of 2 and has both public, private and administrative experience in the education field.
Join the Conversation