Plan a reading lesson
1 of 3
Which job?
This is for any tutor who wants reading in a lesson and has not yet picked how. Start from the job you need the reading to do, then take the strategy beside it. Keep the text short: 100 to 300 words fits any lesson, and little and often builds fluency.
The handout
Which strategy for which job?
The deck adds one more: to remember what they read, Summarise in 15, 10, 5.
| If you want learners to… | Try… |
|---|---|
| Start a lesson with something quick | News Article Starter |
| Get past tricky vocabulary | Vocabulary in Context, or Guided Reading |
| Read critically and weigh evidence | Reading Detectives, or Two Texts, One Question |
| Tackle a long text | Jigsaw Reading |
| Apply what they have read | Read-Think-Apply |
| See how an expert reader works | Think-Aloud Modelling |
Your jobSay what the reading must do, who is reading and how long the text is, and get your plan.
1 of 4
What do you need the reading to do?
The deck's jobs, from the table you saw.
Before, during and after, for one strategy in one lesson.
Why this works in your room
A short text with a job turns reading into part of your subject.
For your learners: They meet the texts of their industry in short, regular doses, with a reason to read each one.
For you: You pick the strategy by what you need the reading to do, and you can see who understood it.
The strategy
From the job table
Write it here: [strategy], [its minutes]. Its own resource has the steps.
Before
Text and question
A short text, 100 to 300 words.
Purpose question set. Three to five key words taught.
During
While they read
Model the first paragraph. Chunk the text.
Circle, underline, sum up. Check as you go.
After
Use what they read
Quick-fire questions. Discuss and justify.
Apply it to a task.
If they think they know it
Anticipation Guide
Four to six true or false statements before reading, one or two of them misconceptions. Revisit after.
Avoid round-robin reading
Nobody reads aloud cold
Read it yourself, or ask a volunteer who has had time to prepare.
Elsewhere in Bradford ThreadWorks
Big 4Copilot: writing a simple prompt and asking for a draft, such as a summary, a starter or a quiz.Open Big 4 (opens in a new tab)
Lesson WeaverGo Read finds the reading spots in your lesson plan and suggests a strategy for each.Open Lesson Weaver (opens in a new tab)
Prompts to paste into Copilot
Two prompts to paste into Copilot. They are our own wording, not Big 4 training. Change what is in brackets, and leave out learners' names.
An Anticipation Guide
I teach [subject] to [level] learners. The text they will read is about [topic]. Write five true or false statements for them to answer before reading. Make two of them common misconceptions that the text corrects. Give me the answers, with the line in the text that settles each one.
A purpose question
Here is a text I am giving to [level] [subject] learners. [paste the text]. Write three purpose questions they could read it to answer, each starting “Read this to find out”. Each must need the whole text, not one line of it.
Reading in every subject
The Education Endowment Foundation's guidance on literacy asks every subject to teach its own vocabulary and to help learners read complex texts, rather than keep them away from them.
EEF, Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools (opens in a new tab)A purpose, a model, a check
Setting a purpose, modelling how an expert reads, and checking understanding are reading comprehension strategies. The EEF's Toolkit rates them among the highest-impact, lowest-cost approaches it lists.
EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit: reading comprehension strategies (opens in a new tab)How sure is this?
Fairly, for the strategies inside the activities: vocabulary, a purpose, modelling and checking. The named activities are from the college's staff CPD deck, Reading Across the Curriculum. The minutes are this site's suggestion, not the deck's. They have not been tested as a set. Most of the research is with school-age learners, so treat it as a strong steer for adults.
No source claimed