Pre-reading Mini Research

Working with children or students who say they "get a headache" from reading more than one paragraph?

For a start, these learners need help before they begin reading long texts. This year I'm working with a teenager who doesn't resist learning, but whose stamina disappears once he sees a text more than half a page. We always do pre-reading activities to let him warm up to the text. In this lesson, he did a mini research task on Jane Goodall, which was the focus of the Comprehension text. Having talked about the topic and completed research, he was more mentally prepared to plough through the text later on. This pre-reading activity didn't take more than 15 minutes.

As a teacher, I fully acknowledge that this kind of warm up is not possible under examination conditions. However, if students have a chance to warm up properly during practice sessions, the fear of reading longer texts can be dealt with. The general knowledge acquired over these practices also gets better retained, as these are learned under pleasant conditions. Teen learners can learn to reframe reading as a manageable task, instead of seeing it as a chore.
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