Whether you walk into a classroom in Asia, North America or Europe, you will almost certainly see teachers and students building their understanding of the world through a dedicated daily reading session full of great reading activities.
Books allow students an opportunity to be informed, entertained or escape as they comprehend fiction and non-fiction texts against their understanding of the world, their personal insights, and opinions and finally compare those texts to others.
Whilst you may have a wealth of books in your school library, developing fresh and engaging ways to study literature can often be challenging. So today, we will explore 25 proven activities that can be applied to any book and at any age level.
These reading activities to improve reading comprehension are easy to follow and suitable for most age groups within an elementary/junior high school level.
125 Text Response ACTIVITIES, Games, Projects for ANY BOOK
A COLLECTION OF FUN READING ACTIVITIES
A Lifetime Tale in Pictures READING TASK
Draw the main character from a book you have recently read. Show them as a baby, middle-aged and an older person.
Underneath each picture, write what you think they might be doing at that point in their life, and explain why they may be doing so.
For example, if you drew Harry Potter as a baby, he might cast spells on his mum to feed him lots of yummy food.
Post-reading activities like this are accessible for all age groups to adapt their skill level and text style.
If you want to learn more about characters, read our complete guide here.
A Lifetime Tale in Pictures READING TASK
Draw the main character from a book you have recently read. Show them as a baby, middle-aged and an older person.
Underneath each picture, write what you think they might be doing at that point in their life, and explain why they may be doing so.
For example, if you drew Harry Potter as a baby, he might cast spells on his mum to feed him lots of yummy food.
Post-reading activities like this are accessible for all age groups to adapt their skill level and text style.
If you want to learn more about characters, read our complete guide here.
TEXT TO SELF-READING TASK
Based upon a book you have just read, share a story about yourself related to an event or character in the book.
It is probably best done in the form of a written recount. Link your experience to no more than four situations that occurred within the text.
Text to self is an excellent opportunity for students to become introspective about the content they read and compare it to their own life experiences.
This activity is appealing to teenagers more so than juniors.
IT’S IN THE INSTRUCTIONS READING TASK
From a book you have just read, select either a critical object or creature and create a user manual or a guide explaining how to care for it.
Ensure you use any vital information learnt from the book and any other information you consider essential.
If you are writing a user manual for an object, remember to focus on using it correctly and taking care of it.
If you are writing a user guide for an animal or creature, focus on keeping it alive and healthy as well as information that explains how to keep it happy and under control if necessary.
Dear Diary, READING TASK
Place yourself in the shoes of one of the characters you have just read about and write a diary entry of a critical moment from the story.
Try to choose a moment in the story where the character has plenty of interaction and emotion to share in a diary entry.
Your diary entry should be around a page long and contain information you learned from the book when the character was in that specific place and time.
Remember, when writing a diary entry, you are writing it from a first-person perspective. It is usually but not always written in the present tense.
Diary writing has been a very popular activity throughout time, but social media tools such as Facebook and blogging have in some ways changed this.
Mapping it all out, READING TASK
How do you make reading lessons fun? This reading activity answers that question confidently.
Have a go at drawing a map of one of the places from the text you have just read. See how much detail you can include, and be sure to discuss your map with another reader so you can compare and add more if necessary.
Take some time and effort to ensure your map appeals to the same audience the book aims at.
All good maps should contain the following BOLTS elements.
B – Bolts
O – Orientation
L – Legend
T- Title
S – Scale
Express Yourself READING TASK
Using an iPad or a digital camera, make faces of the emotions the main characters would have gone through in your book and take photos of them.
Put them together in a document on your computer or device and explain the emotion below the image and when the character would have felt this way.
This is an excellent opportunity to use some creative direction for this task.
Be sure to play around with the images, filters and graphical styling available.
Travel Agent READING TASK
Think of yourselves as a group of travel assistants whose job is to promote a city of your choice from the text you have been reading.
As a group, you need to develop a concept map of all the exciting things that happen in your city and then present it to the class.
Don’t forget all of the exciting things such as theatres, restaurants, sports, adventure activities, entertainment and much more…
If you are a little short on details of the location of your story, do some research if it was an actual location or just get creative and make up some locations and tourist attractions based on what you read.
You’re Hired READING TASK
Select a character from a book and consider what might be an excellent job for them. You can choose something entirely suitable such as a security guard job for Superman or a more oddball approach, such as a pastry chef.
Either way, you will have to write a letter from this character’s perspective and apply for a position.
Be sure to explain why your character would be a great employee and what special skills they would possess to make them ideal for the role. Sell your character by explaining all the great attributes they possess.
What’s the Status? READING TASK
Create a Facebook page for your character with some status updates about what they have been up to.
Include some pictures and ensure your status updates are relevant to the character and the story.
Around 3 – 4 status updates with mages should give an overall picture of the character.
Use your status updates to explore what your character does for a job, leisure time, places they might go on vacation, etc.
Bubbles and Clouds READING TASK
Using speech bubbles and pictures of the characters, draw a conversation between two characters from the story you have read.
Remember, thought is drawn as a cloud, and a spoken statement is drawn as a bubble.
Be sure to look at some comics or graphic novels for inspiration and insights.
This activity is usually best done on pen and paper, but numerous digital apps and tools will allow you to make this a reality through technology.
Amazing Artifacts READING TASK
An artifact is an object that has some significance or meaning behind it. Sometimes, an artefact might even have a very important story behind it. I am sure you have a favorite toy, or your parents have a particular item in the house that they would consider an important artifact.
For today’s task, you will select five artifacts from the text you have been reading and explain what makes them significant or essential.
They don’t all have to be super important to the story, but I am sure that at least a couple played a significant role.
Be sure to draw a picture of the artifact and if necessary, label it.
FREE READING ACTIVITIES RESOURCE TO DOWNLOAD
Thinking Differently READING TASK
Choose three important events from the text and explain how you would have handled them differently from the characters in the story.
Explain how it may have changed the story’s outcome in either a minor or significant way.
Be insightful here and think of the cause and effect. Sometimes your smallest action can have a significant impact on others.
Popplet Mind Mapping Task
Popplet is a mind mapping tool that allows you to connect ideas together using images, text and drawings.
From a text, you have recently read, create a family tree or network diagram that explains the relationship the characters have with each other.
Some may be father and son, husband and wife or even arch enemies.
Try and lay it out so it is easy to follow.
You Have Three Wishes READING TASK
A genie lands at the midpoint of the story you have just read and grants the two main characters three wishes.
What do they wish for and why?
Finally, would their wishes have changed anything about the story? How so?
Again think about the cause and effect relationship and how this may have altered the path of the book you have been reading.
A COMPLETE DIGITAL READING UNIT FOR STUDENTS
Over 30 engaging activities for students to complete BEFORE, DURING and AFTER reading ANY BOOK
- Compatible with all devices and digital platforms, including GOOGLE CLASSROOM.
- Fun, Engaging, Open-Ended INDEPENDENT tasks.
- 20+ 5-Star Ratings ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
