51 For Instructors: Active Reading Lesson Plan

Classroom Activities

• The instructor will choose a text with a lot of difficult or science words  (example below in notes) and ask students to read a section aloud, each reading a sentence and going around the room. Then, the instructor will ask for a summary of what the paragraph means. Next, the instructor will read back through the section aloud and demonstrate how to do active reading (read a few words, pause, try to put it into their own words, underline words they don’t know, make connections to what they do know).
• Students will then choose from a list of difficult texts (or go onto the library databases and search for some!) and “translate” a paragraph of the text into their own words. (can be done in small groups)
• Groups or students will present the original text and then show how they changed it, or they can also model active reading/think aloud as they read to the class.
• With another paragraph of the text, the instructor will model how to read actively by taking notes on the text– underlining words to look up later, writing in potential meanings of the words, etc.

Homework Activities

• Choose another scholarly paragraph from the library databases. Print out a page of it and read through making notes, highlighting, and underlining words to look up later.
• All students will try to challenge the instructor and find the most difficult to understand sentence they can find and share with the class for the next meeting. If the instructor cannot figure it out using active reading skills, the students get a bonus point.

Assessment 

Students will be assessed on…

• This is participation/ labor based.