Reading strategies that engage middle-grade students are hard to come by so that is why these reading strategies for comprehension are gold! Do you ever hear things like this in your class… “Miss, we read more in here (Spanish history) than we do in English class.” I know I love comments like that from my students because I LOVE giving my students reading opportunities! They learn so many new words, the text usually explains concepts better than I do, and it’s a lifelong skill they need to have. In my history class, we read A LOT which means sometimes the students get a bit bored of it. I know, shocking that they would get bored, but it happens.
Teaching with Text Checklist
Since I make students read so much, I made this checklist to make sure I am covering all the important “things”. No worries, the checklist is free! It will help guide you through your planning and ensure you are maximizing the text you’re using. The fourth checkbox on there is what this blog post is all about reading strategies for comprehension! I included what I did based on my experience of teaching ELL students. These are honestly vital components to lesson planning even when I don’t use text.
Every year I am finding more ways to make reading more engaging. This post is going to give you 5 great ideas to make reading fun and engaging for any subject. (Seriously, you could use this in reading, math, history, or science.) These reading “games” include whole-class interactions and make students actually enjoy reading. The best part is these aid students in comprehending the text! In addition to using these strategies, you can also check out these 5 Simple and Quick Methods to frontload vocabulary. Pair these together and your lesson will be super awesome! 🤌🏽
Oh! I would like to mention when you use these reading games it is helpful for students to number the paragraphs of the reading. This will come in handy for the games, but really, it is to help reference where the information can be found when they go to cite evidence from the text. This is part of the AVID strategy of marking the text. This PDF has an in-depth explanation and examples of marking the text. I highly recommend you use it
Reading Comprehension Game #1: Read my MIND!
Let the fun begin with this reading strategy! For each paragraph, you (the teacher) will need to choose ONE keyword that helps give the general idea of the paragraph. Write them down for reference! As students read, they will need to guess what word you chose for each paragraph. This is them attempting to “read your mind”! They will write down their guess and possibly an explanation if they have time. Here is an example from math: Mrs. Novoa chose the word variable because the text explains what a variable is and when it is used.
I like to have students read one paragraph and then have a few student volunteers share their guesses and explain. This will help reiterate what the paragraph was about. If a student guesses correctly, give them a point! I keep track of what students have volunteered to share and probe those who haven’t shared. I have some really shy students, so I will walk around while they read to get a sense of what words they are guessing.
Reading Comprehension Game #2: The Fact Masters
This one is my favorite and students love it as well! You will start by splitting students into groups. You can have them read as a group OR alone and then discuss together. Their discussion will be to choose ONE fact from the paragraph that they believe no other group has picked. THIS IS KEY! Let me repeat…they choose a fact that they think NO ONE else has picked. They should write their one fact down to prove they didn’t alter it once sharing time comes. 
Once it is time to share, have one group member stand to share their fact. If another group hears the same fact, they have to sit down. They are “out” for that paragraph. The last group(s) standing will get a point and then you repeat the process for each paragraph. This game can be time-consuming, but I promise they will be taking away a lot from the reading.
When you start gamify-ing and including points, you will notice students’ competitive side. I have seen this ALOT when using this reading strategy for comprehension. Their competitiveness really aids in comprehension, to be honest. Why? Students will argue that other groups’ “facts” were too similar to each other. For example, group one’s fact was “The king died when he was 27 years old.” On the other hand, we have group two with the fact “The king lived from 1900 to 1927.” Students will argue that these two facts give the same information. Fight away I say! This truly reiterates the text and I can tell they are paying attention.
Reading Comprehension Game #3: Draw my mind
The third reading strategy for comprehension is very basic and you can do it on a day where you may not have had enough time to prep and plan. You will partner up students and they will take turns reading each paragraph to one another. While one partner reads, their partner will sketch a picture, symbols, or words to represent the paragraph. After reading and drawing, the drawer will explain what the paragraph was about using their images. They keep switching roles until they are done with their reading. In the end, they write a summary together.
Reading Comprehension Game #4: Three Truths and a Lie
This game works best with readings that are two or more paragraphs long. You can probably guess how to do this one! You will write four total statements, three of which are truths and one that is a lie about the whole reading. Students will then read and try to figure out which one of your statements is true and which is a lie. They will have to prove how they know which ones are true and a lie by citing the text. Using sentence frames for this part will help develop a student’s language. Here are a couple of examples:
“The ____ statement is a lie because paragraph # states…”
“Statement number ___ is not true. The text says “……”
Reading Comprehension Game #5: Doubt it
This one has a pretty short explanation. For this game, you will assign each group a certain paragraph that they’ll need to write down one fact about. After they have read, choose a group to read their facts, i.e. group 3. The teacher says “I doubt that’s true…”. The following group, group 4, has twenty seconds to find textual evidence to prove it’s true. If they find the evidence in time, they get a point. You will rotate with groups in order to review the information that was read while giving students to revisit and reread the text as they find the evidence.
Scholastics suggest rereading as one of the 6 best ways to improve reading comprehension. They also suggest reading aloud and talking about the text which is covered in these reading strategies for comprehension. Check out Scholastics’ article here for more ways to improve reading comprehension! Dualati Edu also has this blog post about reading comprehension and scaffolds for teaching language learners.
Quick Recap
Reading should be done in ALL classrooms often! These five reading games should make reading more fun and engaging for students. The main goal in reading is to understand the text which is totally what is targeted with these reading strategies for comprehension. Several of these games include whole-class interaction and accountability, helping students stay on task. I hope these are helpful for you and your students. Remember, you should also have fun while using these reading strategies for comprehension games!
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