Building Reading Skills
Fun tasks to encourage reading
Lasswade High School
English
Department
Dear Pupil
Reading is important! Not only is reading a vital skill that you use and are
assessed on in English, but being a strong reader will help you in all your
other subjects in school too. With this in mind I have created this reading
homework pack.
The tasks do not have to be completed in any particular order but you should
complete one per week. Talk to your parents about what you are reading and the
choices you have made.
The tasks I have devised encourage you to look at a wide range of reading materials
and allow you to use your imagination and creative skills to show your knowledge
and understanding of what you are reading. Remember you can use the school library
to obtain not only books, but newspaper and magazine articles. You can also use the
school library to access the internet when this is required.
Each task should take about an hour, although if you choose very challenging
reading material (and I will be delighted if you do) it might take you longer
and you should let me know so that I can adjust your homework schedule
accordingly.
I want you to comment on the homework, did you find it easy, difficult,
interesting, or perhaps even helpful with another subject? I want you to
show this to someone at home and there is the chance for them to comment
too.
By encouraging you to make your own choices about what you read, I hope to
promote independent learning. I hope that you will also take this chance to look at a
wide range of texts.
N
ewspaper Articles
Select an article on a topical issue and
comment on the following features
The headline – why is it an
effective introduction to the article?
How do the pictures chosen support the article?
Summarise the main points of article
Select a word that you previously didn’t know, look it up and write out the
definition
Find a long or short sentence and explain what this adds to the article
Pupil comment:
Parent comment:
Internet sources
This task is designed to help you judge what a reliable source of research
information is and what is not. Look up a
topic that interests you, it could be a hobby, a
celebrity who you admire or even an issue
that you have been asked to research for
another school subject. Look for conflicting
evidence or inaccurate information make a
note of this and the site where it was found.
Look at the layout of two sources and compare:
The types of words used
The way the information is presented, e.g. is the text presented in
columns?
Which site is the most user friendly and give reasons for this?
Which site would you recommend for young researchers and which
would appeal to older people?
Pupil comment:
Parent comment:
Found Poetry
Poems can crop up in unexpected places. Here is an example of poetry that I found in
a strange location. By highlighting words and thinking about the rule I began to see
how I could play with language and create a fun poem.
The Offside Rule and Offside Trap in Football
It is not an offence in itself to be in an offside position.
A player is in an offside position if:
he is nearer to his opponents' goal line than both the ball and the second last opponent
A player is not in an offside position if:
he is in his own half of the field of play
he is level with the second last opponent
he is level with the last two opponents
Commiting an Offside Offence
A player in an offside position is only penalised if, at the moment the ball touches or is played by
one of his team, he is, in the opinion of the referee, involved in active play by:
interfering with play
interfering with an opponent
gaining an advantage by being in that position
No Offence
There is no offside offence if a player receives the ball directly from:
a goal kick
a throw-in
a corner kick
Infringements/Sanctions
For any offside offence, the referee awards an indirect free kick to the opposing team to be taken
from the place where the infringement occurred.
My Found Poem
No offence to thee
Oh most respected referee
A remark I might just throw in
Is that I do not understand the
Offside Rule
Are you gaining an advantage?
Or is he level?
On the field of play
What would you say?
The infringement is on my time
There, I’m sure Carol Ann Duffy can sleep well at night, what I wanted
you to see is how I took some factual information and threw in rhyme, had
some fun with words and created a poem. I look forward to seeing your
efforts.
Pupil Comment:
Parent Comment:
Improving Perfection
What is your all time favourite book? Now is your chance to improve upon
perfection. The opening paragraph will have hooked you, the reader, in and inspired
you to read on. Now that you know what happened further on in the story I’m sure
you could improve that paragraph. Rewrite the opening paragraph making sure that
adjectives are vibrant and descriptive, include similes, metaphors or personification
and make the verbs suit the character’s personality.
Pupil Comment:
Parent Comment:
It’s okay not to like a text!
But you have to be able to justify your reasons. Find an article in a quality newspaper
or magazine that you simply did not enjoy reading. Identify features that spoiled the
article for you and comment on them. You may want to discuss
Word choice – it may be overtly intellectual or full of technical jargon
Tone – the emotional mood of the article may not match the tone the writer is using
when writing
Headline- may have been clumsy or bland
Failing in purpose - the article may not convince you that the point of view that
writer has is correct
Images- the pictures chosen to illustrate the piece might not add anything to the
reader’s appreciation of the written text.
Pupil comment:
Parent comment:
Poetry Time
Find a poem that suits your mood, literature can act as a helpful way of making sense
of our emotions. You don’t have to have volumes of poetry books for this the internet
is a great source of poetry. If you are joyful, anxious or excited – you can be sure that
a poet will have expressed your feelings. Write a report describing why the poet has
captured your emotions so well. Comment on the rhyme (if it has one), word choice,
images, the title and any other features that have added to your understanding of how
the poem explores this particular emotion so well.
Pupil Comment:
Parent Comment:
Branch Out
Romance, Sci Fi, Crime Fiction, Fantasy, History,
Military...................................................
We all have favourite types (genres) of fictional books and ones that we tend to avoid.
Personally I await my Amazon delivery of latest work of the Scottish crime writer
Alex Gray with great excitement, I really enjoy the way she builds Scottish dialogues
and often very familiar settings into her well crafted page turners. However, I would
have to very desperate for reading material before I turned to Sci Fi. But in the
interest of broadening my literary horizons I will read a Sci Fi text occasionally
usually. This task is for you to select a novel from a genre that you normally avoid.
Read the opening chapter and look for features that make the text typical of its type,
then comment on them. You should try to include:
Setting
Character
Early emerging themes
Word choice
Pupil comment:
Parent comment:
Congratulations on reaching the end of this Reading Skills Unit please take the time to
complete the evaluation.
The task I enjoyed completing the most was:
The reason I enjoyed this task:
My least favourite task:
The reason I disliked this task:
The task that I found the most helpful in developing my reading skills was:
Did the tasks encourage me to read more?
Did the tasks encourage me to look at a variety of texts?
For parents: did you enjoy looking at and commenting on your child’s homework?