What this unit is about

Teaching reading in English is emphasised in the National Curriculum Framework (2005). Students need to be equipped with good reading skills for their own success and in order to contribute to their community. If you can help students to develop skills for reading English independently, you will be helping them in later life. Reading is also a transferable skill, so improving students’ reading skills in English will help them to be better readers in their other languages as well.

Good readers of any language use certain techniques to help them understand what they are reading. They ask themselves questions as they read a text. They use what they know about the world to make sense of what they are reading. They identify which points are more important to understand and remember. In your English lessons, you can help your students to learn some of these techniques.

In this unit you will look at techniques that you can use to help students to become independent readers, particularly when reading silently on their own. These techniques will help them to understand the varied and complex texts that they have to read for their classes and exams, and also in their lives beyond school.