5 Strategies to Enhance Reading Skills

Why are reading skills essential? Reading is one of the most profound habits that one can harness to achieve excellence and wisdom. Yet, most of the students in their young age struggle from reading efficiently and comprehending. Most of the students find reading textbooks or books interesting to read because they are of their interest. Still, as the child goes to college or for higher studies, he might have to read the materials that are not interesting or hard to comprehend, and that is where reading skills become of utmost importance.

No matter how skilled a student is in reading, there is always a room for improving reading skills. Heritage North Campus School, one of the top CBSE Schools in Dehradun brings in five techniques or strategies that can be used by teachers to help students improve their reading skills.

1. Provoke Questions: Guide students to generate their questions after reading the text or comprehension, such as what has just happened or what might happen in the future. It will increase engagement in the material and help them focus on the main ideas.

2. Highlight Text: Teach your students to highlight important and valuable information while reading and adding an annotation to a particular passage helps in understanding things better.

3. Empathize: Help students in comprehending by associating the texts with current events or real life. It will increase their understanding level and is also an excellent practice to develop empathy.

4. Encourage making reports: Asking students to write an essay or a report after reading a chapter or passage can help in increasing the understanding level of the students. It is the responsibility of a teacher to prepare the students for college and writing summaries and reports is the best way possible.

5. Thinking while Reading: Urge students to think while reading rather than reading continuously. Teaching students to stop and ponder over what they have read might lead them to seek answers to the questions that arise from the context of the chapter.

A teacher’s role cannot end with a simple reading assignment. Poor reading skills lead to lower comprehending level, more frustration, low self-confidence and poor grades. So, part of a teacher’s role is to infuse the passion for reading in students to make them lifelong reader and learner.

Heritage North Campus School, one of the schools in Dehradun CBSE, instils a love for learning among the students and promotes infusion of  passion for reading in students to make them lifelong reader and learner.

Boost Young Minds with Brainstorming

Brainstorming is one of the most useful techniques and strategies that are used to boost creativity and problem-solving skills in every sphere of life. It is based on the cognitive theory that develops creative thinking. Both brainstorming and creative thinking aims to develop creative problem solving skills.

The purpose of brainstorming session is to open up the possibilities and break down the incorrect assumptions about the problem. Every participant needs to take care that other ideas are not criticized or rewarded. Brainstorming as a teaching strategy is built on the aim of fostering communication skills, thinking and decision-making skills as well as respecting different viewpoints and opinions.

Referring to the Importance for Students, Brainstorming:

·         Helps students to become better problem-solvers

·         Helps students to generate ideas and think creatively

·         Helps students to assess the views of others and build relationships with their thoughts and ideas

In education, brainstorming is conducted by forming a small or large group of activities that encourage students to generate ideas by focusing on a single topic. How it is done?

1.   Teacher proposes the topic or question at the beginning of the session.
2. The teacher then asks the group to think about the problem or topic and find solutions to the problem. Students then share their ideas or relevant thoughts without hesitation.
3. Every student’s contribution without any criticism or judgment is summarized by the teacher on a whiteboard.
4. The ideas discussed in the brainstorming session is examined in the end.

Let’s look at some of the Brainstorming Ideas to get you started:

•  What things you can do with (marble, ball, blanket, stick, etc.)?
•  Identifying different colors and patterns.
• How many things you can think that is sour, sweet, bitter, and salty?
• How many games you can play with a ball?
• What if there were no traffic lights?
• What if there is no way to go out of town?
• How many insects, trees and animals you can name?

Brainstorming sessions are both exciting and easy and it is not a hard thing to comprehend. All you need is a word, problem or situation to start with. The Heritage School North Campus, Dehradun Schools CBSE aims to nurture tender minds by developing creative problem skills among students.