Build these 3 Key Skills by Using Audiobooks

As you know, audiobooks are a great tool for helping your struggling readers with fluency. But there are so many other ways you can use audiobooks in the classroom! Read-along audiobooks are just another unique way to help engage your students to help improve their comprehension, listening, and thinking skills!

5 Reasons to Use Cloze Reading

Cloze reading is a wonderful springboard for comprehension.  When students complete a cloze passage and have the opportunity to discuss their responses, more significant growth in comprehension takes place. Students not only gain a greater understanding of the concepts introduced in the text, but they improve and expand multiple skills.  These skills are five undeniable reasons why you should use cloze reading with your students.

These Activities are Absurd!

More like these activities are all about absurdities, and they are intended to help your students grasp this critical thinking skill. 

The funny thing about absurdities is that they entertain and build thinking skills. Absurdities are a key component of humor. Because they are fun, absurd activities can turn a reluctant learner into an eager student.  And we all need a little more humor in our lives!

But absurdities have a serious side too! They are an effective teaching tool for problem solving and decision making.  Students become more aware of the need to analyze the logic in something and apply common sense reasoning to communication. As students do this, their skills in making judgments and finding solutions increases.

These fun, clever, and absurd activities will improve students' critical thinking skills!

Help Students Get Better at “Getting It”

Comprehension is that magic moment when your student assimilates information and suddenly “gets it.” That aha moment feels so good! Because comprehension requires a higher level of reasoning ability, once students master this skill, they will be able to tackle new challenges with the ability to think them through and discover solutions.

We’ve put together the following activities that will helps students progressively improve their abstract thinking skills and their ability to “get it.” 

Where are we going? 

This activity will have students reading simple symbols in a key and answering questions about a map. You can get lots of questions out of this one map that will improve comprehension skills. Simply display the map on your whiteboard or print it out so each student gets his or her own map. Then ask students to use the symbols to answer the questions below.

5 Mysteries Students Should Read

Here at Remedia, we love a good mystery! We’ve found that the mystery genre is a great way to engage students in reading, build comprehension skills, and improve critical thinking. That’s why we’ve put together this four-part series all about the wonderful genre of MYSTERIES!

PART 4: 5 Mysteries Students Should Read

Sherlock Holmes 
Sherlock Holmes is typically more appropriate for grade 8, so if that is where your student’s reading level is, then terrific! If not, your students reading at a grade 5 will appreciate our High-Interest/Low Readability Classic adaptation of TheAdventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Hound of Baskervilles. These activity books break the mysteries into 10 chapters that include follow-up comprehension questions and vocabulary-building activities. Plus, you can pair the activity book with an audio CD, which features a word-for-word reading and exciting sound effects. 

Nancy Drew
In 1993, the New York Times called Nancy Drew a “30s sleuth and a 90s role-model.” And we think that over twenty years later, this still holds true. Especially since the publisher continues to update and modernize Nancy Drew’s stories. Follow this link for a list of titles and their reading and interest levels.

Activities for After You’ve Read a Mystery

Here at Remedia, we love a good mystery! We’ve found that the mystery genre is a great way to engage students in reading, build comprehension skills, and improve critical thinking. That’s why we’ve put together this four-part series all about the wonderful genre of MYSTERIES!

Part 3: Activities for After You’ve Read a Mystery

Wanted Sign
Have students create a wanted sign for the villain of their whodunit. Students can draw the bad guy and then beneath the picture write who, what, where, when, why about the criminal.

Follow the Clues
As students read, have students write down the clues and the paragraph or page number they are found on. Then, once students have finished reading the mystery, have students go back to their notes and label each clue: useful or red herring.

How to Read Mysteries with Your Students

Here at Remedia, we love a good mystery! We’ve found that the mystery genre is a great way to engage students in reading, build comprehension skills, and improve critical thinking. That’s why we’ve put together this four-part series all about the wonderful genre of MYSTERIES!

PART 2: How to Read Mysteries with Your Students

Use this mystery story <free download> from one of our Mini Mysteries books to practice the following steps.

1. Predict: Have students review the title, the synopsis on the back of the book, the cover of the book, and the pictures within the story. Ask students to write down what they predict the mystery will be about.
   
   
2. Read: You may want to read the mystery to your students to test their listening ability, or students may read the stories to test their own logic skills. A combination of both may prove to be the best approach.
   
   Tip: If you hand out copies or post the story on your whiteboard, only give students small segments at a time so they don’t read ahead.
   
3. Investigate: Ask students to listen for interesting facts and clues.

·      If you’ve given students a copy of the mystery, then ask them to highlight facts that give clues.  Or have students write down the clues and the paragraph or page number they are found on. Tip: At the end of the story, have students go back to their notes and label each clue. Was it a useful clue or a red herring?

·      Have students write down or underline the names of possible suspects. As they continue to read, students can make notes next to each suspect: the suspect’s alibi, motives, evidence, etc.

Why should your students read mysteries?

Here at Remedia, we love a good mystery! We’ve found that the mystery genre is a great way to engage students in reading, build comprehension skills, and improve critical thinking. That’s why we’ve put together this four-part series all about the wonderful genre of MYSTERIES! 

PART 1: Why should your students read mysteries? 

High-Interest
Mysteries will get and keep your students’ attention! No matter what age, your students will want to solve a good whodunit.  Mysteries introduce protagonists like detectives, inspectors, and even pre-teen girls and antagonists from all walks of life.  And because an unsolved mystery can take place anywhere, this awesome genre will take your students all over the world. 

Critical Thinking & Deductive Reasoning
Making Inferences - Using Logic – Predicting Outcomes
When reading a mystery, students must use facts and reasoning to come to a decision or an opinion.  They’ll use logic to analyze the mystery, evaluate possible solutions, and follow sequential steps to arrive at a conclusion. These same steps are required in any problem-solving situation both academic and practical. Students will develop abilities in examining information, exploring possibilities, and sequencing.  

Use our Story Map <free download> to help students come to a logical conclusion when reading. 

How to Improve Students' Critical Thinking Skills

Improve high-level, critical thinking skills and you're sure to improve reading comprehension, problem solving, writing skills, and more! We’ve gathered five important higher-level thinking skills, defined the skill, and suggested a way for you to help improve that skill. These tips are a terrific way to give your students the tools they need for success in school as well as in their daily lives!

5 Non-Reading, Inference Activities

Making inferences means using facts and reasoning to come to a decision or an opinion about something. Doing this involves an abstract level of thinking and can, therefore, be a complicated skill to teach, especially to students who struggle with reading. With practice though, students can become comfortable with the skill before having to tackle the concept while reading. These five activities will give your students a chance to practice making inferences without reading.

The Benefits of Playing Games in the Classroom

There's a lot of game playing going on in the classroom these days, and we think that's pretty awesome! Are you among the 67% of teachers using traditional and digital games in their classrooms?

How to Use Audiobooks with Your Students

Audiobooks are a proven method for improving reading fluency. The great thing about using audio in your classroom is you can use it as a whole class, small group, or individual exercise. Read-along audiobooks teach students how:
- a breath is taken at the end of a sentence
- the natural pause after a comma sounds
- questions and exclamations should sound
- to pronounce new vocabulary words

Implement audiobooks in your classroom with the below tips and you’ll see your students’ fluency, comprehension, language, and listening skills improve.

Adult-Created Audio

If you can’t find a specific book on audio, you or a parent volunteer can create your own books on cassette/CD by recording yourself reading.  Add 15-20 seconds of music at the beginning of the recording so students can adjust the volume and get their book ready. Don’t forget to read the title and author’s name.

Student-Created Audio

Student-created audio will be less hi-tech, yet more rewarding for the student reader. Choose a student who is either an excellent reader (fast-finisher) or a struggling reader. Have the student practice reading a book, first. Once he/she has perfected their reading, they can record themselves reading the book. This exercise is a great way to give struggling readers extra practice reading that they won’t dread since they will feel that they have a purpose and a goal. Plus, you will be giving them an extra boost of confidence because you have entrusted them with this very important task. Once they have finished, make sure they listen to their audio, write their name and the book's title on the cassette/CD, and add it to your growing collection.

Professionally Recorded Audio

This is the easiest way to quickly implement audiobooks in your classroom, simply download and play! Professionally recorded audiobooks will often have fun sound effects, page turn sounds, and have actors who read the stories using unique voices for each character and know how to give sentences inflection to show emotion. Check out Remedia’s high-quality read-along audiobooks here.

Reading Wand

For students who have a hard time following along as a story is read aloud, cut yellow (or any color) translucent paper into 1” squares. Glue each square to the top of a popsicle stick. Have students highlight each word as they follow along with the audio. You can even use the “reading wand” as a listening/reading game, by asking students to highlight the character’s name or to find a verb on the page.

Extra Tips!

- Add stickers to your playing devices to help students know which buttons to push--a green sticker on the play button and a red sticker on the stop.
- Listening centers should be both comfortable and functional. Have some pillows and stuffed animals, but also make sure there are clipboards, pencils, and paper so students can write, draw, and take notes.
- Check out our Pinterest board for more links and tips for using audio!

Unique Activities to Boost Reading Comprehension

Help your students improve their reading comprehension by focusing on specific skills. Certain reading skills will be harder for some students and easier for others. Knowing which skills they struggle or excel at will help you improve how you teach. With these fun activities, you can work on multiple skills or focus on one skill at a time to improve reading comprehension.