Pre-teach the necessary vocabulary words that are needed to understand the reading material at the start of a lesson. Use visuals such as real objects, pictures and quick drawings on the board. Think of simple ways to explain vocabulary words in ways that are student-friendly and appropriate for their grade and English levels.
Do a brief "walk through" of the book by having students make predictions of what the story is going to be about, while activating their prior knowledge on the subject. Point out the importance of looking at pictures, chapter titles and captions found in the book, as they provide clues to the text's contents and its main ideas should students become confused.
Introduce students to graphic organizers such as concept maps,
Venn diagrams and time lines that they can fill out while reading the text. Graphic organizers can help students mentally organize the information presented in the text.
Assess students' comprehension levels periodically during the reading with open-ended questions that test their understanding of the story's sequence, or by having them summarize the main ideas. At the end of the reading, ask literal, interpretive and applied-level questions to engage students in their learning. Literal questions--such as, "Why do leaves turn red in the fall?"--test students on factual information that they gathered from the text. Interpretive and application questions--such as, "Why do you think plants need water?" and " How much water do you think the plant needs?"--allow students to apply their newly learned knowledge to a real-life situation.
Do a think-pair-share activity to help students with complex and difficult reading material.
In this activity, students first read a passage alone before reading it out loud to their partner. The teacher then asks a question about the text. Students think about the answer on their own before discussing it with a partner, eventually sharing it with the rest of the class. The activity gives ELL students time to think through their ideas before sharing it with their partners who can then offer feedback and reinforce their ideas in a non-threatening manner.