Test reading comprehension by asking your students to complete a summary of what they read. Summarizing may be completed after a short article or a section of a book. Explain to your students that summaries consist of a first sentence that introduces the topic, followed by the main ideas. Tell your students to leave out opinions and unnecessary material. Ask your students for written or verbal summaries that they can share in front of the class.
Using a non-fiction piece without any subtitles or headings, ask students to read one paragraph at a time. As they read each paragraph, ask them to think about what they just read. After they have fully grasped what they have read, instruct them to write their own subtitles on a sticky note and place it next to the paragraph. Asking students to understand information in short sections will help them not feel overwhelmed by large texts.
Make bingo cards with 25 squares each. Write "bingo" in the middle square of each card, and fill the rest of squares with vocabulary words from a story. After you give each student a bingo card and chips, call out one of the word's definition. Students must cover all spaces on their cards that contain the matching vocabulary word. The student to first fill a row vertically, diagonally or horizontally wins the game.
Select a book that none of your students have read. Ask the students to write one paragraph about what they think the story is about based only on what they see on the book's cover. Instruct them to write about what the characters will be like and how the story will end. Seal each student's paragraph in envelopes until they are finished reading the book. When they finish the book, ask the students to discuss the story's content as opposed to what they thought the book would be like. Talk to the students about how initial impressions are normally based on personal opinions and prejudices.