Stand up / sit down –

The teacher chooses six words from a chosen section of the text and
writes these on the board. Each student chooses three of these
Perform words and makes a note of these in their notebook. The teacher
1
actions reads the chosen section of the text aloud and students read along in
silence, but stand up and then quickly sit down again every time they
hear/read their
chosen words.

Perform the action –

The teacher chooses some important/common words from the
chosen section of the text. Students and the teacher decide on a
Perform
2 specific action to perform for each of the chosen words. The teacher
actions
reads the chosen section of the text aloud and the students listen
and read in silence, but perform the appropriate action whenever
they read/hear the corresponding word.

Click / clap –
The teacher reads the chosen section of the text aloud and students
Perform
3 read along in silence. Every time the teacher gets to a full
actions
stop/period the students clap their hands once. Every time the
teacher gets to a comma the students click their fingers once.

Follow with finger –

The teacher reads the chosen section of the text aloud and students
Perform
4 read along in silence and follow along with a finger. The teacher can
actions
check that every student is following the text by seeing where their
finger is on the page.

5 Underline Fill in the blank –

The teacher chooses and circles several words in the chosen section
of the text. The teacher read the chosen section of the text aloud,
but says ‘blank’ in place of those chosen words. Students listen and
follow the text at the same time and underline the words that were
substituted with the word ‘blank’. Students then compare with each
 other and check with the teacher.

Spot the missing words –

The teacher chooses and circles several words in the chosen section
of the text that can be omitted without the text sounding strange.
The teacher reads the chosen section of the text aloud but misses
6 Underline
out the circled words. The text needs to be read in a natural way so
that it flows and sounds normal. Students listen, follow the text and
underline the words that were omitted. Students then compare with
each other and check with the teacher.

Spot the mistakes –

The teacher chooses and changes several words in the chosen
section of the text. The teacher reads the chosen section of the text
7 Underline
aloud and the students read along in silence and underline the words
they think the teacher has changed. Students then compare with
each other and check with the teacher.

Secret message –
The teacher selects some words from the chosen section of the text
so that the first letter of each of these words spells out a secret word
or short phrase. The teacher reads the chosen section of the text
8 Underline aloud and students listen and read along in silence. However, every
time the teacher comes one of the previously selected words the
teacher substitutes the word with a funny noise. The students need
to underline each of these words. The students then need to work
out the secret message.

Finish off words –

The teacher reads a chosen section of the text aloud and the
students listen and read along in silence. However, every now and
Say parts
9 then the teacher says only the first one or two syllables of a word
of words
and then pauses. The students need to say the missing parts of the
word in chorus. The teacher continues reading once the students
have completed each word.
 Say only that part of the word –
The teacher chooses a feature of word morphology that is common
Underline in the chosen section of the text. This could be the plural ‘s’, ing-
and say endings, ed -endings, –tion, etc. The students go through the section
10
parts of of the text and underline all the examples of that feature of
word language. The teacher then reads aloud and the students need to call
out in chorus only that part of the word at the same time as the
teacher reads it.

Banana –
The teacher reads the chosen section of the text aloud and the
students listen and read along in silence. Every now and then the
11 Say words teacher substitutes a word in the text with the word ‘banana’. The
students need to call out the word from the text that was
substituted. Special thanks to Quyen Xuan Vuong for sharing this
activity.

Say only those words –

The teacher chooses and identifies about four or five words that
appear frequently in the chosen section of the text. The teacher
12 Say words
writes these words on the board. The teacher reads the section of
text aloud and students listen and read in silence, but say only the
chosen words in chorus as the teacher reads them.

Every third word –

The teacher starts to read the chosen section of the text aloud and
students listen and read along in silence. However, the teacher reads
13 Say words only the first two words and the student need to say the third word
in chorus. The teacher then reads the next two words and then the
students say the sixth word in chorus. This continues until the end of
the chosen section of the text.

14 Say words What’s the next word? –

The teacher reads the chosen section of the text aloud and students
listen and read along in silence. However, every now and then the
teacher stops reading aloud and the students need to read the next
 word in the text in chorus. Once the students have said the word,
the teacher continues reading but stops every now and then and the
students need
to say the next word in chorus. This continues until the end of the
chosen section of the text.

One word at a time –

15 Say words Students take turns reading one word at a time around the group
until the end of the chosen section of the text.

Alphabet words –
The teacher assigns each member of the group different letters of
the alphabet; so that all the letters of the alphabet are assigned and
Underline
so that each student has several letters. Each student needs to look
16 and say
through the chosen section of the text and underline all the words
words
that start with their assigned letters. Then the group reads the
chosen section of the text aloud, but each student only says his/her
corresponding words.

Listen, read and repeat –

The teacher selects a short section of the text. The teacher read the
Say section aloud one short phrase at a time. After reading each phrase
17
phrases the whole class repeats in chorus. This continues until the end of the
chosen section
of the text.

Finish off the sentences –

Say The teacher reads the chosen section of the text aloud to the class.
18
phrases Before the end of some sentences the teacher stops and the whole
class has to read the rest of the sentence aloud in chorus.

19 Say Sentence tennis –

phrases The teacher chooses a section of a text with two paragraphs of
similar length. One student is assigned the first paragraph and the
other student is assigned the second paragraph. The first student
 reads part of the first sentence aloud but stops part of the way
through whenever they want. The other student has to listen and
read in silence, but read the rest of the sentence aloud from where
the first student stopped. This is repeated for the rest of the
paragraph. For the second paragraph the students swap so that the
second student starts reading each sentence.

Every third sentence –

The teacher divides the whole class into three groups. The groups are
called 1, 2 and 3. Group 1 reads the first sentence aloud in chorus,
Say
20 group 2 then does the same with the second sentence, and group 3
sentences
does the same with the third. Group 1 then reads the fourth
sentence and this continues until the end of the chosen section of
the text.

Dice sentences –
The teacher divides the whole class into six groups and assigns the
numbers 1-6 to the groups so that each group has a different
Say number. The teacher roles the dice and all the students in the group
21
sentences with that number read out the first sentence in chorus. The teacher
roles the dice again and the corresponding group reads the second
sentence in chorus. This continues until the end of the chosen
section of the text.

Secret lines –
The teacher chooses a section of the text with enough lines of text
for every student to have one or two lines each. The teacher
assigned one or two lines to each student in a random order. The
Say lines
22 could be by handing out numbers at random to each student or by
of text
cutting up a photocopy of the text and giving out a line or two of text
to each student. Each student identifies their lines in the original
text. The whole text is read in the correct order by each student
reading their line(s) of the text aloud.
 Nominate next reader –
One student reads the first sentence aloud from the chosen section
of the text and the rest of the group listen and read along in silence.
Say When the student finishes the sentence, he/she nominates the next
23
sentences student to read aloud by saying the name of that student. That
student then reads the second sentences aloud and then nominates
the next reader. This continues until the end of the chosen section of
the text.

One sentence at a time –

Say
24 Students take it in turns to read one sentence at a time around the
sentences
group until the end of the chosen section of the text.

Fizz / buzz / bang –

The teacher selects three words which appear frequently in the
chosen section of the text. The teacher writes these three words on
Say
25 the board and next to the 1st word write ‘fizz’, next to the 2nd words
sentences
writes ‘buzz’, and next to the 3 rd word writes ‘bang’. Students then
take it in turns to read one sentences at a time and substitute the
selected words with ‘fizz’, ‘ buzz’ or ‘bang’ as indicted on the board.

Facts About Round Robin Reading

In RRR, students read orally from a common text, one child after another, while the rest of the
class follows along in their copies of the text. Several spinoffs of the technique offer negligible
advantages over RRR, if any. They simply differ in how the reading transition occurs:

 Popcorn Reading: A student reads orally for a time, and then calls out "popcorn"
before selecting another student in class to read.

 Combat Reading: A kid nominates a classmate to read in the attempt to catch a peer
off task, explains Gwynne Ash and Melanie Kuhn in their chapter of Fluency Instruction:
Research-Based Best Practices.

 Popsicle Stick Reading: Student names are written on Popsicle sticks and placed in a
can. The learner whose name is drawn reads next.

 Touch Go Reading: As described by Professor Cecile Somme, the instructor taps a

child when it's his or her turn to read.

Of the thirty-odd studies and articles I've consumed on the subject, only one graduate research
paper claimed a benefit to RRR or its variations, stating tepidly that perhaps RRR isn't as awful
as everyone says. Katherine Hilden and Jennifer Jones' criticism is unmitigated: “We know of no
research evidence that supports the claim that RRR actually contributes to students becoming
better readers, either in terms of their fluency or comprehension." (PDF)

Why all the harshitude? Because Round Robin Reading . . .

 Stigmatizes poor readers. Imagine the terror that English-language learners and
struggling readers face when made to read in front of an entire class.

 Weakens comprehension. Listening to a peer orally read too slowly, too fast, or too
haltingly weakens learners' comprehension -- a problem exacerbated by turn-taking
interruptions.

 Sabotages fluency and pronunciation. Struggling readers model poor fluency skills
and pronunciation. When instructors correct errors, fluency is further compromised.

To be clear, oral reading does improve fluency, comprehension and word recognition (though
silent/independent reading should occur far more frequently as students advance into the later
grades). Fortunately, other oral reading activities offer significant advantages over RRR and its
cousins. As you'll see in the list below, many of them share similar features.

11 Better Approaches

1. Choral Reading

The teacher and class read a passage aloud together, minimizing struggling readers' public
exposure. In a 2011 study of over a hundred sixth graders (PDF, 232KB), David Paige found that
16 minutes of whole-class choral reading per week enhanced decoding and fluency. In another
version, every time the instructor omits a word during her oral reading, students say the word all
together.

2. Partner Reading

Two-person student teams alternate reading aloud, switching each time there is a new paragraph.
Or they can read each section at the same time.

3. PALS

The Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) exercises pair strong and weak readers who take
turns reading, re-reading, and retelling.

4. Silent Reading

For added scaffolding, frontload silent individual reading with vocabulary instruction, a plot
overview, an anticipation guide, or KWL+ activity.

5. Teacher Read Aloud

This activity, says Julie Adams of Adams Educational Consulting, is "perhaps one of the most
effective methods for improving student fluency and comprehension, as the teacher is the expert
in reading the text and models how a skilled reader reads using appropriate pacing and prosody
(inflection)." Playing an audiobook achieves similar results.

6. Echo Reading

Students "echo" back what the teacher reads, mimicking her pacing and inflections.

7. Shared Reading/Modeling

By reading aloud while students follow along in their own books, the instructor models fluency,
pausing occasionally to demonstrate comprehension strategies. (PDF, 551KB)

8. The Crazy Professor Reading Game

Chris Biffle's Crazy Professor Reading Game video (start watching at 1:49) is more entertaining
than home movies of Blue Ivy. To bring the text to life, students . . .

 Read orally with hysterical enthusiasm

 Reread with dramatic hand gestures

 Partner up with a super-stoked question asker and answerer

  Play "crazy professor" and "eager student" in a hyped-up overview of the text.

9. Buddy Reading

Kids practice orally reading a text in preparation for reading to an assigned buddy in an earlier
grade.

10. Timed Repeat Readings

This activity can aid fluency, according to literacy professors Katherine Hilden and Jennifer
Jones (PDF, 271KB). After an instructor reads (with expression) a short text selection appropriate
to students' reading level (90-95 percent accuracy), learners read the passage silently, then again
loudly, quickly, and dynamically. Another kid graphs the times and errors so that children can
track their growth.

11. FORI

With Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction (FORI), primary students read the same section of a
text many times over the course of a week (PDF, 54KB). Here are the steps:

1. The teacher reads aloud while students follow along in their books.

2. Students echo read.

3. Students choral read.

4. Students partner read.

5. The text is taken home if more practice is required, and extension activities can be
integrated during the week.

1. Think, pair and share

Set a problem or a question around a certain topic, and pair up your students. Give
each pair of students enough time so they can reach a proper conclusion, and permit the kids to
share their conclusion in their personal voice. This way your students will be engaged,
communicating, and remember more of the class than ever before.

2. Brainstorming
 Interactive brainstorming is mostly performed in group sessions. The process is
useful for generating creative thoughts and ideas. Brainstorming helps students learn to work
together, and above all, learn from each other. You’ll be surprised of all the great ideas they come
up with! Check out these 8 fun brainstorming apps you can use in your classroom, or use
BookWidgets' Mindmap widget to structure thinking.

3. Buzz session

Participants come together in session groups that focus on a single topic. Within
each group, every student contributes thoughts and ideas. Encourage discussion and
collaboration among the students within each group. Everyone should learn from each other’s
input and experiences. As a teacher, you could give your students some keywords to spark the
conversation.

Of course, there are many other interactive teaching ideas as well. I split up the activities in
different categories:

 Individual student activities

 Student pair activities

 Student group activities

 Interactive game activities

Individual student activities

4. Exit slips

These are best used at the end of the class session. You’ll ask the students to write
for one minute on a specific question. It might be generalized to “what was the most important
thing you learned today”. Then, you can decide if you are going to open up a conversation about
it in your next class. You can ask them if they still remember what they wrote down. Need a
digital exit slip template? Try this one from BookWidgets and learn more about the possibilities
of an exit slip.
5. Misconception check

Discover students' misconceptions. See if students can identify what is the correct
answer, when given a false fact. It’s useful when going over a previous lesson. It encourages
students to think deeply and wager all the possibilities.

6. Circle the questions

Make a worksheet or a survey that has a list of questions (make them specific) about
your topic, and ask students to circle (or check) the ones they don’t know the answers to. Then,
let them turn in the paper.

Create corners concerning different questions that were circled. Let your students work on the
extra exercises and explanation in the corners, individually. As your students will all have circled
different questions, you have to give each student a different and personilized order to visit the
corners.

7. Ask the winner

Ask students to silently solve a problem on the board. After revealing the answer,
instruct those who got it right to raise their hands (and keep them raised). Then, all other students
have to talk to someone with a raised hand to better understand the question and how to solve it
next time.

Student pair activities

8. Pair-share-repeat

After a Think-pair-share experience, which I’ve written about in the first interactive
learning lesson idea, you can also ask students to find a new partner and share the wisdom of the
old partnership to this new partner.
9. Teacher and student

Let students brainstorm the main points of the last lesson. Then, pair up your
students and assign them 2 roles. One of them is the teacher, and the other the student. The
teacher’s job is to sketch the main points, while the student’s job is to cross off points on his list
as they are mentioned and come up with 2 to 3 points that the teacher missed.

10. Wisdom from another

After an individual brainstorm or creative activity, pair students to share their results
with each other. Then, call for volunteers who found their partner’s work to be interesting or
exemplary. Students are often more willing to share the work of fellow students publicly than
their own work. Of course, you can always encourage sharing their own objectives as well.

11. Forced debate

Let students debate in pairs. Students must defend the opposite side of their personal
opinion. It encourages them to step away from their own beliefs and teaches them to look
through a different coloured glass for once in a while.

Variation: one half of the class takes one position, the other half takes the other position. Students
line up and face each other. Each student may only speak once, so that all students on both sides
can engage the issue.

12. Optimist/Pessimist

In pairs, students take opposite emotional sides of a case study, statement, or topic.
Encourage them to be empathic and truly “live” the case study. You’ll discover some good
solution proposals and your students will learn some exceptional social skills.

13. Peer review writing task

 To assist students with a writing assignment, encourage them to exchange drafts
with a partner. The partner reads the essay and writes a three-paragraph response: the first
paragraph outlines the strengths of the essay, the second paragraph discusses the essay’s
problems, and the third paragraph is a description of what the partner would focus on in revision,
if it were her essay. Students can learn a lot from each other and from themselves as well! Here
are 10 more creative self-assessment ideas.

Student group activities

14. Board rotation

This interactive learning strategy is even more interactive than the others! Divide
your class into different groups of students and assign them to each of the boards you’ve set up
in the room. Assign one topic/question per board. After each group writes an answer, they rotate
to the next board. Here, they write their answer below the first answer of the previous group. Let
them go around the room until all the groups have covered all the boards. Not that many boards
in your classroom? Try using tablets and BookWidgets' interactive whiteboard.

15. Pick the Winner

Divide the class into groups and let them work on the same topic/problem. Let them
record an answer/strategy on paper or digitally. Then, ask the groups to switch with a nearby
group and let them evaluate their answer. After a few minutes, allow each set of groups to merge
and ask them to select the better answer from the two choices, which will be presented to the
complete class.

16. Movie Application

In groups, students discuss examples of movies that made use of a concept or event
discussed in class, trying to identify at least one way the movie makers got it right, and one way
they got it wrong. Think about movies showing historical facts, geographical facts, biographies
of famous people, …
Interactive game activities

Create in interactive classroom full of interactive learning games. Games are so much fun for
students, since it doesn’t feel like learning. With BookWidgets, you can make interactive
learning games like crossword puzzles, pair matching games, bingo games, jigsaw puzzles,
memory games, and many more in minutes (and there’s a Google Classroom integration as well).

17. Crossword puzzle

The crossword game is perfect to use as repetition activity. Choose a list of words
and their description, and BookWidgets creates an interactive crossword for you. The crossword
game transforms these boring lessons into a fun experience. Here you can read more about how
to create them and for which topics you can use them (not only for teaching languages)!

18. Scrabble

Use the chapter (or course) title as the pool of letters from which to make words
(e.g., mitochondrial DNA), and allow teams to brainstorm as many words relevant to the topic as
possible. You can also actually play scrabble and ask students to form words from the newly
learned vocabulary.

19. Who/what am I?

Tape a term or name on the back of each student. You can also tape it on their
forehead. Each student walks around the room, asking “yes or no” questions to the other students
in an effort to guess the term. Of course, the term has something to do with your lesson topic.

20. Bingo

Bingo is a fun game that can be used for all sorts of exercises: language exercises,
introductory games, math exercises, etc. Take a look at this blog post with all the different bingo
possibilities here. You’ll be surprised about how many interactive lesson activities you can do
with just one game.

Want to create a bingo game yourself? You can start for free right here: