For Teachers
THE VALUE OF READING
Much research has been done on the importance of reading and all studies show the same results. Students who read fluently, frequently and with pleasure consistently gain higher test scores at school as well as in their further studies, not only in English, but across the whole curriculum. Reading and enjoying the stories on this website will help your students to learn to love reading, and this will benefit every aspect of their education.
Learning to read is important, but learning to love reading is even more important.
Here are ten reasons for encouraging your students to love reading:
- Reading improves language skills, vocabulary and grammar
- Reading strengthens brain connections
- Reading increases depth of knowledge
- Reading improves memory
- Reading helps develop a creative imagination
- Reading improves concentration
- Reading encourages self-discipline
- Reading increases confidence
- Reading relaxes the body and calms the mind
- Reading improves critical thinking
HOW TO USE THE STORIES
Each story represents a complete teaching unit, with pre-reading questions, in-depth comprehension questions, topics for discussion and further activities. Please note that not every story is followed by all these types of exercise.
1. The pre-reading questions
Prediction is an important element in comprehension. Use the pre-reading questions to help the reader grasp the theme of the story and understand its progression. These questions will also make it easier for the reader to guess correctly the meanings of words that they may not know.
- Before reading, make sure the students have any background information they may need.
- Encourage discussion around the topic of the story, presented in the pre-reading questions.
- Make sure they know key items of vocabulary.
2. Reading the story
Do not read the story aloud to the students. Allow the students time to read it themselves in silence. Be ready to help if they stumble over unfamiliar words.
3. The post-reading exercises
- How much did you understand? This section encourages students to check their overall grasp of the story and its structure. The exercise may take the form of putting sentences in the correct order, offering true/false choices, or filling in key words. Students may have to read the story through again quickly before they can complete this exercise.
- Focus on detail. The next exercise (or exercises) contains more specific questions about time, place, person, or types of sentence. The purpose of these questions is not to teach grammar or vocabulary. They are all aimed at helping students to increase their reading comprehension skills. Some concentrate on the comprehension of individual words. Some encourage open-ended replies.
- What were the characters in the story feeling? In these exercises, the reader focuses on the personal impact of the events in the story. These questions encourage empathy with the characters.
- What do you think? Use this section to encourage students to think more widely, talk about their own ideas and responses to the story, and increase their confidence in expressing their own opinions.
- Further activities may be suggested, where appropriate. For example, students may be encouraged to enact the story as a play, think of a new title, look at similar stories on this website, or retell it to friends.
PRINTING AND DOWNLOADING
There are two ways to put the stories on paper. On each story’s own page, a row of buttons sits just beneath the story; the one marked Print / Worksheet prints that single story as a clean handout, with the answer key hidden, ready to photocopy for your class. To give students a whole region at once, use the regional PDFs further down this page, each of which gathers all of that region’s stories into a single download.
One final word. We hope that you and the students will enjoy the stories.