Extensive reading - additional reading practice

Giving your students additional reading materials is a great way to let them
use English outside the classroom. Even if this usage is just receptive,
it gives them confidence and they see how their learning
is related to real life.

Before giving the task, make sure it is level appropriate. If you are using
some resources designed for English learners, they are usually graded.
If not, you will have to read them yourself first judging by how rich your
student’s vocabulary is, how well they can guess from the context and how
much grammar they know.
Your student should always have 2 things to help him with this type
of reading:
1) A clear task of the “read and do something” type: find the best way to solve the problem,
see how you can spend $50 in New York on a Friday night, agree or disagree
with the main idea of the article, etc.

2) Understanding that they don’t need to know every word in the text, 50-70% is enough.

To control how they cope with their extensive reading you can discuss it during the warm-up
or at the end of the lesson. Some students are keen on long term projects, so they gladly
share their opinion as long as they know that they can talk about some interesting
books/articles/blogs etc. every lesson/week.
Another good way to check how
the student is doing is by a learning
journal that they can keep
and share with you in a Google Docs.
Resources for extensive reading:

Onestopenglish

http://www.onestopenglish.com/

http://www.onestopenglish.com/skills/
news-lessons/
Simple English News
Breaking news English
Voice of America
10 blogs for English learners
Short stories
English Reading Room
English Graded e-books
5 Minute Mysteries
ESL Readers
ESL Yes (stories for reading)
5 Minute English Reading