My fifth-graders at Vester Nebel Skole are not used to reading a lot in English. Therefore, I started up reading with them when I got them at English this school year. It is clear from their TOEFL test, that reading is their weakest area. Some by a lot, and some not so much.
As a start, I have introduced them to reading in pairs. Every week, they read a text aloud in pairs about the subject we are working with. Right now, it is texts about Great Britain. They read the text to each other and then they translate it and talk about the difficult words. It is mostly non-fiction texts that they are working with.
In addition, the students have to read 20 minutes every week in class. Here they can chose between fiction and non-fiction. For now, we are using two websites to get the students started.
It is a free website with fiction books. As a teacher, you make a user, and then you can create logins for classes or individual students. They use the login to get the e-books. It is mostly for primary schools. Unfortunately, there is no Lexile level on the website, so the students have to try out which books are suited for them. The level on the books is divided by age, but they often have to use a lower age, because the age is for native speaking children. Most of the books can be read out, so the dyslexic children can listen to the story while looking at the text.
It is a free website with non-fiction books. It is easy to use, and you do not have to make a user. The books are rather easy, but with some difficult words here and there. There is a lot of variation in the subjects so every child can find something interesting. You can get the books read aloud so the dyslexic children can listen to the story while looking at the text.
