Reading comprehension strategies for the FSL classroom

Reading comprehension in FSL

Learning to read in a second language, as with learning to read in a primary language, can be daunting for our students. Motivation can also be a challenge when students are not presented with daily opportunities to purposely read in a second language. If you are looking for books recommendations for junior/intermediate age students who are beginning to learn French, check out my blog post HERE.

Below, I will outline some strategies for teaching reading in an FSL setting and some resources that you may find useful as a French teacher. I have broken down the strategies into 3 categories: strategies to use BEFORE reading, strategies to use DURING reading and strategies to use AFTER reading.

Strategies before reading

1. Look at the title. Have your students read just the title of the book or article. Are they familiar with the vocabulary? Is clarification required?

2. Look at the pictures. Have your students look at any pictures that may accompany the text. What clues can they identify from the illustrations/photos as to the subject of the text.

3. Identify familiar words. Have your students scan the text for familiar words. If possible, have students highlight these words. A lesson on French/English cognates is helpful to students beginning to learn about familiar words. You can find a French/English cognates lesson and activities HERE.

4. Define key words. Provide your students with a list of key words from the text. Have them find the definitions in a dictionary, or provide the definitions.

5. Make predictions. Ask your students to use the above strategies to make predictions about the topic of the text.

Strategies during reading

1. Identify unfamiliar words. As students read through the text for the first time, have them identify any words that are unfamiliar. If possible, have students circle these words- or write them on a separate sheet of paper.

2. Use a dictionary. Students should use a dictionary to define any unfamiliar words.

3. Identify key words. Using the key words list generated in pre-reading, students should look for these words while reading.

4. Visualize. Teach your students to visualize what they are reading by creating mental images while they read.

5. Re-read the text.

Strategies after reading

1. Summarize. Have your students summarize what they have read in order to confirm comprehension.

2. Evaluate use of strategies. Have your students identify which of the above strategies they used to help them understand the text. Was there any way that they could improve their use of these strategies?

Reading Comprehension Resources from The French Nook:

French DIGITAL reading comprehension tasks LES SPORTS

This resource contains 5 French reading comprehension tasks to complete while exploring some popular sports. Your students will read a brief text describing interesting facts about each sport and then answer two short answer comprehension questions. ***This resource is provided in both print and digital format for your convenience.

Choose to print the 5 full-colour interactive landmark posters and display in your classroom for students to scan the QR codes to learn about each sport.

Alternatively, a digital bulletin board is presented in Google slides with a link to complete the reading comprehension tasks in Google forms.

This resource includes:

-Google link to virtual bulletin board and Google form comprehension assignment

-5 full-colour sports posters

-QR text codes

-printable text paragraphs

-printable student answer sheet

-teacher answer key

French DIGITAL reading comprehension tasks CANADIAN LANDMARKS

This resource contains 7 French reading comprehension tasks to complete while exploring some of Canada’s most popular landmarks. Your students will read a brief text describing interesting facts about each landmark and then answer two short answer comprehension questions.

***This resource is provided in both print and digital format for your convenience.

Choose to print the 7 beautiful full-colour interactive landmark posters and display in your classroom for students to scan the QR codes to learn about each landmark.