Take a look at an example below. These pages were scanned from an informational text I found in the school library and it is often used by stage 2 students when studying the HSIE topic of Australia You're Standing In It.
An EAL/D student, in fact many students, would have trouble engaging with the text if they were to simply read it to themselves. The students need to make connections with the information and the language used in order to remember and understand.
At a PETAA day I attended last year I came across an interesting way to help engage students with a text. It allows students to discuss the 'key' points and ideas that you would like them to focus on, and it draws their attention to specific technical vocabulary. The presenter, Margery Hertzberg, showed us an interesting activity called 'Margin Prompts'. You may have seen them before, but if not I would highly recomend trying them with your class. You will be amazed at the focused discussions that come from this activity. Here is an example I made with the above texts.
To use 'Margin Prompts' firstly read the text to the students. Where possible I would always suggest reading any text you want the students to independently read out aloud to them first. This way they hear the language before they have to read the language. I try to also display the original text (minus the margins prompts) on the SMART board so that they can read along in their heads while I read.
Then I give each student, or each pair of students, their own copy of the text with the margin prompts included. I ask the students to read it in their heads to themselves first and then turn to their partner and read the text, stopping at each margin prompt to discuss. You might like one student to read one page while the other reads the margin prompts when they stop, and then swap!
This is a great way of ensuring your classroom is 'floating on a sea of talk' that is constructive and connects them to the text. While it seems like a lot of work, it actually only took me 15mins to organise the above activity from start to finish! The more you do them the quicker it will be.
I hope you find this activity useful and I hope you give it a go in your own classrooms.