Pre-reading activities may be
designed to motivate student interest, activate prior knowledge, or pre-teach
potentially difficult concepts and vocabulary. This is also a great opportunity
to introduce comprehension components such as cause and effect, compare and
contrast, personification, main idea, sequencing, and others.
How
pre-reading relates to ELLs
English language learners (ELLs)
have great difficulty jumping into new texts without any background support.
Students should know at least something about the topic before reading. Some
topics may be unfamiliar to students, such as recreational activities at the
beach if students have never been to the beach before. Pictures, drawings, or
short skits can help develop relevant background information.
Students need to know at least 90 to
95% of the words they read if they are going to comprehend the text. Therefore,
it is important to use several strategies to build background knowledge that
leads to better reading comprehension and overall achievement for ELLs. It
doesn't hurt to review many words we often take for granted – not only for the
benefit of ELLs, but also for students who may not come to school with a rich
vocabulary background or exposure to certain experiences.
Pre-reading
strategies to increase comprehension
Before reading a selection aloud or
before students read a text, try taking seven to ten minutes to build word and background
knowledge. This should increase all students' comprehension of the text.
Begin by reviewing the selection and
identifying the main concepts you want to teach. Take into account your
students' potential knowledge of these concepts, including your ELLs. Decide
how you might best make these concepts relevant and accessible to all of your
students. This might be through a film, discussion, student reading assignment,
or a text read by you. Try using a combination of three or four of the
following strategies:
Do
motivating activities
You can use any activity that
interests students in the text and motivates them to read it. For example, you
can bring a real frog to class before reading a frog story.
Build
text-specific knowledge
Activate students' prior knowledge
of a topic so that they can consciously use it as they read their text. For
example, before reading a text with a jungle as the setting, ask students what
they already know about jungles and discuss.
Relate
to students' lives
This is a powerful way to motivate
students to read and to help them understand what they will be reading. Before
reading a story about winning and losing a race, for example, you might want to
have your students reflect on the times they have won or lost a race or a contest.
Pre-teach
vocabulary
In addition to pre-teaching traditional vocabulary words,
include words that convey concepts that ELLs already know. For example,
students may know the concept of finding something, but do not know the word
find or finding. Write these words on the board and review with the class.
Pre-teach
concepts
There are times when not only ELLs
but all students need to learn new and possibly difficult ideas or concepts.
For example, the concepts of democracy or envy may be difficult for all young
children to understand at first. Give examples that your students can relate
to.
Predicting
and direction setting
You can focus students' attention on
what is important to look for as they read their text. Making predictions about
what might happen in the book gives students a purpose for reading. Setting a
direction means using questions that peak students' interest. It also means
focusing students on the purpose for the reading. For example, "Today we
are going to read about differences in climates and regions. Let's read first
about the climate in our community."
Suggest
comprehension strategies
Before reading the text, make
students aware of what they should be looking for. If you want them to identify
cause and effect, point out several examples of this beforehand. For example,
you can talk about the story of Jumanji, which has several examples of cause
and effect. When one of the children rolls the dice, it causes something to
happen in the house.
Other
ideas
You can also engage students by:
- Showing a film on a related topic.
- Conducting an experiment.
- Going on a field trip.
- Asking students to bring something related to "show and tell."
Be sure to connect everything back
to the main concepts, key vocabulary, and/or comprehension skills that will be
encountered.
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