T HE P OWER OF P RE -R EADING !
What do you and your
students do prior to
reading?
O BJECTIVES

Help you help students become actively
engaged with a text prior to reading

Provide specific pre-reading strategies to
improve comprehension and enhance
engagement

Share additional resources and research
based practices in Adolescent Literacy
D ON ’ T J UST T ELL …E NGAGE !

Access prior knowledge

Interact with portions of the text prior to
reading

Make inferences, predict, draw comparisons

Identify problematic vocabulary

Construct meaning before reading
P ROBABLE PASSAGES

“Probable Passage” is a strategy in which
the teacher pre-selects and presents key
words from a text before reading.

Students predict what the function of
these words will be and then write a
"gist" statement using the key words.

Probable Passage example.docx

Probable Passage example.docx
T EA PARTY

“Tea Party” encourages active participation
with pre-selected passages from a text.

Students are given an index card with a phrase
from the text they are about to read and walk
around the room to discuss their passages with
their peers and make predictions about the
text.

Tea Party Directions.docx
TALKING D RAWINGS

“Talking Drawings” is used to promote the
use of prior knowledge by creating drawings
of mental images on a topic, character, or
event before reading a selection.

After the selection is read, the student
constructs another drawing to see how their
knowledge and thinking have changed.
TALKING D RAWING E XAMPLES
Narrative Text
Expository Text
P OSSIBLE S ENTENCES

“Possible Sentences” provide direct
instruction on the unfamiliar
vocabulary of a reading selection by
facilitating independent determination
of the meaning based on context of
the story

Possible Sentences Form.docx
KWL

Enhance this strategy by grouping students’ prior
knowledge into categories to assist with questioning.

First, decide what topic you want discussed on the
KWL chart.

Next, decide how you’ll record that information

Then, ask students what they know about the topic.

Make sure that, after completing the K column,
students have a chance to group responses and
label those groups.

Finally, remember that when you move from the Kcolumn to the W-column, the point is to connect
what they wonder about to what they’ve already
told you.
R ESOURCES
Beers, K.(2003).
When kids can’t read:
What teachers can
do. Portsmouth, NH:
Heinemann.
Taylor, D.B. (2006).
Literacy strategies:
Across the subject
areas. Boston:
Pearson.