Before Reading Strategies
Devoting instructional time to
reading preparation helps ensure
success for students.
Preparing students to handle
text increases comprehension
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Dr. Kate Kinsella, recommends
allocating 65% of your instructional time
to front-loading your instruction.
Front-loading instruction before, during
and after reading will assist less
proficient readers in tackling demanding
text competently.
We must explicitly target
specific skills and strategies.
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Each time a student is expected to read,
teachers need to target one or more skills or
strategies and these needs to be
communicated to the students.
Skills and strategies are modeled and
opportunities for guided practices should be
included. The goal is to expect the
independent use of the skills and strategies.
Front-loading instruction
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To ensure success in comprehension
employ the following prereading
strategies:
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Build background knowledge
Explicitly teach vocabulary
Identify text structures
Establish a purpose for reading
Background Knowledge
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Background knowledge a reader brings to a
text greatly influences comprehension.
Background knowledge is organized and
stored in the brain so the reader can use
information as needed.
Helping students seek and select the
information that is relevant to their purposes
for reading provides a framework for making
connections, predictions, and making
inferences, etc.
Background Knowledge
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Using background knowledge helps the
reader organize text information and
thus enhancing the ability to retain and
remember what is read.
Background knowledge helps readers
elaborate information thus modifying
what is already stored in long term
memory.
Connect to background
knowledge by:
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Demonstrate connections between your
reading and your personal life, other texts,
and world experiences.
Model your thinking about background
information during the introduction
Gather information from the group and
remind students that they already know
something about the topic that will help as
they read.
Connect to background
knowledge by:
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Prompt students to recall what they
already know while they are reading
After the reading, ask students to
compare what they already knew with
what they learned.
Strategies to build background
knowledge
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Anticipation Guide
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KWL
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http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ELA/612/Reading/Reading%20Strategies/anticipation%20guide.htm
KWL revised
See Janet Allen’s book, Tools for Teaching Content Literacy, Appendix for BKWLQ
Prereading Notes - Generates an overall
impression of the reading selection. This
preliminary overview helps prepare for a
more thorough reading by first creating a
mental outline of the chapter, article, etc.
Predictions
Building Prior Knowledge
Strategies
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See Chapter 5 in Subjects Matter for other
strategies to build background knowledge:
Brainstorming, Clustering, Role Play, and
Probable Passage
See Janet Allen’s book, Tools for Teaching
Content Literacy, for other strategies to build
background knowledge: Skimming and
Scanning, List-Group-Label, Anticipation
Guide, Anticipating Content: Here and Now,
Predict-O-Gram, Story Impressions, and DRTA (Directed Reading-Thinking Activity)
Integrate Vocabulary Instruction by:
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Analyze lesson for vocabulary concepts,
academic vocabulary, and specific
terms
Explicitly prepare for instruction
Let students know that the words to be
learned are critical
Ask students to determine how much
they already know about the words
Integrate Vocabulary Instruction by:
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Engage students in active participation
by listening, responding, and taking
notes
Follow a consistent instructional
sequence for teaching a word
Provide scaffold for note taking for
struggling readers
Integrate Vocabulary Instruction by:
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Ask students to reassess their knowledge
level of the lesson vocabulary, providing the
teacher with information for reteaching
Hold students accountable for studying,
learning, and using the words
Assess students’ vocabulary mastery with
brief and meaningful quizzes
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Last three slides adapted from Kate Kinsella
Explicit Vocabulary Instruction
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See Explicit Vocabulary Instruction
Powerpoint in this month’s session for
examples of steps in vocabulary lesson
design.
See vocabulary strategies in Subjects
Matter pages 138-143.
Identify Text Structures
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There are several types of text
structures that appear in informational
texts.
Writers use these structures to arrange
and connect ideas.
Most often there are several text
structures present in a text.
Text Structure
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The Powerpoint named Text Structures
goes into detail about each type of text
structure.
Text Structures
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Description
Chronological
sequence
Cause and effect
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Problem/solution
Concept/Definition
Compare/Contrast
Determine Instructional Purpose
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Read the following passage and jot
down whatever you think is important.
The House
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The two boys ran until they came to the
driveway. “See, I told you today was good for
skipping school,” said Mark. “Mom is never
home on Thursday.” he added. Tall hedges
hid the house from the road so the pair
strolled across the finely landscpaed yard. “I
never knew your place was so big,” said Pete.
“Yeah, but it’s nicer now than it used to be
since Dad Had the new stone siding put on
and added the fireplace.”
The House continued
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There were front and back doors and a
side door which led to the garage which
was empty except for three parked 10speed bikes. They went in the side
door, Mark explaining that it was always
open in case his younger sisters got
home earlier than their mother.
The House continued
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Pete wanted to see the house so Mark
started with the living room. It, like the rest of
the downstairs, was newly painted. Mark
turned on the stereo, the noise of which
worried Pete. “Don’t worry, the nearest house
is a quarter mile away,” Mark shouted. Pet
felt more comfortable observing that no other
houses could be seen in any direction beyond
the huge yard.
The House continued
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The dining room, with all the china,
silver, and cut crystal, was no place to
play so the boys moved into the kitchen
where they made sandwiches. Mark
said they wouldn’t go to the basement
because it had been damp and must
ever since the new plumbing had been
installed.
The House continued
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“This is where my Dad keeps his
famous painings and his coin
collection,” Mark said as they peered
into the den. Mark bragged that he
could get spending money whenever he
needed it since he’d discovered that his
Dad kept a lot in the desk drawer.
The House continued
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There were three upstairs bedrooms. Mark
showed Pete his mother’s closet which was
filled with furs and the locked box which held
her jewels. His sisters’ room was
uninteresting except for the color TV which
Mark carried to his room. Mark bragged that
the bathroom in the hall was his since one
had been added to his sisters’ room for their
use. The big highlight in his room, though,
was a leak in the ceiling where the old roof
had finally rotted.
What was important in the
story?
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If you are not sure, you are like most every
person I have shared this with.
Had I asked you to read this story from the
perspective of a potential thief, would it have
been easier to identify what was important?
What if you were a potential home buyer?
Would you have found different things that
were important?
Identify the instructional
purpose
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Assigning a reading without determining
an instructional purpose sets students
up for failure.
Decide what students should know after
reading the piece. Focus on essential
information only.
Identify the instructional
purpose
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Establish and adjust purposes for reading
(to understand, interpret, enjoy, solve
problems, predict outcomes, answer a
specific question, form an opinion, skim for
facts, identify models for own writing
Purpose
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Read the article “The Power of
Purposeful Reading” in Educational
Leadership that is being sent to you for
more information on establishing a
purpose for reading.
Admit Slips in Janet Allen’s book, Tools
for Teaching Content Literacy, is another
strategy to establish purpose.
To Recap: Consider these questions
prior to students reading the text.
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Are students lacking background information?
What strategy will help build that background
knowledge?
What difficult vocabulary will interfere with
meaning? What difficult concepts will need to
be defined and examined?
How is the text organized?
Is the text about challenging subject matter?
Why are students reading the text?
Lesson Plan Assignment
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This session you will begin to develop a
lesson plan that incorporates before,
during and after reading strategies.
Choose an informational text reading
that you will use in your classroom in
December or January and one that you
know has given the students difficulty in
the past or know to be difficult.
Begin to design a lesson
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This month’s session will be devoted to
determining prereading strategies necessary
to enhance comprehension of the chosen
text.
Focus assignments for this session around
the text you selected.
Complete the reading of each powerpoint of
this session prior to beginning your lesson
plan.