Does your child or teen get excited to read a new book only to become frustrated by complex sentences and unfamiliar words? Before reading, activities can change this poor experience.
Using pre-reading strategies helps set the stage for deeper understanding, allowing them to easily absorb key ideas and main concepts.
These reading strategies are their tools to enhance comprehension skills and reading fluency, which is vital for tackling both simple and complex texts.
What Are Pre-Reading Strategies?
Pre-reading strategies are a set of actions or steps that a reader does before reading a new text. Much like warming up before a big game, engaging with the text in advance sets the stage for a deeper understanding.
Each step is a small investment in understanding key ideas before they dive into the details. This could be as simple as skimming the topics in the table of contents, which helps to create the big picture.
More than just a preparatory step, they are a framework that supports reading skills by providing context and direction. These strategies reduce the chances of experiencing unfamiliar words that might disrupt reading fluency.
Benefits of Before Reading Strategies
There are many benefits of using before-reading activities. Here are a few of the benefits:
– Improved Comprehension:
Readers can link what they already know with new information by having an overview. This boosts reading comprehension skills and memory retention of information.
As they recognize key terms and the first sentence of each section, they’re better prepared to understand and remember the material.
– Enhanced Focus and Motivation:
Pre-reading activities such as main ideas or simple open-ended questions can guide your child. This guides the text, ensuring they remain focused on finding specific information without getting sidetracked.
– Time Efficiency:
Previewing activities can save readers time. By mapping out difficult sections or visual aids with the help of sticky notes or a piece of paper, children can efficiently navigate through the text.
This helps them allocate their time and attention more effectively to sections that need deeper analysis.
– Benefits for English Language Learners:
For English Language Learners (ELLs), before-reading strategies help to bridge the gap between unfamiliar content and their language development. These strategies assist ELLs in building essential concepts and vocabulary, aiding in overcoming reading comprehension hurdles.
Additionally, pre-reading techniques enable ELLs to connect previous linguistic and cultural knowledge with the new material.
Techniques such as activating prior knowledge or utilizing graphic organizers help students connect to their experiences, encouraging a deeper understanding of the text.
– Benefits for Children with Learning Disabilities
Many learning disabilities impact reading, such as:
Before reading activities play an important role in increasing comprehension by activating prior knowledge, building context, and preparing them for the content they are about to read.
These activities help struggling readers make connections and predict outcomes from the text.
By incorporating activities such as pre-teaching vocabulary and using graphic organizers, you can offer your child tangible tools to break down complex information into manageable parts. This prep work can alleviate the challenges posed by their learning disabilities, creating a better learning experience.
In addition, these strategies encourage a multisensory approach to reading, which can significantly benefit children who learn differently. By incorporating visual aids, hands-on activities, and interactive discussions, children with learning disabilities have multiple avenues through which they can connect with the content.
Now, let’s look at some pre-reading techniques you can try at home.
#1 Activating Prior Knowledge
Use methods like brainstorming and discussing related topics with your child to activate prior knowledge. Asking questions helps children recall existing knowledge and mentally prepare for the new content.
Here is a list of questions to ask your child:
- What do you know about this topic?
- What do you think this story might be about?
- Have you read anything similar before?
- What do you remember about this character/subject?
- How does this topic connect to what you’ve learned before?
- What questions do you have about this topic already?
- Why do you think this topic is important?
- Can you relate this topic to your own experiences?
- What do you hope to learn about this subject?
- What comes to mind when you hear this title?
- How do you feel about this subject matter?
These questions will prime their brains for a successful reading session. Check out these additional questions for reading comprehension.
#2 Pre-teaching Vocabulary
Diving into a book with unknown vocabulary can halt comprehension in its tracks. Pre-teaching vocabulary is paramount for understanding complex material.
Choose words that are central to the story and frequently appear. Focus on definitions, sentence usage, and related synonyms to provide a comprehensive understanding. This step ensures new words aren’t an obstacle in their reading.
#3 Skimming and Scanning
These techniques allow readers to quickly pinpoint key ideas without reading the text. Skimming involves glancing through headings and topic sentences to grasp a text’s core meaning.
Meanwhile, scanning focuses on locating specific details or vocabulary words.
#4 Previewing the Text
Previewing the text helps set the stage by assessing the content’s structure.
Encourage your child to look at:
- Table of contents
- Headings and subheadings
- Chapter titles
- Images and illustrations
- Captions
- Bolded or italicized words
- Introduction and conclusion
- Summaries or sidebars
- Glossary or vocabulary lists
- Charts and graphs
#5 Making Predictions
Predictions engage the reader’s curiosity. Before reading, encourage your child to predict what the text might reveal based on the title and visuals.
This approach turns passive reading into an interactive activity, much like guessing a movie plot from its trailer. It stimulates their thinking and engagement with the material.
#6 Expectation Outline
An expectation outline serves as a framework for reading with intent. Encourage your child to jot down questions they hope the text will answer or topics they expect to find.
Creating this outline is like setting goals before a competition, providing direction and purpose.
#7 Using Graphic Organizers
Graphic organizers change how students interact with pre-reading activities. Tools like Venn diagrams and charts break down complex concepts into manageable visuals, aiding comprehension and information retention.
Incorporate these tools into reading lessons to create dynamic reading guides.
KWL and KWHL Charts
KWL and KWHL charts are graphic organizers. Utilize K-W-L charts by asking three key questions:
- What do you Know?
- What do you Want to know?
- What did you Learn?
For a K-W-H-L chart, also include:
- How you plan to learn it.
These charts offer a structured approach to exploring a text’s potential insights.
#8 SQ3R Method
The SQ3R method—Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review is a reading method. Each stage grounds the reader’s understanding, making every session successful.
To learn more about this comprehensive pre-reading strategy, read the advantages of the SQ3R reading method.
Using these pre-reading techniques gives your child useful reading tools.
Equipping Your Child with Lifelong Reading Tools
As a parent, you hold the key to unlocking the immense potential of your child’s reading journey. While each before-reading strategy plays a role, the integration into your child’s routine truly counts.
Encourage them to confidently tackle each reading assignment, knowing they have the tools they need.
Additional Reading Resources
- Multisensory Reading Strategies for Kids Struggling to Read
- Fun Reading Activities for Teaching ESL Students
- 5+ Ways to Get Help for a Child Struggling With Reading
- The Surprising Benefits of Reading 20 Minutes a Day
- How to Instill the Love of Reading in Your Child
- Assistive Reading Tools
- Super Simple Trick For Children Who Struggle With Reading
- Reading Strategies Made Simple
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