The teacher prepares a preview of the text to be read. A preview is the gist of the longer text written using relatively simple sentence construction. A preview often has an accompanying visual. A preview can help students understand what the text is about by activating their formal and content schemata and making them familiar with the topic before they begin reading.
Present a summary to the students of the headings/subheadings from the article/text. Ask them to make notes under each heading about what they would expect to find in each section. Ask the students to read the first section of the article – then ask, "What do you think will be discussed next?". " Can you identify any words you do not know?" "How can you determine the meaning of these words from the article itself?". As students read they should be checking their predictions and ticking them off if they feel they are correct.
Students look at titles, headings, and pictures, and read the first few paragraphs and the last paragraph. This is usually followed by group discussion and students predicting what the text is about before they read the text for themselves.
Some other before reading strategies are: Anticipatory reading guides; KWL, and structured overviews.
This example shows students simplifying a text rather than a simplified text strategy in a year 11 science class.
Teaching and learning sequence planning examples:
Secondary level:
Published on: 19 Jan 2018
