What is pre reading:

Pre-reading is the process of skimming a text to locate key ideas before carefully reading a
text (or a chapter of a text) from start to finish. Also called previewing or surveying.

Pre-reading provides an overview that can increase reading speed and efficiency. Pre-
reading typically involves looking at (and thinking about) titles,
chapter introductions, summaries, headings, subheadings, study questions, and conclusions.

Observations on Pre-Reading:
"To be successful today, it not only becomes necessary to skim, but it becomes
essential to skim well."
(Jacobs, Alan. The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction.  Oxford University Press, 2011.)

"Pre-reading strategies allow students to think about what they already know about a given
topic and predict what they will read or hear. Before students read any text, teachers can
direct their attention to how a text is organized, teach unfamiliar vocabulary or other
concepts, search for the main idea, and provide students with a purpose for reading
or listening. Most importantly, teachers can use pre-reading strategies to increase students'
interest in a text."

Understand the Demonstration of Pre-Reading:

"Pre-reading encompasses all of the things that you do, before you start reading, to increase
your capacity to understand the material. In many cases, taking just a few minutes to learn
more about what you are about to read can dramatically increase your
reading comprehension and retention. . . .

"If you build the big picture before you start, you begin reading the text with a conceptual
framework already in place. Then, when you encounter a new detail or a new bit
of evidence in your reading, your mind will know what to do with it."
(Austin, Michael. Reading the World: Ideas That Matter. W.W. Norton, 2007.)

Know the Four Steps (4 Ps)

"Pre-reading includes four steps: preview, predict, prior knowledge, and
purpose. You can remember these steps by thinking of them as the '4 Ps.'

"Previewing is taking a quick look at a reading before trying to understand the

whole thing...
"[In predicting, you] look at clues from what you read, see, or already know to
figure out what information you are likely to get from the reading...

"Prior knowledge is what you know about a subject before you begin a new
reading about it...

"The fourth 'P' in prereading is purpose... Figuring out an author's purpose will help you
understand what you read."
(Content-Area Reading Strategies for Language Arts. Walch Publishing, 2003.)

Skim a Book, Chapter or Article Systematically:

"Skimming or pre-reading is the first sublevel of inspectional reading. Your
main aim is to discover whether the book requires a more careful reading...
The habit of skimming should not take much time to acquire. Here are some
suggestions about how to do it. You have now skimmed the book
systematically; you have given it the first type of inspectional reading.

1. Look at the title page and, if the book has one, at its preface. Read each
quickly.
2. Study the table of contents to obtain a general sense of the book's
structure; use it as you would a road map before taking a trip.
3. Check the index if the book has one—most expository works do. Make a
quick estimate of the range of topics covered and of the kinds of books
and authors referred to.
4. If the book is a new one with a dust jacket, read the publisher's blurb.
5. From your general and still rather vague knowledge of the book's
contents, look now at the chapters that seem to be pivotal to its
argument. If these chapters have summary statements in their opening
or closing pages, as they often do, read these statements carefully.
6. Finally, turn the pages, dipping in here and there, reading a paragraph
or two, sometimes several pages in sequences, never more than that."

(Adler, Mortimer J. and Charles Van Doren. How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to
Intelligent Reading.  Touchstone edition, 2014.)
Pre-reading Strategies:

Start by Reading and Considering the Title:

A good title will inform you about the text’s content. It’s always nice if titles are also
interesting, catchy, or even clever, but the most important job of a title is to let the reader
know what’s coming and what the text will be about.

For instance, imagine you’re reading a magazine article entitled “Three Hundred Sixty-five
Properly Poofy Days.”*

Reading that, do you have any idea what this article is going to be about?

 It could be written by a meteorologist, reporting on a year of observing cloud

formations.
 It might be a biopic (a biographical story) about an eccentric salon that
specializes in“big hair” dos, retro-style.
 Or perhaps it’s a set of guidelines for using poofy cotton balls to apply
cosmetics.

Would you be surprised to discover it’s a story about a dog groomer who does show grooms
for poodles, the poofiest of dogs?

See my point? The title should, hopefully, give you clues to the article content. (Keep this in
mind when you’re writing your own titles.)

 Look at the author’s name Have you heard of the author? Do you know
anything about them? Sometimes you’ll find a short bio about the author at the
beginning or end of a text. You can always Google them to look for more
details. Ideally, the author should be an acknowledged expert on the subject or
should have degrees, training, or credentials that make them an expert.
 Skim through the article, looking for headings or “pull-outs” (content that is
pulled off to one side or highlighted in a box). Headings, if present, will often
give you clues as to the text’s content as well as showing you how the subject
has been divided into sections.
 Look for any images: photographs, charts, graphs, maps, or other illustrations.
Images—and their captions—will often give you valuable information about the
topic.
 If working with an e-text, you may also find embedded web links. Follow
these: they’ll often lead you to resources that will help you better understand
the article.
  Here’s a seriously expert level suggestion: most academic texts and essays
follow a fairly similar structure—including beginning every paragraph with a
strong, focused topic sentence—you can often get a quick summary or
understanding of a written text by simply reading the first sentence in every
paragraph. Some authors may use the second sentence as their topic sentence,
and if you notice this pattern, reading all of the second sentences in each
paragraph will help you follow the text.

After working through the above suggestions, see if you can figure out the main purpose of
the text simply by pre-reading. In other words, look for the global or central idea or
argument.

Now, you’re ready to dive in and actually read the text completely. Your pre-reading has
given you an overall picture of what to expect and helped you build a schema of what the
author wants you to know at the end of the reading. If the pre-reading has worked well,
giving you clues to the text’s content, your actual in-depth reading will be easier and more
effective. And, you’ll begin reading with your curiosity already aroused, which is a great way
to start!