What is Pre-Reading?

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

The purpose of Pre-Reading

Pre-reading encompasses all of the things 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 what you are
about to read can dramaticaly increase your reading comprehension and retention.

Here are 5 pre-reading activities to use in class.

Discussion
Encourage the learners to have a discussion about the topic of the reading. Prepare four or five
sentences with various opinions relating to the reading. Read them out to the class and then place
them around the room. Encourage the learners to go and stand near the opinion that they agree
with the most. Then encourage that group to prepare reasons for agreeing with that particular
sentence. Once they have done this, the learners can then interact with people from other groups to
share their opinions and reasons.

Pictures
Select three or four pictures that relate to the topic of the reading. Ask the students to make small
groups and give each group a copy of the pictures. The learners should work together to connect the
pictures and to try to guess what the reading will be about. Each group takes it in turns presenting
their ideas.

Pictionary
Select some of the key words from the text. Put the class into two or three groups. In turn, a learner
from each group (at the same time) comes to the whiteboard. They are told the word and they have
to draw that word. They are not allowed to use letters or numbers in their drawing. The other
students try to guess the word and earn points for their team. This can get very lively indeed!

Purpose
Give the students a purpose for completing the reading. This can be in the form of some discussion
questions about the content prepared by the teacher. Give the questions to the students before
they read the text. Ask them to read them and then while they are reading the text, they should
prepare answers to these discussion questions. When they have read the text, they then discuss the
questions with a partner.

Story telling

Prepare a short personalized narrative about something related to the topic of the reading. Be
creative with the story. It doesn’t have to be 100% accurate to something that actually happened to
you, but it should be personal, and be told enthusiastically. It will help if there is a little suspense and
humour in the story too.
The advantages & disadvantages of Pre-Reading

The advantages of pre-reading techniques are:

(1) Pre-reading techniques make students get better comprehension, (2) Pre-reading activities
challenge students to ask questions to herself to make guesses about the story, (3) Pre-reading
techniques make students understand the story better, (4) Pre-reading techniques help students dig
up my prior knowledge to connect with the story, (5) Pre-reading techniques make the learning
process fun, and make the classroom environment more active and enjoyable.

On the other hands, many experts say that pre-reading activity is important to be done as pre-
reading activity can activate the students’ prior knowledge which is relevant to understand the
incoming information. Moreover, pre-reading activity can provide knowledge that the reader lack.
Therefore, administering pre-reading activity in teaching reading comprehension will help the
students to understand the text better, easier and faster. Automatically, if the students consider that
reading is an enjoyful thing to do, they will encourage of read more.

The disadvantages of Pre-Reading are :

They take too much time away from reading.

They focus on the wrong information.

They can ruin the reading experience.

They are rarely purposeful.

How to do Pre-reading?

Step One: Previewing the Text

For our youngest readers, from pre-kindergarten through first grade, previewing the text often
begins with looking at the cover of the book. Share with students, or have them point out to you, the
title, author and illustrator. This is an opportunity to make connections as well. For example: “The
author is Kevin Henkes. What other books have we read by Kevin Henkes?” Next, you will take a
picture walk. Slowly flip through the book with your students and have them notice aloud of what
they see in the pictures. This is a perfect time to activate their prior knowledge or make personal
connections. Have them consider what they already know, or experiences in their life, which might
help them understand this book. For example, when previewing The Night Before Kindergarten, you
can encourage your students to share how they felt the night before they started school. You might
point out similarities and differences between their school and the school shown in the book.
Building connections is a great way to get a reader engaged and excited to read the story.

For students in grades two and up, previewing the text may look slightly different. You will still begin
by discussing the title, author and illustrator, but then you can discuss with your student what genre
they believe this book belongs to. Next, the picture walk may not be necessary unless it is a picture
book. However, you should still flip through the book, and if it is a non-fiction text book, this is an
important opportunity to discuss non-fiction text features. You will want to examine the table of
contents to start thinking about what will be covered in the text. As you flip through the rest of the
book, point out features like chapter titles and section headings that give clues to the reader about
what they should be prepared to learn. Depending on the level of academic vocabulary, it may also
be a good idea to pre-teach any new terms they will come across in their reading. You can also point
out that bold words or key words can often be found in a glossary for a definition, and take the time
to look in the glossary for an example. Also, take time to focus on other features such as maps and
tables and ask the student why the author would have included them. Non-fiction text features are
there for a reason, so make sure your students understand that. Finally, just as with younger
readers, you should activate your student’s prior knowledge by asking them what they already know
that may help them read and understand this text.

Step Two: Setting a Purpose for Reading

Young readers will not fully understand an author’s purpose, but they can have a general
understanding of whether or not they are reading a story just for enjoyment, or if the author might
be trying to teach them a lesson. For non-fiction texts, they should understand that the author wants
to share knowledge with them about a particular topic.

Step Three: Making Predictions

At the very earliest stages of reading, students will first make predictions based on the pictures. This
is typically done after looking at the cover, and then again during the picture walk.

For older readers of narratives, you can ask them to predict how they think the story will end. You
can also discuss characters and how they might change over the course of the book. For non-fiction
texts, your students can predict what kinds of information they will learn about the main topic. If
they have done a good job examining text features as they previewed the book, they should be able
to back up their predictions with text evidence from those non-fiction text features. For example, a
student might volunteer, “I think we will learn about polar bear skin and how it keeps them warm,
because I saw a diagram that showed layers of blubber and fur.”

Pre-reading strategies are learning approaches designed to help give your child structure, guidance,
and background knowledge before they begin exploring a new text. 

These strategies target your child’s reading comprehension skills by giving them the tools they need
to become active, successful readers. 

Conclusion

On the other hands, many experts say that pre-reading activity is important to be done as pre-
reading activity can activate the students’ prior knowledge which is relevant to understand the
incoming information. Moreover, pre-reading activity can provide knowledge that the reader lack.
Therefore, administering pre-reading activity in teaching reading comprehension will help the
students to understand the text better, easier and faster. Automatically, if the students consider that
reading is an enjoyful thing to do, they will encourage of read more.
Why are Pre-Reading Activities Important?

Pre reading activities play an important role in a reading lesson. Every reading lesson should start
with activities to activate background knowledge and a series of activities to prepare student for the
reading. Pre-reading activities help students prepare for the reading activity by activating the
relevant schemata, and motivating them to read.

What are the benefits of pre-reading?

There are several benefits to doing pre-reading activities. Pre-reading activities can help the learner
to be more prepared for what they are about to read. It can help them anticipate the topic of the
reading. In doing this, they can also prepare themselves for the kind of language, vocabulary, and
even grammar that might be used in the text. In addition, if done in the right way, it can encourage
the learners to want to read and maybe even increase their motivation to read.