| Pre-reading strategies and pre-reading activities go | | | | vocabulary and background knowledge about the |
| hand in hand. In order for a reader to make sense of a | | | | subject. Have students discuss "What messages are |
| text fairly early on especially on a motivating subject | | | | your clothes sending today?" and brainstorm results. |
| that speaks to the kids such as children's fashion or | | | | The teacher could begin the lesson by asking the |
| children's school uniforms, s/he needs to make use of | | | | students what they think about before they choose |
| pre-reading strategies which can help with some of | | | | what they are going to wear on any given day. The |
| the grayer areas of the text. One topic that is quite | | | | teacher could also ask more directly, what do clothes |
| motivating for students to read is that of fashion. This | | | | and fashion in general represent? The class can then |
| can be especially motivating once they have debated | | | | think about the various connections that clothes have |
| on the topic of uniforms. This is a good lead-in for text | | | | with other issues such as image, mood, and personality. |
| on dress-codes and fashion as will be described in the | | | | The students will have in fact, activated appropriate |
| reading lesson plan below. | | | | schemata in order to approach the text in a "prepared" |
| The Difference Between Pre-reading Strategies and | | | | manner. |
| Activities | | | | Pre-Reading Strategies: More on Predicting the Text |
| Pre-reading strategies are those which help students | | | | The reader should know what to predict in terms of |
| build up their expectations and understandings about a | | | | the layout of the text and how the ideas relate to one |
| text before they actually begin reading it. Prediction is | | | | another. A reader that activates his/her formal |
| one main type of strategy in this category. Confirming | | | | schemata towards this particular text, understands that |
| their responses is yet another one. These are | | | | there is an introduction to the passage, which will |
| important lead-ins for the student. For the student, | | | | probably include a main topic sentence. They will be |
| pre-reading activities are what students actually do | | | | able to identify various examples in the text that |
| with the text. For the teacher, this is important part of | | | | support the main idea, and can even predict the |
| the lesson planning in terms of what students know to | | | | conclusion of the passage. |
| and applying it to the main reading task. | | | | Once a reader has made general conclusions about |
| The Pre-Reading Lesson: An Example of Applying | | | | what he or she will find in the rest of the text, s/he will |
| Both Pre-Reading Strategies and Activities | | | | feel more confident to continue reading about the |
| Brainstorm the conventional concept of messages | | | | subject and other reading strategies will be of use to |
| known to students including: SMS text, telephone, note | | | | the learner in the later stages of reading. |
| messages. Bring up the concept of fashion to teach | | | | |