How and Why do we Pre-read?

Pre-reading can perhaps be one of the most effective front-loading strategies educators can model and teach students, in order to improve reading comprehension and focus. 

Pre-reading involves examining the title, subtitle, subheadings, pictures, vocabulary, graphs/maps/timelines, and if provided, the review questions and summary. 

Previewing and discussing these aspects before reading a text is not cheating-skilled readers do it all the time to gain important information that increases comprehension.

Analyzing these text features provides the reader information that can then be connected to prior knowledge and used to generate a prediction about the topic.  Student focus and comprehension increase when predictions are formulated, as predicting requires the reader to connect to prior knowledge and analyze the content BEFORE reading. 

So model pre-reading and predictions regularly and witness comprehension, text confidence and engagement improve. Julie Adams, Adams Educational Consulting, effectiveteachingpd.com