Pre-reading activities may be designed to motivate student interest, activate prior knowledge, or pre-teach potentially difficult concepts and vocabulary. This is also a great opportunity to introduce comprehension components such as cause and effect, compare and contrast, personification, main idea, sequencing, and others.
Read each book carefully before you teach a lesson on it. Think about what you would notice and get excited about if you were a student. Then, create an engaging book introduction that gets students interested in the text, without giving away the ending or the most important information. It's rare to feel excited about any book when you're slogging through an Intro to English Lit class only because it's a box you have to check off before you graduate. The reading lists in most. You’re here because you want to need God’s Word. You want to learn it. To make it your oxygen and apply its promises to your daily faith walk. If you want to unpack the context of the Scriptures you’re reading but do it in a super-simple way— looking at the Hebrew/Greek t.
How pre-reading relates to ELLs
English language learners (ELLs) have great difficulty jumping into new texts without any background support. Students should know at least something about the topic before reading. Some topics may be unfamiliar to students, such as recreational activities at the beach if students have never been to the beach before. Pictures, drawings, or short skits can help develop relevant background information.
Students need to know at least 90 to 95% of the words they read if they are going to comprehend the text. Therefore, it is important to use several strategies to build background knowledge that leads to better reading comprehension and overall achievement for ELLs. It doesn't hurt to review many words we often take for granted – not only for the benefit of ELLs, but also for students who may not come to school with a rich vocabulary background or exposure to certain experiences.
Pre-reading strategies to increase comprehension
Before reading a selection aloud or before students read a text, try taking seven to ten minutes to build word and background knowledge. This should increase all students' comprehension of the text.
Begin by reviewing the selection and identifying the main concepts you want to teach. Take into account your students' potential knowledge of these concepts, including your ELLs. Decide how you might best make these concepts relevant and accessible to all of your students. This might be through a film, discussion, student reading assignment, or a text read by you. Try using a combination of three or four of the following strategies:
Do motivating activities
You can use any activity that interests students in the text and motivates them to read it. For example, you can bring a real frog to class before reading a frog story.
Build text-specific knowledge
Activate students' prior knowledge of a topic so that they can consciously use it as they read their text. For example, before reading a text with a jungle as the setting, ask students what they already know about jungles and discuss.
Relate to students' lives
This is a powerful way to motivate students to read and to help them understand what they will be reading. Before reading a story about winning and losing a race, for example, you might want to have your students reflect on the times they have won or lost a race or a contest.
Pre-teach vocabulary
In addition to pre-teaching traditional vocabulary words, include words that convey concepts that ELLs already know. For example, students may know the concept of finding something, but do not know the word find or finding. Write these words on the board and review with the class.
Pre-teach concepts
There are times when not only ELLs but all students need to learn new and possibly difficult ideas or concepts. For example, the concepts of democracy or envy may be difficult for all young children to understand at first. Give examples that your students can relate to.
Predicting and direction setting
You can focus students' attention on what is important to look for as they read their text. Making predictions about what might happen in the book gives students a purpose for reading. Setting a direction means using questions that peak students' interest. It also means focusing students on the purpose for the reading. For example, 'Today we are going to read about differences in climates and regions. Let's read first about the climate in our community.'
Suggest comprehension strategies
Before reading the text, make students aware of what they should be looking for. If you want them to identify cause and effect, point out several examples of this beforehand. For example, you can talk about the story of Jumanji, which has several examples of cause and effect. When one of the children rolls the dice, it causes something to happen in the house.
Other ideas
You can also engage students by:
- Showing a film on a related topic.
- Conducting an experiment.
- Going on a field trip.
- Asking students to bring something related to 'show and tell.'
Be sure to connect everything back to the main concepts, key vocabulary, and/or comprehension skills that will be encountered.
Classroom Video: Story setup & pre-reading strategies
Reprints
Reading is one of the four essential elements of English. IELTS Test candidates’ competencies are tested in all of the four elements: listening, reading, writing, and speaking but arguably IELTS reading is the one that is most difficult to master.
Master reading and IELTS students will do well in the rest of the test.
In the IELTS Test the three-section IELTS reading task demands a high comprehension level and a broad vocabulary foundation.
We all learn best by doing – and reading is no exception. Prior to taking the test, IELTS candidates need to develop skills to improve their comprehension – and for quick comprehension – and should engage in a wide range of reading activities: using books, magazines, journals, newspapers or any other materials that employ good English.
During the IELTS Test preparation period, reading in English should become a habit to every candidate. In the actual IELTS exam the examiner is seeking assurance that applicants have established a good foundation in the English language.
Reading intelligently is the key to success in the IELTS Reading Tasks.
7 Steps to better IELTS Reading
This short tutorial is designed to get you up and running with the basics of reading for the IELTS Reading test in eight easy lessons.
- Understanding what is in the IELTS Reading Test
- Paraphrasing is the key to success in the IELTS Reading Test
- Skimming and Scanning gives more time to answer IELTS Reading Test Questions
- Context clues help students understand unfamiliar words
- Synonyms increase comprehension
- How to prepare for the IELTS Reading Test
- What IELTS Reading Skills are needed
What is in the IELTS Reading Test?
The IELTS Reading Test lasts for one hour and contains three readings of gradually increasing difficulty.
Before You Beginguided Reading 101 Reading
There are a total of 40 questions asked after the test – approximately 13 for each task within the IELTS Reading Test. (The precise number varies from exam to exam).
To read and understand both the questions and the readings, and then to respond correctly to the questions requires fast reading. This also shows a high degree of competence in written English comprehension.
Paraphrasing: The Most Important IELTS Reading Skill
When assessing a candidates’ level of comprehension examiners are looking for evidence of three sorts of understanding:
- Literal
- Inference
- Deduction.
To get IELTS Band Score 8 or above a student needs to demonstrate a high level of competence in inference and deduction. These high-level IELTS Reading skills are all about recognising related clues in the reading passage which are written in a different way to that of the question.
This is the essence of why paraphrasing is important.
A high skill level in paraphrasing directly leads to a high level of English comprehension in the IELTS Reading Test.
Skimming and Scanning aids quicker IELTS Reading
There is reading and there is IELTS Reading.
The thing with reading for the IELTS Test is that English is usually not the first language of the reader. This means that most IELTS Reading is slower than for a native speaker. So IELTS Test candidates must develop techniques to improve their speed of comprehension if they are to score higher band scores.
Skimming and Scanning are techniques aimed at improving reading speed – to allow the candidate more time to answer the question – with the right answer! For members of Your Pass IELTS Higherthe online IELTS Reading lessons will set you on the path to faster reading.
Familiarising and Understanding Words through Context Clues
Most IELTS Test candidates appreciate and understand that IELTS Reading is a test of vocabulary.
Students of English rely on a good dictionary to look up words and phrases. In the IELTS Test, since dictionaries are not allowed, context clueing provides alternative help.
Context clueing is the art of knowing a term based on what terms, phrases, or sentences come before and after it.
However, effective context clueing involves more than this simplistic approach. Good practitioners use innate knowledge, especially a good vocabulary, to improve their style and speed of reading. Most importantly effective users of context clueing develop a familiarity of the method polished through time and constant practise.
Before You Beginguided Reading 101 Lesson
Enriching Vocabulary through Synonyms
Many ideas for writing are similar and just expressed in different ways. Literary writers though, do not arbitrarily pick a word just for the purpose of achieving variety in the text. They pick a word which succinctly, if not perfectly, captures the essence of what they are trying to express.
IELTS students must learn to appreciate that, although synonyms are not 100% similar to the root word, they are nonetheless important for building vocabulary using one of the most effective methods of learning – association.
In IELTS, words and expressions are often expressed differently in the reading passages and in the sets of questions.
Preparation for the IELTS Reading Test
Most people can read. Students of IELTS English have to be able to read well – and quickly. To become truly proficient and reach high IELTS Band Scores, students need to invest time and energy in studying the craft – yes, a craft is what it is!
All the best practitioners of English – native speakers or non-native speakers – have honed their skills by practice. We have employed some of the best English teachers, examiners and exponents of the English language at www.passieltshigher.com to develop online IELTS Reading lessons that will get students on the road to success in the IELTS Reading Test.
What IELTS Reading Skills do you need?
In the members-only section of www.passieltshigher.com, called Your Pass IELTS Higher, there are online lessons for IELTS Reading which together comprise an IELTS Reading course where 10 essential skills are extensively covered.
Short lectures, demonstrations, activities, and answers with explanations are found in each lesson and the following skills are taught:
- Identifying the main idea through keywords and paraphrasing
- Determining Topic Sentences and Paraphrases
- Understanding unfamiliar words/phrases using context clues
- Skimming
- Scanning
- Grammar: sentence structure and pattern
- Grammar: word classification and collocation
- Finding and understanding recurring words
- Understanding the introductory paragraph: thesis statement Understanding the body: topic sentence; major and minor supporting sentences
- Understanding the concluding paragraph
P.S.
Before You Beginguided Reading 101 Questions
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Before You Beginguided Reading 101 Dalmatians
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