Activating Prior Knowledge Strategies
What do I already know about this topic?
What have I read that seems similar to this text?
What else does this remind me of?
KWL
What I Know Already
What I Want to Learn
What I Learned
Making Connections
Text-self: Make connections from text to self. How do you relate to a character, a scene, theme or setting? Connect your personal life to specific text.
Text-text: Make connection from one piece of text to another. As you read the text are you reminded of a movie or another book? Connect a song, TV commercial or other type of written word to the text you are reading.
Text-world: Make connections from text to the world. How you connect the world to your reading? Does the character remind you of a public figure or is the main theme a hot issue in the media today?
Important Words
Students write 10 important words related to the topic.
Predicting
Students predict what the topic is about. Students predict based on prior knowledge. Teacher first models by thinking aloud, what they believe the text is about.
Predict the Words Chart
Students predict the types of words that will be found in the text. Students do a chart before reading and after reading. Good strategy to develop vocabulary.
Exclusionary Brainstorming
Teacher compiles a list of words related and unrelated to a specific topic. Students are to identify the words related to the topic and circle the words. This can be done independently, in small groups, or as a class. Students read the text and make corrections based on their reading.
Visualizing
Students create mental images based on the text.
Quotes
Students write a quote from their text and write about the mental image they created based on the quote.
Questioning
Students question during reading. Students wonder why something happens or if it is impossible. Questioning makes the readers active in the process.
Question-Answer Relationship QAR
Students are able to find the answer in the book or in their heads. In the book, answers are right there in one sentence or the student must think and search as the answer is contained within several sentences. In my head, students find the answer based on their personal background knowledge or they must decode the inferences from the author.
Semantic Map
Students write the central topic in the center of the page. Students ask questions about the central topic and write the answers connecting to the topic in the center of the page.
Drawing Inferences
Students make conclusions about the text. Drawing inferences is an advanced thinking process that makes the reader makes conclusions based on implied messages, cues and tones in the text.
Think Aloud
Teacher asks questions, which make them think about what the author is try to say in the text. Teacher may have a discussion about a character’s feelings on their job or where they live. It is important for the teacher to do many examples as drawing inferences is a difficult concept to master because the answer is not within the text.
Important Ideas
Students must evaluate the information in the text and decide on the most important ideas.
Main Idea
Students write the main topic and list the details to support it. This allows the students to see the main topic and realize the details support it. Often students will underline too much information in text as it all seems important, this exercise illustrates how to find the main idea in a reading.
Debbie DeSpirt - Debbie DeSpirt is an Elementary Teacher for the York Catholic District School Board in Ontario, Canada. Her post secondary education ...
Join the Conversation