Creating Shared Experiences Before Reading: Part 2

Yesterday I wrote about one example of how an activity done after reading can help children to appreciate and love books. I guess common sense would dictate that I should have gone in order with before/during/after, but here I am to shake things up and talk about learning experiences done before reading and how they can be helpful.

In what often seems like a lifetime ago, I wrote a master's project all about this whole before/during/after bit, so indulge me for a moment while I quote myself.  :) 

 To prepare students for reading, teachers will often engage learners in prereading activities to set the stage for the actual reading of a book or selection. This time spent before reading allows students to have the support they need to be able to gain as much as possible from the actual reading, and is an appropriate time for teachers to provide helps for individual learners or the class as a whole (e.g., Beed, Hawkins, & Roller, 1991; Graves, Graves, & Braaten, 1996; Pearson & Fielding, 1991).

Most of us don't have classrooms to worry about right now, but there are still many things we can do before reading to best prepare our co-readers or our lap-sitting listeners. Again, I have written about this before, but likely no one anywhere has really read it (and likely very few people will read it here!), but it sums up many great ideas given in the academic literature:

Graves, Graves and Braaten (1996) focus on the help that scaffolds can offer during prereading, during reading, and postreading activities in a classroom of young students. Their prereading suggestions could apply to guided reading or to shared reading periods.

1. Relating the reading to students’ lives
2. Motivating students
3. Activating background knowledge
4. Building text-specific knowledge
5. Teaching vocabulary and concepts
6. Pre-questioning, predicting, and setting direction
7. Suggesting strategies (Graves, Graves & Braaten, 1996).

Burns (1999) discusses the need for teachers to take opportunities to teach vocabulary in the context of a text or story so that it makes sense, but that it is also common for vocabulary to be introduced so that it makes sense to a student in terms of his schema and background. Readence, Moore and Rickelman (2004) present a more comprehensive set of prereading activities, looking at such areas as student preparation for reading, asking and answering questions, prediction, vocabulary, visual helps, writing and the possibilities of combination running through these ideas. Pinnell (2002) offers three ideas for teachers introducing a text, “presenting the title, author, and main idea; asking students to think about the structure of the text and asking them to say or hear the language; and, pointing out important concepts and words” (p. 170). Several authors posit that before reading is the time for new vocabulary to be introduced (e.g., Phenix, 2000; Rog, 2003). There are many ideas about what is appropriate before reading instruction, but it is clear that prereading activities stand as important scaffolds that prepare students for the act of reading they will be engaged in with their instructor.

Have a vocabulary lesson with your child or grandchild. Talk about who the author is and who the illustrator is and what each did. Ask questions - what does the picture on the front tell us about the book, do we know who the book is going to be about?  There are so many directions to go with these ideas!

Additionally, there is no harm in preparing to read or listen to more advanced books. I love reading about an author before I begin a new book of my own, just to give me some background as to what their experiences might have been to shape the work they authored.  Sometimes the thought is, "Wow, this guy had kind of a hard, messed up life!" but it gives me some insights to keep in mind as I read.  (I know I had that thought when I was reading Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms in my junior year of high school.)  

What are your ideas for instructional activities to use before reading?  Stay tuned for Part 3: Tomorrow I'll write about how we can share in the experience of active reading with appropriate activities done during reading.