Prereading Activities

The importance of engaging students in prereading activities cannot be overemphasized. It is through activities conducted prior to reading a selection that the teacher can build and activate students' background knowledge on topics or concepts contained in the book. Activation of relevant knowledge is fundamental to comprehension. Because children may not spontaneously integrate what they read with what they know, special attention should be paid to preparation for reading. If appropriate background knowledge cannot be assumed, knowledge-building activities should be provided.

In addition to building or activating background knowledge, prereading activities can provide a forum to elicit from students their feelings and reactions to ideas and issues contained in a reading selection before confronting those issues in the text. Such activities allow students to examine their own beliefs, enhance understanding and appreciation of events in the book or decisions made by characters and encourage aesthetic responses to literature. Further, because they have thought about issues with which characters are confronted, students will identify more intensely with characters during reading. Prereading activities serve to set purposes for reading, arouse students' curiosity, and motivate them to read (Literature-Based Reading Activities, 2nd Ed., Yopp & Yopp Ch.2).

Anticipation Guides
This reading comprehension activity will take a little while to prepare, but is a good tool for helping your students with prereading activities and comprehension.

Opinionnaires/Questionnaires
Opinionnaires/Questionnaires (Reasoner, 1976) are useful tools for helping readers examine their own values, attitudes, opinions or related experiences before they interact wit book characters. -- Taken from Literature-Based Reading Activities, 2nd Ed., Yopp & Yopp

Memory
This game takes several hours to prepare, but it's well worth the effort. Children will commit hard words and their definitions to their long term memory, and it's fun!