by M. Velasco

Created on: December 08, 2009

There are students who enjoy reading, and there are those students who read because they have to. Incorporating students' interests in reading material they have to read is one of many difficult tasks teachers face. Still, regardless of their students' interests, students' comprehension of what they read has become a much more important factor than how they read. With standardized testing, district expectations, and the expectations of those in the lives of these students, what can teachers do to prepare students to understand the material they read?

Tell a book by its cover

Regardless of reading level or grade, allow students to discuss what they believe their book is about based on the book's cover and description. Unless a copy of the reading material is readily available to each student, teachers should engage the students in a discussion. Ask students questions using comprehension vocabulary such as genre, title, author, publisher, or critic opinion? This will help visual learners as the discussion takes place.

Chapter, Prologues, Introductions

Most teachers skip the beginning portion of a book and go straight to assigning pages to read. Teachers can take time to have students predict what will take place in the book in regards to looking at the introductory page. If time is of the essence, encourage students to skim the material and allow question and answer time. A chapter title may catch a student's attention or the opening sentence of the Introduction may do the same. Sometimes a long word will appear to a student and they may have a curiosity as to what the word means. Define it for the student and move on to the next question. The most important part of the pre-reading technique is engaging the students in the learning process.

Index, Glossary, Appendix

If you examine the cover and front pages of the book, do not neglect the back portion. This will allow students to learn how to look up words they are not familiar with or if they wanted to look up information, the index, glossary, and appendix are available. This encourages students to use the material in front of them if they should be stuck on a word, a question, or an idea.

Vocabulary

How often does a teacher allow oral reading in class and a student gets stuck on the word "mischievous"? It's at this point a student may forget what was just read because the focus was on how to pronounce or skip a word. If possible, find a way to integrate vocabulary understanding into your lesson. Search

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