What can teachers do to improve their students’ reading comprehension?
Page 5: Preview Strategy
Mr. Dupree will teach the first strategy in the CSR approach, the Preview strategy, which students use before they read a text. The purpose of this pre-reading strategy is for students to:
- Learn as much as they can about the text in a short period of time
- Think about what they already know about the topic covered by the text
- Predict what the text might say about the topic using the features of the text (e.g., titles, subtitles, graphs and illustrations, terms in bold print)
Preview Strategy
The teacher introduces the topic of the passage.
- Students write down everything they already know about the topic in the Preview section of their learning log under What I already know about the topic.
- Students in pairs share their responses with each other.
- Students skim the passage, using textual features (headings, pictures, graphs, etc.) to predict what they might learn as they read. They write down these predictions in the Preview section of their learning logs under What I think I will learn.
- Students share their best ideas with the class.
Ecosystems: Making Connections
An ecosystem is part of the environment. In an ecosystem, big and small animals live in harmony with the rest of their natural world. A shoreline is one kind of ecosystem. Other kinds include deserts and rain forests. The parts of an ecosystem rely on each other for the health of the environment. That means that if one part is damaged, the balance of the whole can be upset. If this damage is big enough, the ecosystem might even collapse.
To help you understand ecosystems, you might imagine a spider-web. All of its threads are connected. If one part breaks or is torn, the rest of the web is weakened until it can be repaired.
Click on the movie to watch some students engage in the Preview strategy (time: 0:37).
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Transcript: Preview Strategy
Narrator: This group practices previewing using their cue cards to guide them through the CSR process.
Student: “Now let’s predict and write everything we think we might learn from reading today.” Brian.
Brian: I think we’ll learn about Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana.
Narrator: The teacher has a role, as well: monitoring groups and providing assistance and encouragement.
Mr. Shaw: What are some of the things that you’re gonna learn about?
Brian: Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana.
Mr. Shaw: Okay, what else do you think you might learn about?
Student: How we got our independence, freedom.
Mr. Shaw: So write all those things down. You guys are doing a good job. Thanks.
