Reading Comprehension: 
The Thinking Process Approach- Preview to Connect

Activate prior knowledge - Anticipate content

Skimming through a table of contents, flipping through the pages of a magazine, reading the front or back cover of a novel are all methods of previewing text. These practices come naturally to most good readers, but must be taught or reviewed with struggling and reluctant readers. 

What is the purpose of previewing? Previewing allows readers to anticipate the framework and content of a text. Previewing allows readers to activate prior knowledge, set a purpose for reading, and establish a mindset appropriate for understanding the text.

Previewing can only be effective if approached through the context of connecting: connecting to self, connecting to the world, and connecting to other texts. And reading comprehension cannot be achieved without making these connections. Critical literacy, the goal of truly mature and executive reading is dependent on thoughtful connections which lead to higher level thinking and questioning.

This workshop acts as either an introduction or refresher to the concepts of connecting, introducing participants to an instructional process that engages students through the use of images and proceeds through instruction to engaging text and content material.