Reading Strategies—Previewing

Concept sheet | English Language Arts

Secondary

1-5

Definition

Previewing is getting an overview of the text.

When to do it

Before reading the text

Reading intention

Activate prior knowledge

Check if it matches the reading purpose

Outcome

Get a general overview of the text
→ Big picture

Give an idea of which strategies to use

How to Do It

Look at Text Features

Text features can quickly and easily give you a general idea of what the text is about.

Easily recognizable features* are:

*Keep in mind that the text features used vary according to the text type and purpose.

Quick Read

Give some parts of the text a quick read to get an overview of the topic.

The quick read is more relevant when dealing with the format of opinion pieces, argumentative texts, persuasive texts and informational texts.

The introduction and the conclusion of a text often mention most of the general ideas contained in it.

See Skimming for more information.

The first sentence of a paragraph often indicates the main topics of a text.

See Skimming for more information.

Activating readies your mind to receive new information and guides your reading focus.

The activating steps are:

Think about what you already know on the topic, however much it is. It will provide helpful context information for the text.
Make an educated guess on what the topic will be and what you might learn from the text.
Set your reading goals.
Form questions you think the text will answer.

To learn more about a strategy, click its name.

Previewing	Skimming & Scanning	Questioning
Get an overview of the text.	Quickly search & find information	Ask yourself questions
Visualizing	Making Connections	Inferring
Create mental pictures	Relate to the text	Read between the lines
Annotating	Decoding	Summarizing
Write down notes & comments	Understand challenging words	Sum up main idea & key elements
Synthesizing	Evaluating	Analyzing
Explore sources to come up with new perspectives	Form an opinion on the quality of the text	Look at the structure and techniques used