Strategies to Increase Engagement Before Reading

Prompt and remind. One of the easiest ways to support students’ reading of disciplinary texts is to give students prompts and reminders of connections that might exist to their prior courses and prior experiences.

Use a concept map. Ask students to generate a concept map of all that they already know about a given topic and have them discuss their maps with a partner, adding their partner’s ideas to their own maps as they talk.  (See “Additional Resources” for this and other Before Reading activities.) 

Create an anticipation guide.  Ask students to agree or disagree with a series of statements related to an article they will soon read. Give students 1-2 minutes to mark their responses and then 2-3 more minutes to discuss their responses with a partner. This activates students’ background knowledge about the topic and is a simple way to motivate interest in the reading. (See example at the end of this resource.) 

Add to what they know. Lead a short discussion, eliciting student input about the topic and noting students’ contributions on the document camera or blackboard. As the discussion proceeds, add and explain additional related concepts and ideas that students will need to understand in order to engage meaningfully with the reading they are about to do. 

“Build the field.” Have students do a short and accessible reading (e.g., a news article, or a summary of a primary source) or watch a video that fills in knowledge gaps with basic concepts, constructs, or frameworks that will help students understand more complex readings requiring a higher level of background knowledge. 

Set the stage. Bean (2011) recommends that “through lectures or reading guides, set the stage for readings, especially primary materials” (p. 182). You might explain how the text fits into the literature in your field, and how the text has been received by scholars in the field. 

Preview the text for audience and purpose indicators. Bean (2011) also recommends teaching students to approach new texts by asking the following questions: 

• Who is the author? 
• Who is the intended audience? 
• What occasion prompted this writing? 
• What is the author’s purpose? 

Share your process. Bean (2011) recommends the following:  “Explain how your own reading process varies when you encounter different genres of text: how to read a textbook versus a primary source, how to read a scientific paper, how to read a poem, and so forth” (p. 182). 

Preview the text. Demonstrate how you interact with parts of a text when you read, e.g., the table of contents, headings, charts and graphs, tables, and references, highlighting the ways you change your reading process, depending on your purpose for reading. 

Model an article analysis. Go over the structure and purpose of each part of a sample article by pointing out the article’s sections, as well as the forms of evidence, key phrases, variables, and/or figures on which to focus. Later, invite students to do an article analysis on their own so they can practice identifying these features independently.

Do a “think aloud.” Demonstrate to students your own reading process while reading a text out loud: Read the text and stop to explain, as Bean (2011) notes, “how you read carefully, and how and when you study a text in detail” (p. 182). 

Provide scaffolds for the reading process. Explicitly explain to students the Before Reading, While Reading, and After Reading framework. Teach them the skills discussed in this resource and tell them they can apply them to other reading situations. 

Develop students’ metacognition. Explain to students that they may feel uncomfortable when encountering new perspectives. You might “draw analogies to other times when students have had to assimilate other unfamiliar views,” (Bean, 2011, p. 181) or ask students to generate such analogies themselves. 

Practice inclusive teaching. Consistently bring diverse perspectives into the classroom through classroom dialogues, assignments, and/or materials, thus exposing students from all races, genders, sexual identities, and other identity groups to diverse lived experiences and beliefs. (For more on this, see the Inclusive Practice and/or the Implicit Bias series.)  

Contrast everyday perspectives and academic perspectives. Bean (2011) notes: “In lectures or discussions, draw contrasts between ordinary ways of looking at the subject and the author’s surprising way” (p. 181).  This may help students to identify and address their own misconceptions.  

Preview vocabulary in context.  Give students 4-5 stand-alone sentences that show disciplinary terms in a context where their meaning is transparent. Have students come up with their own definitions (which may be preliminary guesses) of the terms as homework and later discuss their responses for 3-4 minutes with a partner in class. 

Encourage annotation of complex sentences.  Encourage students to thoughtfully read and re-read difficult sentences and rewrite ideas in their own words when they encounter difficult syntax. 

Note: It is helpful to include information about support services on campus in your syllabus so that students who have difficulties with reading and/or writing can seek out support. The UC Davis Writing Support Center offers assistance with writing.  Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact the Student Disability Center early in the term to learn about services and, if needed, to request academic accommodation(s). 

Agree

Before 

Reading: 

Do you agree (A) or 

disagree (D)? 

Consider These… 

After Reading: 

Evaluate the findings and empirical evidence. To what extent does the text support this statement? 

1. Since class distinctions are not as visible as race and gender, they explain less about social interactions and inequalities. 

Findings and Empirical Evidence: 

2. There is variation in the ways working class and poor families, in contrast to middle class families, parent children, which impacts children’s life opportunities. 

Findings and Empirical Evidence: 

3. Social institutions help to reproduce inequalities by privileging certain types of behavior over other types. 

Findings and Empirical Evidence: 

4. All children have the same ability and skills to navigate institutional bureaucracies (e.g., university education). 

Findings and Empirical Evidence: 

5. Parenting styles within families are not related to children’s interactions with larger societal institutions and their gatekeepers (e.g., teachers, doctors, professors, employers). 

Findings and Empirical Evidence: