The strategies on this page are strategies for you to use before you begin reading. They are here to help you organize your thoughts and prepare yourself for the material you are about to read.
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Before you read, make a K-W-L chart. This chart will help you organize your thoughts into what you already know, what you want to know, and then, at the end of reading, you will complete the last column of the chart listing what you learned while reading. Click on the section header above to download your own K-W-L Chart.
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Before you read, look at the introduction; headings; bold, underlined, and italicized words; and conclusion and ask yourself the 5 W's: Who? What? When? Where? Why? By doing this, you will identify who it is you're reading about, what happened, when it happened, where it happened, and why it is important for us to know. For more information on the 5 W's, click the section header above.
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Before you read, create a mind map to organize your thoughts and help your predict what the reading will be about. Place the chapter title or the chapter topic in the middle of the mind map and branch your thoughts off from the middle of the map. Click the section header above for more information on how to create a mind map.