Chapter 6: Frontloading Meaning

"Pre-reading strategies that focus on active engagement with the text help struggling readers do what good readers do -- think all throughout the reading process, not just at the conclusion." p. 101

I am happy to finally read a chapter that will have some actual physical strategies I can try in the classroom.  I have not heard of 3 out of the 4 strategies Beers listed in the book.

I absolutely FELL IN LOVE with the first strategy of the Anticipation Guide.  Since I have a Social Studies background I found this strategy to be the most relate able and I would LOVE to use this in a classroom.  The fact that the students will be able to question and think about the subject before it is even presented lets the students use their prior knowledge, opinions, and thought processes to work through what they will eventually be introduced to.  To me this is awesome!!

KWL charts were introduced to me at the undergrad level, and I do find them useful in the classroom, but I find that a lot of students have done them in so many classes and so many times, that their thought process are kind of automatic.  It is a good strategy for those students to chart and layout their thoughts, but I would rather use the other three strategies since they are new to me and I have never seen them used in a classroom.

Probable Passage is nice too, since it allows the students to set up a chart and really get a visual sense of the text they are about to read.  This seems like a nice independent activity a student could do, if a teacher has a large class but only a small amount of dependent readers, or a group of small readers.  Without the use of a KWL chart. 
I think that the Tea Party strategy is a good strategy too, since the students will be able to get up and out of their seats and be physically involved in the classroom, however I do think this is the biggest activity that would take the most monitoring.  Since the students are allowed to move around the room and talk.  I would also like to use this in the classroom, but I would think that this would be a strategy that I could use a little later in the year, so I would know my students better, and be able to keep track of their progress of comprehension during the activity.

Overall, I thought that this chapter was pretty great, since I really enjoyed the fact we were finally given some really good strategies to use in the classroom.  It was also really refreshing to me to learn new ones to use in the classroom.

Yours Reading,
Sara