EDRG 3344-Pre, During, and Post Strategies

Children absorb information like sponges. In order to be able to give them information needed, a teacher must first get the student involved. When the student becomes a part of the book, a teacher has their attention and can use it to ensure a successful learning experience. A pre strategy would be to activate a student's background knowledge by asking questions about the topic or book cover they are about to read and how they can relate to it. A student can connect the book's topic to daily life, at home, or maybe what they like. The teacher can help by giving some of examples of what she thinks of when she hears the title of the book or the pictures. For example, if they are reading Rainbow Fish, she can talk about her fish tank, the fish at SeaWorld (if she lives here in San Antonio), maybe see if any children have been to the zoo, if they have read books or their parents have read a book to them with a fish in it, like the Cat in the Hat. Then she may ask the children how do they like fish, what do people feed fish or what fish eat, where they live, what type of "homes" a fish might have (fish bowl, sea, lake, water). Or the teacher may have an activity before the story, like decorating a fish template. She may even want to bring a fish in the classroom. Connections, brainstorming, and prior knowledge are very important to get the student into the subject. During the reading, a teacher may ask a student to look at the pictures on the pages and describe the scene or predict the next event. She may ask the students what type of other animals live in the sea, hoping that may be on the next page. Keeping the children on their toes and wanting to hear more is critical to keep them focused and at the same time the teacher is enhancing the prediction skills. The teacher may even use a book box or puppet show (characters on popsicle sticks), to take out to assist the children in predicting or following along in the story. After the reading, the teacher may summarize the book by asking the students what events happened from the beginning to end. The teacher may want to know what the students felt was most interesting or important about the story. To get the students to draw a picture in their minds, they can pull out the fish they decorated and post them on the sea wall (water waves made of blue paper on the wall). The teacher can ask the students what other creatures they saw in the book and have the children make them to add to the wall. The students may be instucted to draw their favorite part of the book or scene. Hopefully, this will allow the children to visualize, retain, and relate information in the future to the subject discussed. These strategies or activities are important in order to meet every student's needs in one way or another to ensure that a child is on task and participating in the lesson. These strategies are used to help meet the learning needs of a child, whether they learn hands on or visually. Keeping a child attentive, active and aware of a topic or events in a book is vital to having the student take in and understand the information they are being taught.