Although not skill required for "comprehension within text," previewing is an instructional approach that can aid readers' literal comprehension of a text. Previewing and frontloading activities build students' background knowledge - or schema - about the text's storyline, its themes, or its content area jargon prior to reading. Previewing strategies allow teachers to "build on and 'load up' students' minds with the knowledge they need to comprehend the text" and it "provides a scaffold and template that organizes the experience and learning that accures through reading, allowing it to be added to prior knowledge and existing schema" (p. 74-75). Keep in mind that although previewing strategies are implemented prior to students' reading, it should be referred to throughout the reading to reinforce its relevance and how it is helpful to later textual examination and strides toward higher levels of reading comprehension, like inferential ("about") and evaluative ("beyond").
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Wilhelm, J. D. (2012). From the known to the new: Building background before and during reading. In Enriching comprehension with visualization strategies (pp. 72-95). New York, NY: Scholastic, Inc.