1. The pre-reading stage: This is the phase that helps raise the reader’s interest in the text they are going to read. It is the right moment to revise previous knowledge and state prerequisites. The former are acquired in the environment students grow in, while the latter give us a formal education, such as: vocabulary, notions of the reality and the use of language. Moreover, this is an opportunity to motivate and generate curiosity.
Specific pre-reading skills are developed through activities such as:
& Denotative and connotative analysis of the images attached to the text. Denotative analysis invites the reader to observe and describe the graphics exactly as they are, while the connotative one implies interpreting them in a creative manner.
& Activation of the previous knowledge: ask yourself what you know about the topic and what you can connect it to.
& Elaboration of predictions about the content, starting from the factors that draw your attention: title, the year the text was published, author, graphical elements, keywords, prologue, bibliography etc.
& Defining the purpose of reading: recreation, practical application, finding information, critical evaluation.
2. The reading stage: This is the stage when you perform the actual reading of the text, which involves the mechanical aspects as well as text comprehension. The level of comprehension that you will reach depends a lot on the skills you demonstrate during the stage. This is the moment to put the emphasis on the global image that words, phrases and sentences create, avoiding syllabic reading and reading aloud.
Activities for this stage depend on the type of text you are reading.
3. The post-reading stage: For this stage, we propose activities that show how much the reader understood from the text. The type of questions that will be asked determine the target level of comprehension.
The post-reading stage is ideal for group work, since this way, students can compare their interpretations with their classmates’, and build the meaning of the read texts from different points of view.
The activities proposed for this stage must be varied and creative, to stimulate a positive attitude on the students’ side.