How can you use pre-reading activities to engage students in lectures?

Pre-reading exercises can increase students' curiosity and preparation, resulting in more relevant and participatory lectures. Incorporating multimedia tools such as movies, podcasts, or interactive online modules can help students become more engaged and grasp the subject matter.

I have practiced and found a very effective technique or a practice called the Open Book test or Open Book Quiz. This involves announcing the topic before hand the commencement of class and the student prepares the topic using any guide, book, or lecture. Then during the fixed time slot for the test which is pretty confined in time, students are allowed to consult the material they had used for test preparation. Access to the learning allows them to establish an understanding of the way of concept interpretation according to the questionnaire and besides that, it helps them to make a stronger will to learn and excel without unwillingness towards assessments.

Pre-reading excercises can increase students‘ curiosity and learning motivation. Furthermore pre-reading excercises are able to activate students‘ preknowledge and generate questions in the students‘ heads. A simple pre-reading excercise for the promotion of learning is the abc-list of Vera F. Birkenbihl. Students create abc-lists with the alphabet on the left side of the sheet. Every letter has its own row. After that the students have to fill out the abc-list based on their preknowledge (amount of time: 1 to 3 minutes). But there is no need to get stressed. Blank spaces are normal. Then the students can be prompted to talk about their findings. Finally the lecture can start and the students are able to add key words to their abc-lists.

Any Reading activity without clearly defined objectivities could be futile. A lot of times teachers and trainers land up sharing activities out of sheer need or obligation. Resultantly, students cannot relate to the task.The pre-reading activity could be instrumental in stimulating interest of candidates. Students need to be briefed about the learning outcomes of the activity.For example, activity may focus on introducing a new topic,may aim at building vocabulary, may target developing ideas on a familiar topic . Pre-reading activities are instrumental in setting the base for a highly interactive reading session.However, the success of pre-reading activities depend majorly on the way objectives are conveyed. pre-reading activities

I found in my experience literature must be more bite sized. We cannot expect students to understand pages of content if they have signed up for live courses. The readings would ensure that persons understand the content so it must be understandable and it should show me what are the benefits of doing this reading.

Pre-reading activities serve key purposes - building background knowledge, making connections, generating interest, and setting a purpose for reading. As an educator, setting clear objectives aligned to these purposes is essential. For example, have students analyze a short video clip related to the upcoming text to start making connections. Or provide a brief intro summary to fill knowledge gaps and spark curiosity. Outline 2-3 key themes or ideas they will uncover and reflect on how it connects to their lives. Getting specific on your objectives allows you to tailor activities to prepare them in a meaningful way, leading to deeper comprehension and engagement with the text itself.

I find these activities very impactful in introducing the topic and preparing the participants. Having pre-reading materials improves the willingness to participate in session discussions. It also improves the quality of engagement, both during discussions, case studies and question and answer sessions. Having prereading materials help learners prepare better for the sessions . It also encourages further research on the subject matter. In addition, learners are able to contextualise the subject matter in a meaningful way before the sessions. The learning outcomes tend to be more impactful when there are prereading materials.

This is essential! In my experience students will not engage in any activity that staff don’t value. Value can be shown in lots of ways but simply asking and incorporating the activity into the next session (and doing this repeatedly) will indicate the value in that pre-session activity.