SELECTIVE READING: CHARACTERISTICS AND TYPES - LITERATURE - 2025

The selective reading or preread is the first phase of reading (with reading and readthrough) and consists of activities that prepare the student to perform reading below. Through these activities the aim is to improve the comprehension of the text through the activation of the reader's previous knowledge.

It also seeks to promote the formation of a general idea of ​​the text and the planning of ways to face the reading activity. In addition to improving comprehension, the selective reading phase and the activities within it improve reading speed and accuracy, reducing time and effort.

Selective reading also clarifies to the student the objective of the reading. The type of activity chosen for this phase will depend on the teacher's criteria, the characteristics of the students and the type of text to be read.

Some can be leafing through the text, identifying characteristics (title, author, photos, subtitles) or predicting what will be read, among others.

characteristics

Selective reading activities are a kind of “warm-up” before reading, and they can be very different from each other. These activities can be differentiated by the duration and the level of involvement they require from the student.

For example, showing students photos requires less involvement on their part than asking them to relate their experiences to what they think they will read. Using selective reading activities is helpful because:

-Stimulates students' interest in the text, using the motivational factor to improve reading comprehension. This can be done through showing sensory input related to the text (music, pictures, etc.) or talking about your own experiences related to that text.

-Gives a reason to read, since it is normal that students do not have an intrinsic motivation to do so. Through selective reading activities, readers may discover that the text can be read for pleasure, to search for specific information, or to discover something.

-It prepares the student for the language that they will find in the text, because it is normal that not everyone can fully understand the text, and this can make reading slower and require more effort. Because of this, selective reading activities can introduce key vocabulary, talk about the reading context, or other resources.

Parts of a selective reading activity

Selective reading activities are divided into two parts: the part for the teacher and the part for the students.

For example, in a pre-reading activity the teacher's part might be to ask students about information they have read before; And the part that corresponds to the student may be to remember something that he has recently seen and to identify some characteristics of that particular text.

Types

Graphic organizers

Graphic organizers are a type of selective reading activities that show a "map" of the text to follow, allowing readers to frame the text.

Using graphic organizers, you can teach complex vocabulary and demonstrate how different ideas in the text are related to each other.

There are many types of organizers, but in general they present the most important concepts in an outline, and identify the main terms to show readers relevant information before reading, and thus improve their reading comprehension.

Advance Guides

The anticipation guides consist of a series of statements that the student must answer. In this way, the student is expected to respond to the statements independently in order to compare whether their previous beliefs about the text are correct.

Through this, it helps to give a meaning or an objective to the reading and the students are allowed to interact previously with the text.

In this way, anticipation guides improve comprehension by actively engaging readers in learning and focusing on relevant concepts in the text.

The advance guides do not have to be used only in written format and can also be used orally, or with the necessary adaptations according to the age or ability of the readers.

History impressions

Story Impressions are selective reading activities in which students use key words or phrases from the story to write paragraphs that summarize their impressions. After this, students read the story and write another summary; a comparison is made below.

Through the impressions of the story you can predict what the reading will be about, which will improve reading comprehension. In addition, they can begin to process the text even before reading it, since they make connections before reading.

Semantic mapping

It consists of a graphical representation that shows the prior knowledge of the readers and is used to create categories for the concepts. This activity helps readers search for prior knowledge that will be useful for reading.

Identification of structure and relevant information

All text has a certain structure with relevant information, such as the author's biographical note, publication information, and the index. In addition, each text can have titles and subtitles that give relevant information.

Visual material analysis

With this, they will focus on the visual or schematic part that the text may have to illustrate key concepts, main ideas, supporting information, among other elements.

It is common for school texts to have different categories of visual support that allow easier access to the content of the text.

Identification of main ideas

You can read the first and last paragraph or some intermediate sentence, as well as use the information in the structure to predict what the main idea of ​​the text is and plan how long it will take to read.

Presentation of the text

The teacher makes a quick presentation of the text or topic to introduce students to its reading.

References

1. Cunningham, D. and Shablak, S. (1975). Selective Reading Guide-O-Rama: The Content Teacher's Best Friend. Journal of Reading, 18 (5), pp. 380-382.
2. Haque, M. (2010). Do pre-reading activities help learners comprehend a text better? BRAC University.
3. Ontario School Board (2004). Think Literacy: Cross-Curricular Approaches, Grades 7-12.
4. Reynolds, JA (1996) College Success: Study Strategies and Skills. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
5. Williams, AD (2006). Using a Previewing Strategy to Enhance Reading Comprehension of Secondary Students. University of Tennessee.