Instructional Strategy

INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY

Predict-Connect-Explore: Preview Text

Grade:

K-2

Type:

Acquire Vocabulary

/ Question & Inquire

< 20

Minutes

When:

Before reading

Materials:

Britannica School Early Elementary article, classroom display or interactive whiteboard, digital devices, vocabulary visuals or picture cards, writing utensils

Description

The Predict-Connect-Explore: Preview Text instructional strategy supports K–2 students before reading informational text online by building background knowledge, previewing vocabulary, and preparing students to engage purposefully with digital text features. Through teacher modeling, discussion, visual analysis, and guided prediction activities, students learn to use titles, headings, images, captions, and text features to activate prior knowledge and set a purpose for reading. This strategy supports evidence-based literacy practices by strengthening oral language, vocabulary development, comprehension readiness, and student engagement before reading informational text independently or with support.

Procedure

Prior to the lesson, select a Britannica School Early Elementary informational article connected to current classroom learning goals. Preview the article to identify important vocabulary, visuals, headings, diagrams, and text features students will encounter while reading.

Introduce the topic by displaying the article title and a large visual or featured image from the online text using the image carousel at the top of the article. Invite students to share observations and discuss what they think the article may be about.

Preview three to five key vocabulary words students will encounter in the text. Use visuals, gestures, student-friendly definitions, and real-world connections to support understanding and oral language development.

Distribute digital devices, and ensure that students can access the selected article. Guide students in exploring the online text features before reading. Model how readers use headings, pictures, image captions, diagrams, labels, and navigation tools to gather information and prepare for reading.

Conduct a picture walk or digital text walk through the article. Pause to ask predictive and inferential questions such as:

“What do you think we will learn about?”

“What clues do the pictures give us?”

“What do you already know about this topic?”

“What questions do you have before we read?”

Model how strong readers set a purpose for reading informational text. Think aloud while explaining what information you hope to learn from the article and how the text features help prepare readers. Demonstrate how good readers preview titles, headings, pictures, and bold words before reading to help them think about what they may learn. Model how good readers ask questions, make predictions, and connect new information to what they already know before reading.

After exploring the text features together, invite students to revisit and share their predictions about the article content using sentence frames such as:

“I think this article will teach us about…”

“I notice…”

“I wonder…”

Provide students with an opportunity to discuss predictions and observations with a partner or small group before reading.

Record student questions, predictions, or important vocabulary on a classroom chart or anchor chart to revisit during and after reading.

Conclude by reinforcing that good readers preview informational texts before reading to activate background knowledge, prepare for new vocabulary, and develop a purpose for reading. Explain that students are now ready to use their predictions, questions, and observations to help them as they read the article.

Differentiation

Guided Support: Provide students with a simple visual checklist to guide the preview process. For example:

Look at the title.

Study the pictures.

Read the headings.

Talk about what you notice.

Make a prediction.

This structured support helps students focus attention on important text features before reading.

Oral Language Support: Encourage partner talk and teacher-guided discussion throughout the preview process to strengthen vocabulary development, listening comprehension, and confidence with academic language.

Extended Thinking: Invite students to generate their own questions about the topic and explain which text features helped them make predictions about the article.

Multilingual Learning Support

Beginning Proficiency: Use visuals, gestures, real objects, and home-language connections to introduce vocabulary and concepts before reading. Encourage students to discuss ideas with peers before sharing in English.

Intermediate Proficiency: Provide sentence frames (e.g., “I predict…,” “I notice…,” and “I wonder…”). Encourage students to use visuals and headings to support understanding during discussion.

Advanced Proficiency: Encourage students to explain predictions and connections using complete sentences and content-specific vocabulary. Prompt students to support ideas using evidence from the text features previewed.

Variations

Whole-Group Text Preview: Conduct the preview activity as a class using a classroom display or interactive whiteboard. Model how readers use text features and visuals to prepare for reading informational text.

Partner Prediction Activity: Students work with a partner to examine headings, visuals, and captions before reading. Partners discuss predictions and record one question they hope the article will answer.

Digital Literacy Centers: Incorporate article previews into literacy centers where students independently explore titles, pictures, and headings before reading assigned informational texts. Students may complete a simple prediction or vocabulary response activity before reading the article.

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