It is important for students to engage in pre-reading activities that will enable them to activate their prior knowledge and make predictions about their reading. The Memoir activity uses a visual stimulus (an artifact or representation of an artifact) to allow students to make predictions, create mental pictures of events in a story, and connect the reading to their own experiences.
Strategies/Skills Used
Reading Strategy 1: Access background knowledge.
Reading Strategy 2: Predict what will be learned or what will happen.
Reading Strategy 5: Make mental pictures.
Reading Strategy 12: Reflect and respond.
(1) Show students an artifact or picture that is connected to the story that will be read. Examples might include an old brooch worn by a character in the story, a shell to represent an ocean setting or a ball to represent a story about a particular sport.
(2) Ask students to think about and write about personal memories that are triggered when they see the artifact. This step can be performed individually, with partners or in small groups.
(3) Have students predict what they think the story will be about. This can be done as an oral or written exercise.
(4) Read the story aloud, or have the students read, and compare the events in the story with the students’ predictions.
Primary
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Intermediate
Secondary
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