In college, it is important to follow a pre-reading process. Pre-reading involves getting ready to read a text. Just like athletes warm up and prepare their bodies before playing a sport, readers should warm up and prepare their minds to focus on a reading selection and to get the most out of their reading.
The first step in an effective reading process is accessing your prior knowledge. When you are asked to access your prior knowledge, this means you should think about what you already know about a topic before you read new information about it.
To access your prior knowledge, you should think about the subject matter.
Consider the following questions:
- Have you read about this topic before? Where and when?
- What do you already know about the topic?
- What experiences do you have with the topic?
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Content adapted from the “Successful College Reading” PowerPoint by Scottsdale Community College Reading Faculty, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.