Simply put, this reading strategy allows the student reader to reflect on what they know and to make sound predictions. When you preview, you use preliminary activities to gather information about the book. These activities may reveal details, enabling the student to anticipate plot and character situations. Ideally, the student will develop a genuine interest in discovering what's to come. Studying the chapter titles in the Table of Contents will give insight as to what adventure awaits: for instance, "Lucy Looks into a Wardrobe" and "Peter's First Battle." Read one by one, in order, and discuss what each implies may occur and to whom it will occur. You can now discuss what characters to keep a lookout for.
Contextualizing is a fancy way to say placing the story or text in its historical, biographical and cultural contexts. Setting this fantastical tale to historical context of World War II allows readers to familiarize themselves with the nonfiction elements that initiate the story. Guide students by asking questions like:
"What time or era does this story take place?"
"When it rained, why did the kids just go 'exploring' and not use electronic devices to play?"
"What was happening in London that forced the children to seek refuge at the professor's house?"
Ask questions to assist in remembering what you're reading. Using the "Five W's and one H" as a guide (Who, What, Where, When, Why and How) your students can develop helpful questions about the characters and the events that occur in each chapter. Writing these questions down with a focus on the main events, as opposed to details, will help them understand and remember how the story unfolded and how each character developed. For instance, in the chapter "Peter's First Battle," you can encourage the student to ask questions such as "Why does Aslan want Peter to fight alone?" and "How did Peter's name change?"
Students should reflect, make inferences and draw conclusions in response to the text. "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" offers great allegory through the conflicts in the world of Narnia. This allows the students to reflect on the possible metaphors of war and how it makes them feel. Making inferences invites them to bring a bit of themselves to the analysis, and it won't feel like analysis, but more of a journal response activity. You can also have readers identify what a simile is, and how its use in the story paints a good picture. This will enable them to visualize, which puts to use another vital reading strategy.
The use of sensory language helps readers visualize ideas and moments. So help the student find distinct verbs and strong setting descriptions that enhance their reading experience. In "Peter's First Battle" and in "The Triumph of the Witch" the students can read words like "wiping" and "pitching." These words offer actions they can picture themselves doing, as well as the characters. Descriptive moments like at the end of "Peter's First Battle" -- "Peter still out of breath, turned and saw Aslan close at hand" -- allow the students to hear the panting, and feel the relief Peter must have felt to have Aslan watching his back. Good questions for the students here would be:
"What images did you see in your mind as you read the chapter or section?
"What sounds did you hear as you read?"
"What sensory details did the author use to help you imagine his story?"
To outline means to identify the main ideas or events of a particular chapter or section. Students can take each chapter and develop a chart for each character, listing the main events that happen to each. Retelling is another strategy: As the student uses her own words, it encourages the use of creative synthesis, putting ideas together again from a slightly different perspective. You can measure how well students did if, for example, they can identify Lucy's journey and how it affects Edmund and vice versa. The overall goal here: Discover how all the siblings' connections affect the outcome of the story.
To fully engage students, introduce the film after the book has been read and discussed. This will help provide a clear example of retelling and pave the way for comparing and contrasting, a seventh reading strategy.
This strategy will offer the opportunity to explore the differences and similarities between the written text and the film version. Even though students may have seen the film before this discussion, they will discover details from the book that may have been left out of the film. They may even consider details in the film that were not in the book. Create a "double bubble" map as you watch the film. Pause the film when a student says, "Hey, that wasn't in the book!" Mark key points as similar or different. Then refer back to your diagram after screening the film and discuss questions:
"Why do you think the filmmaker included things like hide and seek in the beginning, before Lucy finds the wardrobe?"
"What details would you have put in the film that were left out from the book?"
"Did the children in the book seem different than the ones in the film?"
"What themes or messages stayed the same that you find important?
"Were any themes changed or left out?"