Which strategy involves activating prior knowledge about a text before reading?

Activating prior knowledge before reading is a crucial strategy that helps students connect their existing knowledge to new information. This process enhances comprehension and retention of the material. Previewing text involves skimming headings, subheadings, and visuals, which allows students to make predictions about the content. Asking relevant questions furthers this process by prompting students to think critically about what they already know and what they might learn during the reading.

In contrast, visualizing the content focuses on creating mental images based on the text but does not necessarily engage prior knowledge. Summarizing main ideas occurs after reading and is used to reinforce understanding rather than to activate knowledge beforehand. Recognizing vocabulary words is important for comprehension but does not directly relate to activating prior knowledge about the overall content of the text.