The article A Strategy for Previewing Textbooks: Teaching Students to become Thieves, written by Suzanne Liff Manz, is a very enlightening article describing a very creative way to get students interested in reading in a more productive way. The article introduces the Acronym, THIEVES. Each letter in the word thieves represents a part of the reading selection, title, headings, introduction, every first sentence, visuals and vocabulary, end of chapter questions, and the summary. .
This acronym is used in the classroom by Manz, telling her students preview the selected reading and to steal as much information ahead of time as they can to get the students to pay attention to the clues, and to help them to gain some insight into what they will begin reading. Manz suggests that this is a valuable tool to better overall reading comprehension. .
Manz states in the article that this strategy can be used as either a brainstorming activity, by writing the acronym on the board and listing the elements discovered together, or this may also be used with a worksheet and allow the students to work on this activity individually.
I think this is a great tool for students to use. The way that Manz describes using this in the classroom reminds me of sending students on a treasure hunt. This is a great way to make learning more interesting, and fun, while encouraging a deeper understanding and better reading comprehension. .
I think in this day and age where children and parents alike are watching TV and doing other things for entertainment, that reading has taken a back seat. I believe this is a good strategy to use in helping students identify important reading elements. I really like this strategy and I will use it in the classroom. .