Cognitive processing Top-down vs bottom-up processing

Brainstorming
This may be done following this process:

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  In groups, students brainstorm ideas relating to the topic of the text.
  
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  All members of the groups contribute to the generation of ideas about the topic.
  
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  All ideas are to be accepted.
  
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  The teacher sets a time for the brainstorming process.
  
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  After generating enough ideas, groups organize their ideas and form sentences.
  
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  Finally, they share their ideas with the whole class.
  

This procedure can also be done as a whole class activity.
Discussions
This may be done as follows:

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  The teacher prepares contrasting opinions about the topic of the text, or simply provides a quote related to the topic of the reading.
  
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  Students work in groups to discuss and react to these opinions or quotes.
  
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  They then write a short report to be read by the representative of each group.
  
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  Groups react to each other’s opinions.
  

Pictures
Here is how pictures can be used as a pre-reading activity:

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  The teacher provides pictures related to the topic of the text.
  
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  In groups, the students work together to make sense of the pictures and guess what the text will be about.
  
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  The representative of each group takes turns presenting their ideas.
  

Another alternative would be to:

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  Provide a series of pictures representing a series of events in the text.
  
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  The students work in groups to put the events in the correct order.
  
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  They then try to write a short paragraph about what they think the text will be about.
  

Pictionary
To prepare students for the topic and vocabulary of the reading activity, the teacher may use the Pictionary activity:

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  The teacher creates a list of vocabulary terms or concepts relevant to the current topic or unit.
  
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  The teacher asks one student from each group to come to the board.
  
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  The student gets secretly the first word or concept from the teacher.
  
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  The student draws a picture representing the term or concept.
  
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  The teacher sets a short amount of time for the student’s group to guess the word or concept.
  
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  When their group correctly identifies the word or concept within the time limit, they get a point.
  

Predicting
The teacher can prepare the learners to predict what the text will be about using different elements of the text:

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  The teacher raises the learners’ attention to only the title, the subheadings, the pictures, and/or the illustrations accompanying the text.
  
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  They discuss in groups to predict the topic.
  
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  Groups report their predictions.