B-D-A

No. Not PDA. BDA.

Before-During-After reading activities. These activities are very important in introducing a text, dissecting it and reviewing it for students, especially those who tend to struggle with comprehension of academic text. Each phase of B-D-A brings its own advantages to assisting students in text comprehension and text awareness.

Before: In this first phase teachers should do one or more of the following according to Vacca^2 and Mraz:
1) Motivate Readers 2) Build/Activate Prior Knowledge 3) Introduce key concepts/vocab 4) develop metacognitive awareness of the task demands and strategies necessary for effective learning.

Students should want to read the text, this is part of the motivation. It could be hard to do this if the teacher isn't motivated to read it, so make sure you are before you give it to your students! BE ENTHUSIASTIC!

Next, building/activating prior knowledge give students the idea that they can build off of that and they will be more interested to reading the text. Or it could be as simple as relating it to what was done the day before in class.

Defining Key concepts will allow students to identify and realize the key concept and understand what it has to do with the rest of the text and understand that that particular word is more important than others.

During: Find out what the students are thinking. This can be a place for admit slips! Find out if they are recognizing the concepts pointed out and the class could be able to discuss!

After: Clarify! Anything that the students have questions about, be able to provide an answer, or direct them to a place to do so. Use activities that address if the students has been able to understand the language and concepts provided.  Extend their learning outside the textbook!