RIVET

Overview: The Rivet strategy activates students’ prior knowledge and gets them to make predictions before they read. This helps to increase the involvement and comprehension of most students. Rivet is an activity designed to accomplish this critical pre-reading goal. To prepare for a Rivet text introduction, read the selection and pick six to ten important words. Particularly emphasize important, concept words.

Directions:

1. Begin the activity by writing numbers and drawing lines on the board to indicate how many letters each word has.

2. Have the students draw the same number of lines on a piece of paper. The

board and their paper should look like this at the beginning of the Rivet:

1. __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

2. __ __ __ __ __ __ __

3. Fill in the letters to the first word one at a time. Have students write them as

you do and encourage them to guess as soon as they think they know the

word. Most students could not guess the word if it looks like this:

1. v e r __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

2. __ __ __ __ __ __ __

but many will guess with a few more letters:

1. v e r t e __ __ __ __ __ __

4. Once someone has guessed the correct word, ask him/her to help you finish

spelling it and write it on the board as students write it on their papers. Begin

writing the letters to the next word – pausing for just a second after writing

each of the letters in the second word:

1. v e r t e b r a t e s

2. a m __ __ __ __ __

5. The attention of all the students is generally riveted (thus the name Rivet) to each added letter and with a few more letters many students will guess the word.

6. If they are right, have them help you finish spelling it. If they give you an

incorrect guess, just continue writing letters until someone guesses the correct

word. Continue in this fashion until all the words have been completely

written and correctly guessed.

Implementing RIVET (A Pre-Reading Vocabulary Activity)

1. Change text headings into questions (biology example):

a. How Do Scientists Classify Animals?

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ answers: (vertebrates)

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ (invertebrates)

b. What Are Some Classes of Cold-Blooded Vertebrates?

__ __ __ __ (fish)

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ (amphibians)

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ (reptiles)

c. What Are Some Classes of Warm-Blooded Vertebrates?

__ __ __ __ __ (birds)

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ (mammals)

d. Orders of Mammals

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ (marsupials)

__ __ __ - __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ (sea-going

mammals)

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ (rodents)

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ (primates)

As you are completing the RIVET, have students provide definitions in their own words by using the context clues in the text.