Pre-Texts: Enhancing Reading and Learning Outcomes in Indian Schools

The Project: Pre-Texts

Pre-Texts is a methodology developed by Doris Sommer, Ira and Jewell Williams Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. It is a “pedagogical acupuncture” that stimulates close reading and critical thinking by treating texts as material to make art. 

For example, an activity begins with an oral reading while students, for instance, make individual book covers for their personal editions of the text. After making book covers and displaying them, each student asks a question of the text aloud. They become investigators who scrutinize a text, in contrast to conventional classrooms where teacher ask questions of students. This introductory activity (listening, drawing, reading, asking, and answering) ends, as do all Pre-Texts activities, with a moment to reflect on “What did we do?”

Pre-Texts offers high quality, low-cost, basic and advanced education. It trains educators to facilitate rigorous learning through student-centered creative projects that require attention and collaboration. The program has been successfully implemented in Latin America and Africa, where disadvantaged kids are being empowered with a newfound interest in reading and learning.

Mittal Institute Faculty Grant

The Mittal Institute is funding a pilot study to implement Pre-Texts in 10 low-income primary schools in the New Delhi region. Based on the study, Prof. Sommer plans to co-author a “Case for Culture” on “Pre-Texts to Flourish in India.”

More Information

Visit the project’s website to learn more.