SDAIE Strategy--Previewing a Text

For The Necklace, it helped students to predict what the story is about, begin to understand the context, and connect the short story to their lives and the world by previewing the pages and noting the dialog:

"What's the matter? What's the matter?" he answered.

"Nothing. Only I have no gown, and, therefore, I can't go to this ball. Give your card to some colleague whose wife is better equipped than I am."

"Come, let us see, Mathilde. How much would it cost, a suitable gown, which you could use on other occasions--something very simple?"

"I don't know exactly, but I think I could manage it with four hundred francs.

Students previewed the photos (an expensive looking diamond necklace, a 1920s woman dressed for a ball) the title (The Necklace), name of the author (Guy de Maupassant), and highlighted vocabulary (franc, caste, peasant, antechambers, candelabra, oppressive, coquettish…). They predicted that the story would involve wealth and poverty, discuss social status, be set in France, and that the main character, a woman, was spoiled and unhappy.