Reading Skills

jgonz59646@yahoo.com Mr. Gonzalez

Strategies that can help students read more quickly and effectively include:

• Previewing: reviewing titles, section headings,

and photo captions to get a sense of the structure and content of a reading selection

• Predicting: using knowledge of the subject matter to make predictions about content and vocabulary and check comprehension; using knowledge of the text type and purpose to make predictions about discourse structure; using knowledge about the author to make predictions about writing style, vocabulary, and content

Strategies that can help students read more quickly and effectively include:

• Skimming and scanning: using a quick survey of the text to get the main idea, identify text structure, confirm or question predictions

• Guessing from context: using prior knowledge of the subject and the ideas in the text as clues to the meanings of unknown words, instead of stopping to look them up

• Paraphrasing: stopping at the end of a section to check comprehension by restating the information and ideas in the text

When reading to learn, students need to follow four basic steps:

• Figure out the purpose for reading. Activate background knowledge of the topic in order to predict or anticipate content and identify appropriate reading strategies.

• Attend to the parts of the text that are relevant to the identified purpose and ignore the rest. This selectivity enables students to focus on specific items in the input and reduces the amount of information they have to hold in short-term memory.

When reading to learn, students need to follow four basic steps:

• Select strategies that are appropriate to the reading task and use them flexibly and interactively. Students' comprehension improves and their confidence increases when they use top-down and bottom-up skills simultaneously to construct meaning.

• Check comprehension while reading and when the reading task is completed. Monitoring comprehension helps students detect inconsistencies and comprehension failures, helping them learn to use alternate strategies.

The skills of a strategic reader

1. Predict – declaring in advance or to foretell on the basis of observation and/or experience.

2. Visualize – forming mental pictures of scenes, characters and events.

3. Connect – to link two things together or to associate and see a relationship.

4. Question – to inquire or examine. 5. Clarify – to make understandable or to become clear and

free of confusion. 6. Summarize – to concisely obtain the essence or main point

of the text. 7. Evaluate – to form an opinion about what you have read.

W's and H (Who, What, When, Where, Why and How)

• What is the setting?

• Who are the main characters?

• What problem did the main character face?

• What attempts were made to resolve the problem?

• How was the problem finally resolved?

• What is the theme of the story?

Reading Clues

Tom decided that

he desperately

needed the

glockum if he

were to solve the

problem.

What is a glockum?

• Deduction - What does the sentence concern? Which words does the unknown word seem to relate to?

• Part of Speech – (verb, noun, adjective, time expression, etc.)

Reading Clues

Tom decided that

he desperately

needed the

glockum if he

were to solve the

problem.

What is a glockum?

• Chunking - What do the words around the unknown word(s) mean?

• Vocabulary Activation - What does the text seem to concern?

Make logical guesses about the meaning of the unknown words in the following paragraph.

• Jack quickly entered the didot and cleaned the

various misturaes he had been using to repair the wuipit. He had often thought that this job was extremely yullning. However, he had to admit that this time things seemed to be a bit easier. When he finished, he put on his redick and went back to the study to relax. He took out his favorite pipe and settled into the beautiful new pogtry. What a fantastic schnappy he had made when he had bought the pogtry. Only 300 yagmas!

• What could a 'didot' be?

• What part of speech is 'misturaes'?

• If Jack used the 'misturaes' to repair the 'wuipit' what do you think the 'mistraes' must be?

• What could 'yulling' mean? - What part of speech is often used with an ending '-ing '?

• Which synonym could be used for ' yulling '?

Main Idea "What does the author say?" and, "Why does he say it?”

Main idea follows a specific sequence: students must first be able to identify the key

words or topic of a sentence, then a paragraph, and finally a longer selection.

1. Identifying the key words of a sentence

2. Identifying key words or topic of a paragraph

3. Identifying the topic sentence of a paragraph

4. Recognizing an explicitly stated main idea of a paragraph

5. Inferring the main idea of a paragraph

6. Recognize relationships among main ideas in related paragraphs in longer selections

7. Inferring relationships among main ideas in related paragraphs in longer selections

Read more: http://www.primary-education-oasis.com http://www.primary-education-

oasis.com/teaching-main-idea.html#ixzz1rHzkdonq

• Cats are the most interesting animals in the world! First, they can see in the dark. Second, they can jump really high. Last but not least, cats really try to talk to you when they want something. I think everyone should have one of these interesting animals as a pet.

Reading Comprehension

Twenty-five percent

of all

household burglaries

can be attributed

to unlocked

windows or doors.

Crime

is the result

of opportunity

plus desire.

PHRASE TECHNIQUE

Twenty-five percent of all household

burglaries can be attributed to unlocked

windows or doors. Crime is the result of

opportunity plus desire.

PARAGRAPH COMPREHENSION #1

Twenty-five percent of all household

burglaries can be attributed to unlocked

windows or doors. Crime is the result of

opportunity plus desire.

PARAGRAPH COMPREHENSION #1

Twenty-five percent of all household burglaries

can be attributed to unlocked windows or doors.

Crime is the result of opportunity plus desire. To

prevent crime, it is each individual's

responsibility to

PARAGRAPH COMPREHENSION #1

A provide the opportunity. C prevent the opportunity.

B provide the desire. D prevent the desire.

From a building designer's standpoint, three things that make a home livable are the client, the building site, and the amount of money the client has to spend. According to the passage, to make a home livable

PARAGRAPH COMPREHENSION # 2

A the prospective piece of land makes little difference.

B it can be built on any piece of land.

C the design must fit the owner's income and site.

D the design must fit the designer's income.

Family camping has been described as the

"biggest single growth industry in the booming

travel/leisure market." Camping ranges from

backpacking to living in motor homes with

complete creature comforts. It is both an end in

itself and a magic carpet to a wide variety of other forms of outdoor recreation.

A backpacking C truck campers

B travel trailers D motor homes

QUESTION 3.

It can be inferred from the passage that the LEAST luxurious form of camping is

QUESTION 4.

Most drivers try to drive safely. A major part of

safe driving is the right speed. But what is the

"right" speed? Is it 20 miles per hour, or 35, or

60? That question is hard to answer. On some

city streets and in heavy traffic, twenty miles per

hour could be too fast. On a superhighway, 35

miles per hour could be too slow. Of course, a

good driver must follow the speed limit, but he

must also use good judgment. The "right" speed

will vary by the number of cars, surface of the

road, and the visibility.

QUESTION 4.

A drives at 35 miles

an hour.

C always drives at the

same speed.

B adjusts to different

driving conditions.

D always follows the

speed limit.

The general theme of this passage is that a good driver:

QUESTION 5

Gardening can be an easygoing hobby, a

scientific pursuit, an opportunity for

exercise and fresh air, a serious source of

food to help balance the family budget, a

means of expression in art and beauty, an

applied experiment in green plant growth,

or all of these things together.

All of the following are made

possible by gardening according to

the passage EXCEPT

A relaxation. C experimentation.

B exercise. D hard work.

QUESTION 5

QUESTION 6

About three fourths of the surface of the earth is water. Of the 336 million cubic miles of water, most (97.2%) is found in the oceans and is salty. Glaciers hold another two percent of the total. Less than one per cent (.8%) is available as fresh water for people to use. And much of that is not near people who need it.

The amount of fresh water available for people to use is:

A 97.2% C 2%

B .8% D 3.8%

QUESTION 6

QUESTION 7

Early settlers in the United States made

the most of the herring fishing season.

When spring came the fish arrived in great

numbers in the rivers. No nets or hooks

were needed. Men used what was called a

pinfold. This was a large circular pen built

in shallow water. It was made by driving

stakes closely together in the floor of the

river.

A pinfold was made with: A hooks and nets. C stakes driven into

the river bottom.

B only nets. D fishing rods.

QUESTION 7

Now you are on your own!!