Reading comprehention 3 ppsx

You’re reminded of how each idea fits into the whole, how ideas and information are con-nected.. Marking Up the Text Marking up the text creates a direct physical link between you and th

 B e c o m i n g a n A c t i v e R e a d e r

Critical reading and thinking skills require active

read-ing Being an active reader means you have to engage

with the text, both mentally and physically

■ Skim ahead and jump back

■ Mark up the text

■ Make specific observations about the text

Skimming Ahead and Jumping Back

Skimming ahead enables you to see what’s coming up

in your reading Page through the text you’re about to

read Notice how the text is broken down, what the

main topics are, and the order in which they are

cov-ered Notice key words and ideas that are boldfaced,

bulleted, boxed, or otherwise highlighted Skimming

through the text beforehand will prepare you for what

you are about to read It’s a lot like checking out the hills

and curves in the course before a cross-country race If

you know what’s ahead, you know how to pace

your-self, so you’re prepared to handle what’s to come

When you finish your reading, jump back Review

the summaries, headings, and highlighted

informa-tion in the text Notice both what the author

high-lighted and what you highhigh-lighted By jumping back,

you help solidify in your mind the ideas and

informa-tion you just read You’re reminded of how each idea fits

into the whole, how ideas and information are

con-nected When you make connections between ideas,

you’re much more likely to remember them

Marking Up the Text

Marking up the text creates a direct physical link

between you and the words you’re reading It forces you

to pay closer attention to the words you read and takes

you to a higher level of comprehension Use these three

strategies to mark up text:

1 Highlight or underline key words and ideas.

2 Circle and define any unfamiliar words or

phrases

3 Record your reactions and questions in the

margins

Highlighting or Underlining Key Ideas

When you highlight or underline key words and ideas, you are identifying the most important parts of the text There’s an important skill at work here: You can’t high-light or underline everything, so you have to distinguish between the facts and ideas that are most important (major ideas) and those facts and ideas that are help-ful but not so important (minor or supporting ideas) Highlight only the major ideas, so you don’t end up with a text that’s completely highlighted

An effectively highlighted text will make for an easy and fruitful review When you jump back, you’ll be quickly reminded of the ideas that are most important

to remember Highlighting or underlining major points

as you read also allows you to retain more information from the text

Circling Unfamiliar Words

One of the most important habits to develop is that of circling and looking up unfamiliar words and phrases

If possible, don’t sit down to read without a dictionary

by your side It is not uncommon for the meaning of an entire sentence to hinge on the meaning of a single word or phrase, and if you don’t know what that word

or phrase means, you won’t understand the sentence Besides, this habit enables you to quickly and steadily expand your vocabulary, so you’ll be a more confident reader and speaker

If you don’t have a dictionary readily available, try

to determine the meaning of the word as best you can from its context—that is, the words and ideas around

it (There’s more on this topic in Lesson 3.) Then, make sure you look up the word as soon as possible so you’re sure of its meaning

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Making Marginal Notes

Recording your questions and reactions in the margins

turns you from a passive receiver of information into

an active participant in a dialogue (If you’re reading a

library book, write your reactions in a notebook.) You

will get much more out of the ideas and information

you read about if you create a “conversation” with the

writer Here are some examples of the kinds of

reac-tions you might write down in the margin or in your

notebook:

■ Questions often come up when you read They

may be answered later in the text, but by that time,

you may have forgotten the question! And if your

question isn’t answered, you may want to discuss it

with someone: “Why does the writer describe the

new welfare policy as ‘unfair’?” or “Why does the

character react in this way?”

■ Agreements and disagreements with the author

are bound to arise if you’re actively reading Write

them down: “That’s not necessarily true!” or “This

policy makes a lot of sense to me.”

■ Connections you note can be either between the

text and something that you read earlier or

between the text and your own experience

For example, “I remember feeling the same way

when I ” or “This is similar to what happened

in China.”

■ Evaluations are your way of keeping the author

honest If you think the author isn’t providing

suf-ficient support for what he or she is saying or that

there’s something wrong with that support, say so:

“He says the dropping of the bomb was inevitable,

but he doesn’t explain why” or “This is a very

selfish reason.”

Making Observations

Good readers know that writers use many different strategies to express their ideas Even if you know very little about those strategies, you can make useful obser-vations about what you read to better understand and remember the author’s ideas You can notice, for exam-ple, the author’s choice of words; the structure of the sentences and paragraphs; any repetition of words or ideas; important details about people, places, and things; and so on

This step—making observations—is essential because your observations (what you notice) lead you

to logical inferences about what you read Inferences are

conclusions based on reason, fact, or evidence You are constantly making inferences based on your observa-tions, even when you’re not reading For example, if you notice that the sky is full of dark, heavy clouds, you might infer that it is going to rain; if you notice that your coworker has a stack of gardening books on her desk, you might infer that she likes gardening

If you misunderstand what you read, it is often because you haven’t looked closely enough at the text

As a result, you base your inferences on your own ideas and experiences, not on what’s actually written in the text You end up forcing your own ideas on the author (rather than listening to what the author has to say) and then forming your own ideas about it It’s critical, then, that you begin to really pay attention to what writers say and how they say it

If any of this sounds confusing now, don’t worry Each of these ideas will be thoroughly explained in the lessons that follow In the meantime, start practicing active reading as best you can Begin by taking the pretest

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READING COMPREHENSION

SUCCESS

IN 20 MINUTES A DAY

Before you start your study of reading skills, you may want to get an idea of how much you already

know and how much you need to learn If that’s the case, take the pretest that follows The pretest consists of 50 multiple-choice questions covering all the lessons in this book Naturally, 50 ques-tions can’t cover every single concept or strategy you will learn by working through this book So even if you get all the questions on the pretest right, it’s almost guaranteed that you will find a few ideas or reading tactics in this book that you didn’t already know On the other hand, if you get many questions wrong on this pretest, don’t despair This book will show you how to read more effectively, step by step

You should use this pretest to get a general idea of how much you already know If you get a high score, you may be able to spend less time with this book than you originally planned If you get a low score, you may find that you will need more than 20 minutes a day to get through each chapter and improve your reading skills There’s an answer sheet you can use for filling in the correct answers on page 3 Or, if you prefer, simply cir-cle the answer numbers in this book If the book doesn’t belong to you, write the numbers 1–50 on a piece of paper and record your answers there Take as much time as you need to do this short test When you finish, check your answers against the answer key at the end of this lesson Each answer offers the lesson(s) in this book that teaches you about the reading strategy in that question

Pretest

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