getting ready to read

A Publishing of the University of Costa Rica.

Created by: Esteban Sanabria, English Teacher

1 Reading Is Nothing But Fun! Give Reading a Chance!



2 Reading Strategies to Effectively Understand Texts



Getting Ready to Read Why should you as a teenager read frequently and effectively?

I, as a teacher, would like to give you 6 of the most important reasons why you

must give reading a chance to become part of your life:

Reason

Number

Explanation

1 Become an expert. Whether you are interested in science or fiction, reality or

fantasy, reading can help you become an expert on the topic and use that in

your life.

2 See the world—and travel through time. Books can take you from the frontiers

of the Old West to the frontiers of space...and from the top of the Eiffel Tower

to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

3 Find a cause. You are idealist. Reading can help you learn more about people

and organizations that support the causes you believe in.

4 Discover new interests. Through reading, you may discover an interest in

something you knew nothing about.

5 Get some free advice. Lots of novels feature teenager’s characters that have

problems and pressures like the ones you may be facing.

6 Finally, you should read because that makes you SMARTER! As simple as that.

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Basic Reading Strategies The three most basic reading strategies are Skimming & Scanning,

Guessing Meaning From Context, and Identification of Main Ideas.

Tips:

Look at the title of the text to easily get the topic.

Read the first sentence of the first paragraph; that's usually the topic

sentence or main idea.

Read the last paragraph of the text so you can get the conclusion.

Read any headings and sub-headings.

Notice any pictures, charts, or graphs.

Notice any italicized or boldface words or phrases.

This way you avoid reading every single detail of the reading without

losing the important aspects of it

Strategy: Skimming is a method of rapidly moving the eyes over text

with the purpose of getting only the main ideas and a general overview of

the content. With skimming, your overall understanding is reduced

because you don’t read everything. You read only what is important to your

purpose.

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Example:

Read the following text and apply skimming on it:

The Personal Qualities of a Teacher

Here I want to try to give you an answer to the question: What

personal qualities are desirable in a teacher? Probably no two people

would draw up exactly similar lists, but I think the following would be

generally accepted.

First, the teacher's personality should be pleasantly live and

attractive. This does not rule out people who are physically plain, or even

ugly, because many such have great personal charm. But it does rule out

such types as the over-excitable, melancholy, frigid, sarcastic, cynical,

frustrated, and over-bearing : I would say too, that it excludes all of dull or

purely negative personality. I still stick to what I said in my earlier book:

that school children probably 'suffer more from bores than from brutes.

Finally, I think a teacher should have the kind of mind which always

wants to go on learning. Teaching is a job at which one will never be

perfect; there is always something more to learn about it. There are three

principal objects of study: the subject, or subjects, which the teacher is

teaching; the methods by which they can best be taught to the particular

pupils in the classes he is teaching; and - by far the most important - the

children, young people, or adults to whom they are to be taught.

Look at the title

to get what the

text will talk

about

Pay

attention

to the

first

sentence

.

Pay

attention

to the

first

sentence.

Read the

entire last

paragraph

to get the

conclusion

of it.

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Tips:

State the specific information you are looking for.

Try to anticipate how the answer will appear and what clues you

might use to help you locate the answer. For example, if you were

looking for a certain date, you would quickly read the paragraph

looking only for numbers.

Read the title of the text so you know what the text is about.

Use headings and any other aids that will help you identify which

sections might contain the information you are looking for.

Selectively read and skip through sections of the passage.

Look only for the words or answers that you need.

Strategy: Scanning is another useful tool for speeding up your

reading. Unlike skimming, when scanning, you look only for a specific fact

or piece of information without reading everything. You scan when you

look for your favorite show listed in the cable guide, for your friend’s phone

number in a telephone book, and for the sports scores in the newspaper.

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Take keywords into account. For instance, if you are looking for an

address, then try to find verbs like dwell, live, stay, etc., and avoid the

rest of them.

Example:

Read the following text and apply scanning on it by answering these

questions:

1. When were X-rays discovered? (Tip: Here look for dates, years, moths)

2. Who discovered them? (Tip: Look for names to answer this one)

3. What are the four characteristics of X-rays? (Tip: look for numbers like

I, II, III or 1, 2, 3)

The Discovery of X-rays

X-rays were discovered in 1895 by Roentgen while studying the

phenomena of gaseous discharge. Using a cathode ray tube with a high

voltage of several tens of kilovolts, he noticed that salts of barium would

fluoresce when brought near the tube, although nothing visible was

emitted by the tube. This effect persisted when the tube was wrapped with

a layer of black cardboard. Roentgen soon established that the agency

responsible for the fluorescence originated at the point at which the stream

of energetic electrons struck the glass wall of the tube. Because of its

unknown nature, he gave this agency the name X-rays. He found that X-

rays could manifest themselves by darkening wrapped photographic

Answer of

question 2

Answer of

question 1

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plates, discharging charged electroscopes, as well as by causing

fluorescence in a number of different substances. He also found that X-rays

can penetrate considerable thicknesses of materials of low atomic number,

whereas substances of high atomic number are relatively opaque. Roentgen

took the first steps in identifying the nature of X-rays by using a system of

slits to show that (1) they travel in straight lines, and that (2) they are

uncharged, because they are not deflected by electric or magnetic fields.

The discovery of X-rays aroused the interest of all physicists, and many

joined in the investigation of their properties. In 1899 Haga and Wind

performed a single slit diffraction experiment with X-rays which showed

that (3) X-rays are a wave motion phenomenon, and, from the size of the

diffraction pattern, their wavelength could be estimated to be 10-8 cm. In

1906 Barkla proved that (4) the waves are transverse by showing that they

can be polarized by scattering from many materials.

Answer of

question 3

Strategy: Guessing Meaning From Context. Sometimes

unfamiliar words in a text are actually explained by the own author by

using synonyms, antonyms, giving some details of the meaning, and family

by rewording the word. However, it is our responsibility to look for these

helps in the text, as they not always are as visible and obvious as we would

wish.

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Created by: Esteban Sanabria, English Teacher A Publishing of the University of Costa Rica.


Rewording

Rewording is when the author says the word in

another way that is typically easier to understand.

Let's Look at an Example:

Resentment, a feeling of bitterness and anger, is often

felt by people who are passed over for promotions.

What does the word resentment mean in this

sentence? According to the text, it means "feeling

of bitterness and anger"

Synonyms

A writer sometimes uses synonym context

clues to help with hard words. A synonym context

clue is one or two words that mean almost the

same as the one that the author does not expect

us to know.


The young girl was very aloof. She always seemed

unsociable, unapproachable, and uninterested.

What does the word aloof mean in this

sentence? According to the text, it is a synonym

of "unsociable, unapproachable, and

uninterested"

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Antonyms

Writers are using antonym context clues when

they use a word with opposite meaning to give us

hints about the word that they do not think we

will know.


Dianna appeared to be a very moral and upstanding

young lady, but those who knew her knew that she

was iniquitous.

What does the word iniquitous mean in this

sentence? The word "BUT" indicates the possible

presence of an antonym. According to the text, it

means the opposite of moral, which is immoral, and

the opposite of upstanding which also could

be immoral.

Giving Details

A writer is using details as context clues when

he/she gives us explanations or examples as hints

about the word that he/she does not think we will

know. There are several different kinds of Context

Clues that are Details. Details that are examples

of the unknown word, details that tell why the

unknown word has taken place, and finally details

that explain how the word relates to other things

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Intermediate Reading Strategies

What are the most important typographic signs that we have to take into

account when reading? Have a look at the following chart in which they all

are explained:

Giving Details

the author has stated.


Father was ecstatic because Joshua decided to go to

the college that he wanted him to.

What does the word ecstatic mean in this

sentence? "Ecstatic" is how the father felt, it is a

state of humor.

Strategy: Typographic Signs: Typography is the visual attributes of

written language (Waller, 2010). Typographical cues are similar to road

signs. The reader, like a driver, must be able to read the signs to navigate

their way through the roads or pages of text. Using these signs, we can

provide readings with more sense to us, due to they guide us about the

tone that we can have when reading.

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Typographical Signs

What Do They Mean? Examples

Comma Pause reading; placement of

comma can affect meaning.

Henry, my dog is happy to see

you.

Henry, my dog, is happy to see

you.

Period Longer pause because it marks

the end of a sentence.

The boy loved his new book.

Question

Mark

Raise intonation at the end of

the question.

What is that?

Exclamation

Mark

Read with emotion. I can’t believe it!

Quotation

Marks

Someone is speaking. Ben said, “What are you

doing?”

Underlined,

enlarged,

and/or bold

print

Read with special stress. That is what she thinks.

That is what she thinks.

Combination Read meaningful unit with

special stress

My father yelled, “Lindsey,

you get back here right

now!”

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Have a look at the following text:

The Winepress

by Josef Essberger

"You don't have to be French to enjoy a decent red wine," Charles

Jousselin de Gruse used to tell his foreign guests whenever he

entertained them in Paris. "But you do have to be French to recognize one,"

he would add with a laugh.

“How many bottles of wine have these people drunk today?” asked Jack.

“I don’t have idea,” replied Charles.

"Come on, Charles, it's simple arithmetic. Nothing to do with race or color.

You must've had bags of experience of this sort of thing. What d'you say?"

"Yes, let’s say 4!"´

Explanation:

In the previous text, quotation, exclamation, quotation, and apostrophe

marks are key to understand the text. They indicate the tone of the text and

allow the reader to be guided through the story.

Look at the

quotation

mark.

Look at the

question

mark.

Look at the

apostrophe.

Look at the

exclamation

mark.

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Tips:

Write points in an organized manner based on space indentation.

Place major points farthest to the left.

Indent each more specific point farther to the right (level of

importance is indicated by distance away from left margin).

Advantages

The outlining method emphasizes content as well as relationships between

the materials. Also, it reduces the time needed for editing and allows for

easy reviewing.

Disadvantages

This method requires more thought for accurate, understandable

Strategy: Outline The outlining method is perhaps the most common

form of note taking used by college students; an outline naturally organizes

the information in a highly structured, logical manner, forming a skeleton

of the textbook chapter or lecture subject that serves as an excellent study

guide when preparing for tests. This method of note taking is extremely

useful in most instances.

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organization and, therefore, cannot be used during lectures that move too

quickly.

How to write an outline?

Imagine that you read a text in which the things that makes X person feel

powerful are explained.

THESIS: Though many things make the character want to score goals, he

loves scoring most of all because it momentarily gives him a sense of power.

I. Common reasons for wanting to score goals

A. Help team

B. Gain glory

C. Hear cheers of crowd

II. Reasons for wanting to score goals

A. Feel relaxed

1. Know he’s going to score a goal

2. Move smoothly, not awkwardly

3. Get relief from pressure to do well

B. Feel momentary sense of power

1. Do better than goalie

2. Take ultimate mind trip

3. Conquer anxiety

4. Return to earth after a moment

Write in a paper

the thesis of the

text, in other

words, what the

text is about.

Write the main

idea of the first

paragraph or first

point discussed in

the reading.

Write the supporting

points of the idea. In

other words, how the

idea is defended

Write the main

idea of the second

paragraph or

second point

discussed in the

reading.

Write the supporting

details of the point. In

other words, how the

supporting point is

exemplified.

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Ver http://dhp.com/~laflemm/reso/inference.htm

Strategy: Inferences The outlining method is perhaps the most

common form of note taking used by college students; an outline naturally

organizes the information in a highly structured, logical manner, forming a

skeleton of the textbook chapter or lecture subject that serves as an

excellent study guide when preparing for tests. This method of note taking

is extremely useful in most instances.

http://dhp.com/~laflemm/reso/inference.htm

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