LITERACY SKILLSStrategies for Reading

Active Readers

Being an active reader means thinking about what you are reading and making an effort to understand it.

It means giving 100 percent of your attention to reading—not getting distracted or tuning out when something is hard.

Good readers see reading as an activity that requires them to do something.

They ask themselves questions, make predictions, and look for ways to relate to what they read.

Actively ReadingWhen you pay attention to what you read – you are reading lots & thinking lots about what you are reading (not other things…)

Becoming An Active Reader

They use their reading know-how by making judgments, drawing conclusions, and making comparisons as they read.

Active readers stay involved with what they’re reading. It’s possible to read actively without writing anything down. But it’s easier to keep track of what you’re thinking if you mark the text or take notes.

Reading Know-how

You already have a lot of reading know how. You just need to unlock it.

Essential Reading Skills Every day you use various reading skills

such as making judgements, comparisons, conclusions and inferences

When reading actively, you are simply applying this skills academically

Essential Skills

Making Inferences

For example, a character who is glaring and has clenched fists is probably angry. You do not know that for certain; you infer it.

You take the fact that the character was glaring and had clenched fists and put that information with what you already know.

You know that's the way people who are angry act, so you infer the character is angry. You read between the lines.

Making Inferences

“What I learned” +“What I already know” = Inference

Drawing Conclusions

You draw conclusions all the time. For example, imagine you see a man nearly 6’6” tall in an airport. All you know is that he is tall.

But, suppose you saw this man with 10 to 15 other tall men, all of them carrying gym bags and warning basketball shoes.

What conclusion would you probably draw?

Drawing Conclusions

FACTSFact# 1 man 6’6” tall

CONCUSION

Fact# 2 man 10-15 other tall men

Basketball team

Fact #3 gym bags and basketball shoes

Comparing and Contrasting

The ability to see how things are alike and different lets you gather important information.

You compare the way you dress to what your friends wear. By doing that, you learn more about yourself and your friends.

By comparing two books or stories, you can learn more about them.

Comparing and ContrastingOften, it is only by comparing or

contrasting things from different angles that you can really get to know or understand them.

Evaluating You also make judgments every day. You

decide which friends, movies, and music you like and which you don’t.

As a reader, you will also be called upon to use what you know to make judgments.

For example, suppose a novelist creates a character who speaks rudely and who is sloppily dressed.

The writer probably wants you to form a negative opinion of this character.

Evaluating

Evaluating

That’s probably the reason the writer included actions most readers would disapprove of—to create an impression and send alert readers a signal.

In almost any reading you do, you will need the skills of making inferences, drawing conclusions, comparing and contrasting, and evaluating. These are lifelong skills you build as a reader.