Critical Reading Skills
Time4Learning
http://www.time4learning.com/cont
actUs.htm
What is Reading Comprehension?
Reading comprehension skills
separates the "passive" unskilled
reader from the "active" readers.
Skilled readers don't just read, they
interact with the text.
Inner Monologue
Benefits of Good Reading
Comprehension
Reading comprehension skills increase the
pleasure and effectiveness of reading.
Strong reading comprehension skills help in all
the other subjects and in the personal and
professional lives.
All the tests you take in elementary, middle, and
high school are geared towards determining if
you are at your reading grade level and/or
college ready.
Congress decides to mandate good
reading skills
Congress charged the National Reading
Panel (NRP) with researching the
effectiveness of various approaches to
teaching children to read.
They wanted to find out what methods
work best for reading improvement
Important areas
Five critical reading skills were found to
be very important for improvement:
Phonemic awareness
Phonics
Fluency
Vocabulary
Comprehension
(Appendix C, MINORITY VIEW by Joanne Yatvin, Ph.D.. Oregon
Trail School District, Sandy, Oregon)
Tactics that work
We are using the following strategies
that work for reading comprehension:
.Mind Mapping
. Direct instruction
. Use of decodable texts
. Embedded skills instruction
. Integrated reading and writing
. Access to quality literature
. Whole-class instruction
. Teacher modeling
Speed Reading
Develop "traditional" old fashioned speed reading habits
first
Once thoroughly ingrained it will allow the student to
input and scan information quickly
Reading becomes habitualized at mostly an unconscious
level.
In this version of speed reading, rather than the incoming
flow of information being the focus of attention, active
cognitive processes that organize information dominate.
See references to Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
How to make Speed Reading Actually
Work
The conscious focus of the brain is oriented
towards preparing a speech on the topic being
perused rather than trying to hope that text flying
by like the spray from a fire hose will make sense
It first requires the "student" to learn how to
speed read the "old fashioned way" at extremely
high speeds.
Once this is "achieved", the speed reader has to
completely re-learn how to speed read again
from scratch.
Mind Mapping
Basically going through information in
order to find the major concepts
A student can create a visual Mind Map or
a Linear Mind Map
Really helps for studying for tests in
general
Chunking Reading
Basically highlighting chunked portions of
the reading in order to read faster
Students practice reading the highlighted
areas faster and faster until they reach the
desired speed and comprehension levels
Vocabulary
Vocabulary is important to not only
reading, but writing.
Studying and utilizing vocabulary helps
reading comprehension
It is also very important for the verbal SAT
References
Time4Learning, http://www.time4learning.com/contactUs.htm
Wiki Books, http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page
Rocket Reader,
http://www.rocketreader.com/download/RocketReaderDownload.html
OSPI, http://www.k12.wa.us/
Exercise Time!
New Vocabulary
DICT, DIT, SPEC/SPIC, TEND, SEN,
NOM/NOUN/NOWN/NAM
Mind Mapping EX
Exercise for your eyes
***See Sheets