READING STRATEGIES

1. READING STRATEGIES

2. Good readers develop strategies to help them understand, synthesize, and evaluate new information.

3. They may get confused but they figure out how to go on with their reading and get some understanding of a text, even when the subject is outside their area of expertise.

4. There are many reading strategies. Most fit into the following seven categories:

5. Make Connections • Ask Questions • Determine Importance • Infer and Predict • Visualize • Synthesize • Use Fix Up Strategies

6. Make Connections Text to Self (similar events in your life) Text to Text (books, movies, T.V., music, etc.) Text to World (real life events, both current and past)

7. Text-to-Self • Has anything like this ever happened to me? • How would I feel or react if this happened to me? • How are these characters like me or like people I know? • How are these situations or events similar to those I have lived? • How does this relate to my life?

8. Text-to-Text • Have I ever read a book, seen a film or play, or heard a song that reminds me of this text? • How are the characters and situations in this text like those in another written, visual, auditory, or multi-media text that I have experienced?

9. Text-to-World • Does this person, situation, event remind me of another person, situation, or event in history? If so, how are they alike? And different • Does this person, situation, event remind me of another person, situation, or event in the news today? If so, how are they similar? and different?

10. Try to make SUBSTANTIAL connections. This means, try to find several (three or four) similarities and several differences in the two texts.

11. Avoid shallow connections like, “We’re both human” or “We’ve both experienced love. These are a starting point but they do not constitute substantial comparisons.

12. Ask Questions Where and when does this event occur? Who is speaking? Can I trust this person? What do I know about this situation? What seems to be happening in this passage? Does this information match up with what I already know? Why are people doing the things they are doing? What do the characters want?

13. Determine Importance • Everything can’t be important! Try to figure out what really matters. • What words, images, or ideas are repeated? • What seems to be the main focus of the passage? • What items seem essential to “unlocking” the meaning of this text?

14. SUMMARIZING and PARAPHRASING are common “determining importance” strategies which require that the reader understand the text, figure out what is important and retell the text in his/her own words.

15. HIGHLIGHTING select portions of a text generally indicates that these sections are key passages, that they are important and worth a second look.

16. Infer Good readers use textual clues to make informed guesses about what is happening in a story. This is called inferring or making an inference. Example: One man is chasing another down an alley. He pulls out a walkie-talkie and calls for back-up. Conclusion: I infer that the second man is a police officer.

17. Predict Good readers are not passive, patiently waiting to see what will happen next. Instead, they speculate or imagine what will come next. The term for this strategy is predicting. (e.g. In NightElie Wiesel is sent to a Auschwitz. I predict that he will suffer physical and emotional hardships in the concentration camp.)

18. Visualize Good readers try to picture the images that the writer creates with words. They close their eyes and try to “see” the things that are described in the text. Some go a step further and draw what they imagine. This is a great strategy for visual learners who think in images.

19. Synthesize • Synthesizing is a way of saying “putting everything together.” Ask yourself: • How does this fit with what I already know? • If I take what I learned here and add it what I learned before, what do I get? • What new possibilities are available to me now that I’ve learned this?

20. Fix Up Strategies When none of the previously mentioned strategies work for you, try one of the following “fix-up” strategies.

21. Re-read • Skip ahead and come back • Underline or highlight • Use a dictionary or encyclopedia • Check the atlas • Peruse the Table of Contents • Draw a graphic organizer • Identify the genre

22. Put away the text and come back later. • Check out graphs, charts, legends • Look for bold or italicized words • Watch the film • Listen to the audio-book • Mark up the text with personal comments. • Identify the genre

23. Look for context clues • Search for word roots, prefixes, or suffixes • Discuss with a friend • Skim the text • Dissect/chunk the text • Think of an example

24. Check out pictures or art work • Read the blurb on the back of the book • Skip ahead and come back • Read aloud • Persist. Don’t give up! • Ask for help

25. This term, we will consciously practice the seven reading strategies using news and magazine articles, poetry, speeches, historical documents, letters, advertisements, manuals, and textbooks. We will analyze and interpret these texts using one or more of the listed reading strategies.

26. Eventually, you will become more conscious of how you think. When you begin to read a text, you will think about how you think and prepare accordingly. You will start to know which strategies work best for you, and you will be able to plan a strategy to decipher an unfamiliar or difficult text.

27. HAPPY READING!