Reading Skills

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Chapter 1

The Reading Process

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Introduction The ability to successfully read and comprehend involves more than just pronouncing words correctly. While reading, pronouncing words correctly is important. However, understanding the meaning of the words that are read is even more important. In this chapter, you will learn to read strategically to gain meaning from what you read. To do so, you will learn to view reading as a process.

Learning Objectives When you complete this chapter, you should be able to • Identify the stages of the reading process • Apply the stages of the reading process to reading a passage • Explain the significance of reading in relation to study skills • Explain the importance of vocabulary in reading comprehension

The Reading Process Good readers read for many purposes. Sometimes an individual may read for entertainment, and other times s/he may read to gain information. As a college student, you will probably find that most of your assigned readings involve the latter. Specifically, most of your college reading assignments will serve as a vehicle for acquiring information. In order to be successful in college and to be prepared to comprehend college-level reading, you must become a strategic reader. A strategic reader is a reader who is aware and prepared. Strategic readers are equipped with an arsenal of tools and strategies to assist them as they read for meaning and understanding. A reader does not become strategic overnight. However, over time and after much practice, one can become a strategic reader by systematically employing certain tools and strategies. These tools and strategies are a part of what is often called the reading process. Similar to the writing process one must follow to achieve success in writing, the reading process involves steps and stages that one must follow to ensure success in reading. In this book, we will refer to these steps and stages as B-DAR. B-DAR is an acronym for the stages of the reading process-before, during, and after reading.

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The Stages of Reading: B-DAR Stage 1 Before Reading

Stage 2 During Reading

Stage 3 After Reading

Stage 1: Before Reading Imagine that you are about to take an airplane flight. In anticipation of a long, boring journey, you stop by the bookstore to purchase some materials to read on the airplane. How do you decide which magazines or books are of interest to you? Most likely, you flip through the pages to preview the contents. As you preview the pages of text, you are making predictions about the text. As you continue to give the contents a cursory look, you are asking yourself questions and activating your prior knowledge about familiar people, places, and things that you see. If something is unfamiliar, then questions begin to form in your mind. Selecting your items for purchase establishes a purpose for the reading: If you choose a magazine or novel, then you will most likely be reading for entertainment; however, if you select a newspaper or nonfiction book, then you will probably be reading to gain information. Regardless of your specific selection, all of the steps that you have just taken to select reading material to purchase before your flight are the same steps that you would take before any strategic reading. Thus, in the before-reading stage, good readers make guesses or predictions, form questions, activate their thinking and prior knowledge, and establish a purpose or reason for reading. A reader can accomplish these actions by paying close attention to the textual clues provided in the reading material (Smith 94).

Textual Clues During the before-reading stage, a good reader examines the textual clues to gain information before the actual reading takes place. Much information can be gleaned from a brief look at specific components of the reading material. These components include the following: • Titles-A title should always be an attention-getter for strategic readers. The title will give a hint or clue to the reader about the specific subject matter of the reading that follows the title. • Introductory material-The reader should look closely at any introductory material, such as the preface, the table of contents, and the chapter objectives. This introductory material also gives signals to the reader about the specific subject matter of the reading that follows the introductory material. • Headings and subheadings-Headings and subheadings are titles for sections within chapters. These sections provide an outline for the reading and suggest how the material is organized. Typically, headings and subheadings appear in italics or boldface print to catch the reader’s attention.

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• Print, font, and numbers-Italics, boldface print, or a change in font type usually indicates that special attention should be paid to the material. Additionally, numbered lists are often used for important information. • Graphics and visuals-Charts, photographs, and other visuals contain important information in a concise manner. • Concluding summary or review-The reader should look closely at any concluding summary or review material at the end of the chapter. This information can provide an overview of the chapter material.

Before-Reading Exercise Select a chapter in your reading textbook or another textbook of your choice to skim and scan before reading. As you skim and scan, use the textual clues to help you answer the following questions. 1. What is the title of the chapter? 2. s there any introductory material at the beginning of the chapter? If so, describe it. 3. List the headings and subheadings. 4. Are there any visual aids or graphics? If so, what information is displayed? 5. Is there any concluding material? If so, describe it.

Stage 2: During Reading A good reader performs many actions while reading. Some of these actions are so involuntary that sometimes the reader is not fully aware that s/he is doing anything. However, the duringreading stage is the stage in which much of the work of the reading process occurs. During reading, the reader uses metacognitive strategies to make meaning. Metacognition is a term that many learning theorists use to describe an awareness and understanding that all readers have. Metacognition refers to the reader’s ability to monitor comprehension while reading and to be aware when things are understood and when things are misunderstood. During reading, the reader interacts with text by using the following five metacognitive strategies associated with stage 2 of the reading process: 1. Predicting what the author will write about the subject at various points throughout the text. Using their prior knowledge of the subject or similar subjects, strategic readers will predict what they think will be contained in the reading at various points. Strategic readers will read the material to determine if they were right or wrong and then adjust their prediction if they need to do so. 2. Picturing or diagraming the material. While they are reading, strategic readers will visualize the characters, the images, the actions, and the events that are described in the text. Strategic readers may visualize in color, a

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strategy which can be used to differentiate specific information or the level of importance of the information. For example, when reading an anatomy textbook, strategic readers may visualize the parts of the human body in various colors, each color corresponding to a particular system of the body. Those parts of the body that are related to the circulatory system could be visualized in red and those that are related to the respiratory system could be blue. 3. Associating. Strategic readers will relate new material to old by making personal connections or associations (although the relationship a reader imagines between the new and old material may seem strange to others, if the relationship makes sense to the reader, it will help the reader understand the new material). The strange and funny analogies are often the ones remembered most readily. Research has shown that associations are easier to remember if an emotion is associated with them. 4. Stopping occasionally to try to paraphrase the material. Strategic readers monitor their comprehension and understanding. Repeating the ideas in their own words will assure them that they understand the material. They will also process the material more easily if the ideas are in words with which they are familiar. 5. Finding the confusing points and employing corrective strategies to enhance comprehension. Strategic readers use various techniques to make the unclear points less confusing. They might need to reread, paraphrase, or look up unknown words in the dictionary or glossary. Additionally, they might ask their teachers or friends for additional information or clarification. They may search for material about the subject in a book or on the web (web sources should first be verified as accurate) (Smith 94).

During-Reading Exercise In the before-reading exercise, you selected a chapter to skim and scan before reading. Now, go back to that chapter and read the chapter from beginning to end. While you are reading, interact with the text by using the five metacognitive strategies discussed in the during-reading section of this chapter. As you make predictions, visualize images, make associations, monitor comprehension, and correct your thinking, write your thoughts and notes within the margins of the text.

Stage 3: After Reading Many readers believe that after they have finished reading, further activity related to the material they have read is unnecessary. However, after reading, they should engage in recall, review, and reflective activities that allow readers to synthesize the information that they have read. After reading, readers should take part in the following:

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1. Plan to review within 24 hours. Studies have shown that readers forget information quickly after the 24-hour period has passed. Readers do not have to take intensive notes, but they do need to review the material in their own words. Recent studies have suggested that doing so within 12 hours is even better. 2. Vary methods to study and review. Readers should do something with the material that requires their active involvement. For example, a reader could number ideas that are listed (recalling information is easier if the number of items that the reader needs to remember is known). Further, the reader could create acronyms with the first letters of the items in the lists. The reader could even highlight text; however, s/he should also use her/his own words to write the important ideas in the margins. The following are other possible strategies for study and review; all should be done in the reader’s own words: • Note taking, outlining, summarizing, mapping, annotating, or paraphrasing • Labeling points and writing the types of relationships between the points • Creating songs and raps • Restating the information to a friend or a tape recorder • Typing or rewriting the information • Creating and using flash cards • Completing a recall diagram to outline the most significant information The reader should choose the methods that work best with her/his learning style. 3. Review the information often. This activity may seem time consuming, but reviewing the information takes less and less time each time the information is reviewed. Reviewing from time to time, even when learners believe they know the material, is important. Studies have found that overlearning the material keeps the information in learners’ memory banks longer. To overlearn the material, learners must first learn the material; then they must repeat the process they used to learn the material initially. For example, if learning all the vocabulary words through the use of flash cards takes fifteen attempts, the flashcards must be used an additional fifteen times to overlearn the vocabulary. In college, remembering concepts for longer periods of time is necessary because many professors give cumulative exams, and many classes build on the information learned in previous classes (Smith 94).

After-Reading Exercise Using the same chapter that you used for exercises 1 and 2, complete an after-reading activity that requires you to recall the material presented in the chapter and reflect on it.

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Study Strategy Based on the Reading Process The reading process is the foundation that leads to good study skills. While the ability to successfully study and prepare for work in other courses might not seem closely related to the ability to read successfully, these abilities are closely related. Effective reading techniques have a direct bearing on the amount of time spent studying a particular subject. The following three-step study strategy associated with the reading process can transform a person with less-than-optimal reading techniques and study skills into a successful reader with efficient study skills.

Step One The first step of the study strategy is to quickly skim the material, paying special attention to the title, introduction, subtitles, first lines of each paragraph, and the summary and then take a few minutes to think about the ideas covered in the reading. The reader should think about what s/he already knows about the subjects encompassed in the chapter or reading and what information s/he thinks s/he will need to know. The reader should use the knowledge s/he has already learned about the subject to predict the information that will be important to know.

Step Two The second step is to create a plan for reading the passage or chapter. The reader should plan to increase her/his reading speed when s/he has prior knowledge about the subject and to slow down when the material is new. After reading the passage or chapter, the reader should reread more slowly. S/he should stop and think about the material when s/he finishes a page or section. S/he should ask, “How is this organized?” Determining the organization for the reading will help to remember the information and to review it more easily. The reader should take the time to plan ways to remember the material, for example, creating pictures and associations in her/his mind.

Step Three After the reader has completed the reading, s/he should take time to review the material. S/he should look at each page and express in her/his own words the information that was located on that page. Reading the titles can help spark the reader’s memory. Other methods include writing the information in an outline, a summary, a map, notes, making flash cards, creating a picture, or making an audio recording of the information as the reader reviews it (Levine-Brown and Hughes 14).

Vocabulary Booster Because building a robust vocabulary is important for successful readers, each chapter in this book includes a vocabulary booster section containing a vocabulary list, with a common theme uniting the selected words. These vocabulary booster sections were included as a way for you to

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develop a stronger vocabulary to use in your reading and comprehension processes. The virtual vocabulary center can be accessed for additional activities in vocabulary development. Information on how to access the virtual vocabulary center can be found in your course or will be provided by your instructor. By completing the vocabulary booster questions, you will begin to build a more robust vocabulary, a step on the path to becoming a more successful reader. Vocabulary list 1 contains general words and focuses on suffix endings that can change the meaning of a word. For example, the word carnage means “great slaughter,” as in carnage caused by a battle, while the word carnivorous means “flesh eating,” as in carnivorous animal. Vocabulary List 1 to attend a class as a listener or watcher; process of examining a financial record

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audit

2

auditory

related to hearing

3

bellicose

eager to fight or quarrel; hostile

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belligerency

the condition of warlike hostility

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benefactor

a person who gives another financial help

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benign

not malignant; mild; kindly

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carnage

great slaughter, as in battle

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carnivorous

flesh eating, as an animal

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intercede

to act in another’s behalf; to mediate

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precedent

a previous act or decision taken as a valid model

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credibility

the quality of being believable

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incredulous

not believing

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conducive

tending to lead; help; assist

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inducement

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fidelity

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fiduciary

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finite

anything used or given to persuade or motivate faithfulness to one’s promise or obligation of an individual who holds something in trust for another limited

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finale

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amiable

generally pleasant; friendly

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amorous

suggestive of love

grand conclusion, as in performance

Summary In this chapter, you were introduced to the reading process. The reading process involves stages with corresponding steps that one must follow to ensure success in reading. B-DAR is an acronym for the stages of the reading process-before, during, and after reading. Before reading, good readers make guesses or predictions, form questions, activate their thinking and prior knowledge, and establish a purpose or reason for reading. During reading, the reader interacts with text by making predictions, visualizing images, connecting new knowledge to old knowledge, monitoring awareness and understanding, and clarifying misunderstandings and incorrect comprehension. After reading, the reader should engage in some type of activity that provides an opportunity for recall and reflection. This chapter also noted a three-step strategy associated with the reading process that allows one to develop successful study skills as well as successful reading techniques. Finally, to be a successful reader, one also needs to build a strong vocabulary.

Works Cited Levine-Brown, Patti, and Suzanne Hughes. Prentice Hall Florida Exit Test Readers Guide. Boston: Allyn, 2005. Print. Smith, Brenda. Bridging The Gap. Ed. Brenda Smith. 10th ed. New York: Longman, 2011. Print.

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