Comprehensive and Innovative Reading Skills Instruction with Reading Explorer!

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Comprehensive and Innovative Reading Skills
Instruction with Reading Explorer!
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20 strategies covered in Reading Explorer

1. Making predictions and hypotheses
2. Previewing a text using headings and visual
   support
3. Reading for overall gist
4. Understanding main ideas
5. Making links between main ideas and supporting
   information
6. Identifying specific details
7. Understanding referencing
8. Guessing meaning of vocabulary from context
9. Differentiating fact and opinion
10. Recognizing word parts, affixes

• Verifying true/false statements
• Detecting an authors purpose
• Understanding paraphrases
• Inferring information, opinion or intention
• Reorganizing ideas from a text
• Classifying concepts in a text
• Sequencing information in a process or timeline
• Matching textual information with a map or
  diagram
• Recognizing relationships such as cause/effect
• Summarizing key ideas

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7 essential reading skills

• Skimming for gist
• Scanning for detail (factual)
• Scanning for detail (negative factual)
• Understanding sequence
• Understanding inference
• Understanding reference
• Guessing vocabulary from context

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7 essential reading skills

• Skimming for gist
• Scanning for detail (factual)
• Scanning for detail (negative factual)
• Understanding sequence
• Understanding inference
• Understanding reference
• Guessing vocabulary from context

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Skimming

• We skim to get an overall idea (the gist) of what
  a text is basically about
• To do this, we look quickly through a text
• We look for clues to the overall theme, e.g.
  textual features like titles, sub-headings,
  captions as well as visuals.
• We often read the first or last paragraph, and we
  may look quickly through the rest of the text.
• Heres an example

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Skimming
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Skim the title
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Skim the first paragraph
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Skimming

• The title suggests the article is about the
  effect of olive oil on your health, or life
• The picture shows a traditional way of making
  olive oil, and the caption mentions 1,000 years
• The first paragraph refers to the history of
  olive oil.
• From a skim of the first page we can guess what
  the article is about

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Skimming
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Skimming and Prediction

• When we quickly skim a text, we usually make
  predictions about what we will learn from it.
• In this case, we can predict that well learn
  about the history and health benefits of olive
  oil.
• As we read on through the text, we can confirm
  whether our predictions are correct.

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7 essential reading skills

• Skimming for gist
• Scanning for detail (factual)
• Scanning for detail (negative factual)
• Understanding sequence
• Understanding inference
• Understanding reference
• Guessing vocabulary from context

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Skimming and Scanning

• Skimming gives us a general idea of what the text
  is about
• Scanning is when we search a text to find more
  specific information usually key details like
  dates, names, places, etc.
• Heres an example

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Scanning

• The first stage in any scanning for detail
  question is to decide what are we scanning for?
• In other words, what specific information do we
  want to find out?

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• Its helpful to highlight key words or phrases in
  the question.
• There are three key points in this question
• When did begin?
• cultivation of olive trees
• around the Mediterranean Sea
• The next stage is to find the relevant section.
  For example, we could scan for numbers, like
  4,000

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• In this case, the answer is in the first
  paragraph Olive tree cultivation began in about
  4,000 B.C. (the first olive oil was made 2,000
  years later)
• Next we need to decide which option is closest.
• Its important to read the options carefully. The
  options refer to years ago, not B.C.. So the
  answer must be
• C. 6,000 years ago.
• EMBEDDED CRITCAL THINKING IN EVERY QUESTION

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7 essential reading skills

• Skimming for gist
• Scanning for detail (factual)
• Scanning for detail (negative factual)
• Understanding sequence
• Understanding inference
• Understanding reference
• Guessing vocabulary from context

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Scanning Negative factual

• Some factual questions ask you to decide which
  option is NOT true, or NOT mentioned in the text.
• First step is to look for key words in the
  question in this case, use of olive oil

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• Next, we need to scan for the relevant section,
  or sections, of the text.
• The heading on the second page mentions
  benefits of olive oil, which is similar to
  uses
• We then find a reference to a variety of uses
• We can then scan for specific words that relate
  to the answer options.

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• The only option that is NOT mentioned is
• d. paint

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7 essential reading skills

• Skimming for gist
• Scanning for detail (factual)
• Scanning for detail (negative factual)
• Understanding sequence
• Understanding inference
• Understanding reference
• Guessing vocabulary from context

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Understanding sequence

• Some questions ask you to put steps or events in
  order, or to decide which thing happened first,
  or last, in a sequence.
• This can relate to steps in a process, or events
  in a timeline.

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• Again, the first stage is to identify the key
  words in the question. In this case, we need to
  find the first step in the process of olive oil
  production.
• Second stage is to locate the relevant section of
  the text.
• This paragraph refers to the process of
  producing the oil
• We can also see words that introduce stages.

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• The text says
• The closest option is therefore
• b crushing the whole olives
• Note that the text uses slightly different
  wording from the option. Some questions require
  you to make a connection between different word
  forms.

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7 essential reading skills

• Skimming for gist
• Scanning for detail (factual)
• Scanning for detail (negative factual)
• Understanding sequence
• Understanding inference
• Understanding reference
• Guessing vocabulary from context

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Understanding inference

• Some questions ask you about information or an
  idea that is not explicitly mentioned in the
  text.
• In other words, you need to read between the
  lines to identify the writers meaning.

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• Again, the first stage is to identify the key
  words in the question. In this case, we are
  looking for studies of olive oil.
• Second stage is to use key words or paraphrases
  to locate the relevant section.

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• When we read the paragraph in detail, we learn
  that the studies describe the healthy effects of
  olive oil.
• We also learn these studies are helping to change
  peoples understanding of olive oil, including
  people outside the Mediterranean.

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• We can infer from the text that the writer is
  using studies of olive oil to help explain its
  popularity in other parts of the world.
• So the closest answer is a.

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7 essential reading skills

• Skimming for gist
• Scanning for detail (factual)
• Scanning for detail (negative factual)
• Understanding sequence
• Understanding inference
• Understanding reference
• Guessing vocabulary from context

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Understanding reference

• Reference questions ask you to look at specific
  pronouns (she, it, this, those etc) or other
  reference words (some, there, ones, etc) in the
  passage.
• You then need to decide which noun or noun phrase
  the reference word relates to.
• Heres an example from Unit 2

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Reading Explorer 2 Unit 2A
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• Reference questions give you the line number, so
  the scanning stage is easy!
• When you find the word, read the sentence it
  occurs in, and also the sentence before it.

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• Look for key words or paraphrases from the
  question.
• In this case, the answer options all mention
  idea. So we should look in the text for an
  idea or words that relate to an idea.
• The first part of the sentence mentions
  thought
• It also mentions they so first we need to
  work out what they means!

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• In the preceding sentence, we can see that they
  refers to male humpbacks
• We can also see that this in line 25 refers to
  the previous (or old) idea that male humpbacks
  sang to attract females.

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• So the best answer is
• b. the idea that male humpbacks sing to attract
  females

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7 essential reading skills

• Skimming for gist
• Scanning for detail (factual)
• Scanning for detail (negative factual)
• Understanding sequence
• Understanding inference
• Understanding reference
• Guessing vocabulary from context

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Understanding Vocabulary

• As you read a text, you may find unfamiliar words
  and phrases or words that are used in a
  different way to what you expect.
• If you always refer to a dictionary for the
  meaning, your reading speed will slow down.
• Instead, you may be able to guess the meaning
  using context, or your knowledge of word parts.
• Heres an example from Unit 2

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• You are probably familiar with the words thanks
  and to, but what do they mean in the text?
• First, use the line reference to find the words

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• The phrase Thanks to starts the sentence, so its
  probably connecting the sentence with the
  previous one.
• The previous sentence tells us about a reduction
  in whale numbers, from 125,000 to 6,000.
• Thanks to is followed by laws against hunting
• The rest of the sentence tells us that the whale
  population is now about 30,000.

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• From the context we can guess that thanks to
  connects a cause (laws against hunting) with an
  effect or a result (the rise in whale population
  from 6,000 to 30,000).

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• So we can guess that the phrase thanks to is
  closest in meaning to
• A. As a result of

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7 essential reading skills

• Skimming for gist
• Scanning for detail (factual)
• Scanning for detail (negative factual)
• Understanding sequence
• Understanding inference
• Understanding reference
• Guessing vocabulary from context

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Summary of key steps

• Remember that most reading skill questions
  require the same basic steps
• Identify key words in the question (and in the
  options, if its multiple-choice)
• Locate the relevant section of the text by
  scanning for the key words or paraphrases of
  the words.
• Read that section in detail and think about the
  writers meaning. Look for connections between
  the information and ideas in the text.

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Explore for academic success and beyond!