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Reading skills and strategies
Reading skills and strategies
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Recommended: Reading skills and strategies
Study Skills: Reading with Comprehension and Speed
Thomas L. Christian
COL100
American Public University System
Floyd K. Maertens
Since the dawn of man, we have become a society that has thrived on the existence of knowledge. Individuals are told that knowledge is power and power can lead to a very comfortable life on this earth. However, some people in this world have difficulty in learning that knowledge due to an inability to comprehend what they read even though they know how to read. They can read a book but when given a test on comprehension, the test results show a low amount of inability to process the information portrayed on the subject. The goal of this paper is to enlighten the reader into a slight understanding of how the brain comprehends and how to strengthen that comprehension with practical exercises.
To understand the skill of how to read with comprehension, one must understand how the brain works. Researchers at Northwestern University have created a new way to observe reading comprehension in the brain and in the process also found a...
The type of reading that is on the decline, is that which requires thought, the assimilation and accommodation of ideas, and effort—close reading. This form of reading involves the careful, sustained interpretation of literary text that comes from observing a pieces minute detail. In accordance with the definition of reading provided by the Princeton dictionary, “the cognitive process of understanding a written linguistic message”, the methods used other than closed reading are not truly reading. Many have argued that the creation of new technology has actually enabled more people to read, but when compared with reading’s definition, this is not true. Reading in not mindlessly skimming articles and not knowing what they mean afterwards, but being able to comprehend the material that one has read, including its many facets.
Comprehension is the purpose of reading. Comprehension is the process of constructing meaning from a given text and applying that to the students background knowledge.
Donald M. Murray, in this article entitled “Reading as a Reader” is talking about how reading is an unique, an essential, and a necessary aptitude for human beings in their society. While illustrating his point of view, the author stresses on the idea that our attitudes towards reading is directly linked to the systematic approaches we have while facing a article or a book. In this article, he said that: “If we approach a text believing that we are not readers, or that we can’t read, that attitude may make it more difficult for us to understand the challenging text.”(Murray, 2). Throughout those words, Murray emphasizes that we should consider the process of reading as a learning process, and as a way of deepening the capacity we have as readers. We should have an open-mind while engaging with a reading, and understand that it may always not be our fault if it comes that the text we are reading is difficult. In clear, it is all part of the process of improving ourselves. Then, Murray, in his well structured writing, portrays differents types of reading and also gives us some tips on how to approach them.
The authors’ main argument in “Rhetorical Reading Strategies & The Construction of Meaning” is that reading is both a constructive and discourse act, in which readers must construct meaning of a text. The authors of this article, Christina Haas and Linda Flower conducted a study in which they used a think-aloud protocol to analyze the participants’ thoughts and understanding of the text after they had read aloud. The authors also noticed that the more experienced readers used rhetorical reading strategies which contributed to a more efficient understanding of difficult texts. Despite the study, readers should use combine prior knowledge and careful reading along with the ability to read a text on several levels rather than being limited to
...ed by most, and how dyslexia can cause problems with reading comprehension. It also discussed ways that we can mitigate these problems for dyslexic people, but these skills can and should be used by all learners. Reading comprehension is a perishable skill, one that if you don’t work on increasing your reading ability by building your vocabulary, learn to read effectively, or using the correct reading strategies for the type of reading material being studied will diminish. Even with the largest vocabulary, if the words are not understood literacy cannot be achieved. Literacy is the key to comprehensive reading. It also gave some of the tools for reading and understanding different types of literature and how to get the important information out of each one. Edmund Burk said “To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting” (Gallagher, 2003, p. 11).
As indicated by Ziegler and Goswami (2005), reading is the process of understanding and making sense of speech or written down thoughts. The initial goal of reading is to gain access to the meaning of sentences. To achieve reading student must learn the letters used by their society for representing speech or thoughts as series of visual symbols and they also found that the critical characteristic to develop reading depends on phonological consciousness. Ziegler and Goswami (2005) focused on the psycholinguistic grain size theory, reading acquisition and...
Strategies necessary to comprehend informational text are different from those needed to comprehend literature (source), and since adults primarily read informational texts, these skills will be beneficial as students grow older (Kane, 2008). Moreover, since prior knowledge is necessary to understand texts (source), each subject requires its own reading skills.
The seven pillars of effective reading instruction are an important base to an effective and engaging classroom. Teachers, who are able to apply each of these pillars to everyday learning in the classroom, reach their students and provide instruction in meaningful and approachable ways. Each of these pillars provides important ideas and information that work together to create an effective learning environment in the literacy classroom. By accessing and including each of these pillars in my classroom environment, curriculum and instructions, students benefit from the more effective reading instruction possible.
In their book, Strategies that Work, Harvey and Goudvis (2007) approached literacy as a skill of thinking. “Reading is thinking,” they declared, as they proceeded to develop and introduce strategies to enhance comprehension. Roberts and Billings (2008), in their research titled “Thinking is Literacy, and Literacy Thinking,” redefined the term “thinking” to be “the ability to successfully explain and manipulate complex systems” (p. 33). Comprehension is, simply put, the result of explaining and manipulating complex systems. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept that annotated bibliographies may, in fact, be a skill of thinking, and in the end, one of many strategies capable of strengthening comprehension skills. Through
Apply specific comprehension strategies, such as activating prior knowledge, making predictions, comparing and contrasting, drawing conclusions, and examining different viewpoints
Reading comprehension may be the most important skill for any student to acquire and is therefore an area of particular interest to educators. Without adequate comprehension skills, students are limited in their reading, analytical and occupational abilities. To many, including the student’s themselves, comprehension or “good reading” skills begin and end with simple decoding. It is thought that if students can ‘read’ and define the vocabulary they are reading, then they also comprehend what is read. True comprehension goes far beyond decoding, however. True comprehension requires visualization of a text, predicting events in the text, making inferences about the text and clarifying what is not understood about the text in order to lead to higher level thought processes such as personally connecting with the text. Reluctant, beginning or low-skilled readers often do not have the ability to visualize, predict, inference or clarify what they are reading and so they do not truly comprehend what the text is or what it means. Too often, these readers do not understand that “good readers” go through a series of mental processes in order to comprehend the text in ways which the low-level readers never even imagined. As educators, it is our job to show reluctant, beginning or low-skilled readers what these processes are and how they work in an attempt to boost the self-confidence and independence of these readers. One excellent way to set about this is through a strategy called a “Think Aloud”.
In this paper, I will analyze reading strategies for the content area of language arts in a fifth grade class. Reading comprehension is one of the most critical skills a student can master. Without a firm grasp on the comprehension process, learners will struggle in every subject they encounter, whether it’s science, math, or social studies as well as everyday living skills. The content areas typically included disciplines like science, social studies/history and math, but any area outside of English literature instruction constitutes a content area. The reading associated with content area courses reflects not only the concepts and ideas important to these subjects, but also the text structures used by those practicing the field.
In this information–driven age, preparing students to read a variety of texts with complete understanding should likely be one of our educational system’s highest priorities. Understanding is more than just the ability to produce information on demand (knowledge) or the ability to perform learned routines (skills). “Understanding is the ability to think and act flexibly with what one knows.” (Active Learning Practice for Schools, n. d.) A review of the literature in the area of reading comprehension of elementary-age students shows two principle areas of focus. There is a body of literature that examines the development of proficient vs. struggling comprehenders and another body of literature that compares methodologies for teaching reading comprehension.
Reading comprehension refers to the ability to decipher the meaning of written text. There are three required elements needed for adequate understand of written material: a knowledge of word...
Just, M.A., & Carpenter, P.A. (2010). The psychology of reading and language comprehension. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, Inc.