This year you will be introduced to many different reading strategies. I would like you to think about how you are able to use these strategies in other areas of your learning. A good start would be with your reading journal reflections.
Predicting:
Predicting is a useful reading strategy as it helps us think about what to expect when we read. What we know already (our prior knowledge) helps us to predict. Good readers keep making predictions and adjusting their reading.
Activating Prior Knowledge:
Activating prior knowledge is when you think about all the things you already know about a topic. This can include what you have experienced personally and what you have read about, seen on TV or at the movies, etc. Thinking about what you already know is useful because it gives you a base to build new knowledge and helps you to make connections with the text.
Questioning:
Good readers ask questions before, during and after they have read a text. Sometimes the question is answered in the text. Sometimes you have to use your own prior knowledge and what’s in the text to help you come up with the answer. Sometimes the question may not be answered by the text at all and you will have to find another source of information to help you. Asking and answering questions helps you look for information, which builds understanding.
Making connections -
Text to self: Making connections is when we make links between what we already know (our prior knowledge) and the text. Text is self is when we connect the text to our own experiences.
Text to text: Text to text connections are when we compare the text we are reading to other similar texts. These texts could be books or visual texts such as a movie or a tv programme.
Text to world: This is when we connect what we are reading to things that really happen in the outside world.
Inferring:
Inferring is being able to ‘read between the lines’, when the author implies something but doesn’t actually state it. You need to use the clues in the text and your own prior knowledge to help you understand.
Visualising:
When authors write, they use words to describe things. The words make a picture in your mind. Creating a picture in your mind or drawing the picture on paper can help you understand what you are reading. This strategy is called visualising.
Using Keywords:
A key is something that unlock things. A key word is a word that unlocks the meaning of a sentence. It helps you to understand the sentence.
Here is an example: The whale is a mammal.
The key words are whale and mammal. Good readers notice key words!
Here are some clues to help you find key words: key words are directly connected to the topic; key words are often repeated in the title and the text; a key word helps you to remember an important idea.
Summarising:
A summary is a shortened version of a text that contains all the main points. Summarising is an important skill that helps us when we are researching, gathering and presenting information. Finding key words and phrases helps us to summarise the text.
Synthesising:
Synthesising is putting together information from the text with your own prior knowledge to develop new ides and understandings. It can mean using your new knowledge to create something like a model or a plan.
Skimming:
Skimming is a fast-reading technique. Skimming helps you to get the big picture of what a book or text is about. You can use skimming to decide whether a book is useful for study or if you think a book interests you for personal reading.
Scanning:
Scanning is a fast-reading technique. When you scan, you are looking for specific information in a text. You can use scanning to find information on a topic you are studying, look up a movie or find a word in the dictionary. When you scan you read quickly over some parts of the text. When you find the part you want, you slow down and read more carefully.
Taking Notes:
Note-taking is a fast writing technique. Instead of writing full sentences you only write key words and information. Notes can include: abbreviations; graphic organisers; symbols and colour codes to help you remember things. What really matters is that your notes make sense to you!
Predicting:
Predicting is a useful reading strategy as it helps us think about what to expect when we read. What we know already (our prior knowledge) helps us to predict. Good readers keep making predictions and adjusting their reading.
Activating Prior Knowledge:
Activating prior knowledge is when you think about all the things you already know about a topic. This can include what you have experienced personally and what you have read about, seen on TV or at the movies, etc. Thinking about what you already know is useful because it gives you a base to build new knowledge and helps you to make connections with the text.
Questioning:
Good readers ask questions before, during and after they have read a text. Sometimes the question is answered in the text. Sometimes you have to use your own prior knowledge and what’s in the text to help you come up with the answer. Sometimes the question may not be answered by the text at all and you will have to find another source of information to help you. Asking and answering questions helps you look for information, which builds understanding.
Making connections -
Text to self: Making connections is when we make links between what we already know (our prior knowledge) and the text. Text is self is when we connect the text to our own experiences.
Text to text: Text to text connections are when we compare the text we are reading to other similar texts. These texts could be books or visual texts such as a movie or a tv programme.
Text to world: This is when we connect what we are reading to things that really happen in the outside world.
Inferring:
Inferring is being able to ‘read between the lines’, when the author implies something but doesn’t actually state it. You need to use the clues in the text and your own prior knowledge to help you understand.
Visualising:
When authors write, they use words to describe things. The words make a picture in your mind. Creating a picture in your mind or drawing the picture on paper can help you understand what you are reading. This strategy is called visualising.
Using Keywords:
A key is something that unlock things. A key word is a word that unlocks the meaning of a sentence. It helps you to understand the sentence.
Here is an example: The whale is a mammal.
The key words are whale and mammal. Good readers notice key words!
Here are some clues to help you find key words: key words are directly connected to the topic; key words are often repeated in the title and the text; a key word helps you to remember an important idea.
Summarising:
A summary is a shortened version of a text that contains all the main points. Summarising is an important skill that helps us when we are researching, gathering and presenting information. Finding key words and phrases helps us to summarise the text.
Synthesising:
Synthesising is putting together information from the text with your own prior knowledge to develop new ides and understandings. It can mean using your new knowledge to create something like a model or a plan.
Skimming:
Skimming is a fast-reading technique. Skimming helps you to get the big picture of what a book or text is about. You can use skimming to decide whether a book is useful for study or if you think a book interests you for personal reading.
Scanning:
Scanning is a fast-reading technique. When you scan, you are looking for specific information in a text. You can use scanning to find information on a topic you are studying, look up a movie or find a word in the dictionary. When you scan you read quickly over some parts of the text. When you find the part you want, you slow down and read more carefully.
Taking Notes:
Note-taking is a fast writing technique. Instead of writing full sentences you only write key words and information. Notes can include: abbreviations; graphic organisers; symbols and colour codes to help you remember things. What really matters is that your notes make sense to you!