DE GRACIA,RACHELLE R.

2013-00-000543

October 5, 2015
MR. MARK DEL CALMA

Reading Preparedness as an Element in Developing Reading Skills.

Reading Readiness involves such interacting factors as the native equipment of the
pupil and what he has learned prior to school, plus how he is taught when he
begins his school years. Reading readiness means attainment of the level of
development that enables a child to learn to read in regular classroom instruction
by a competent teacher. Some children need more time than others to develop this
reading readiness for reading. Although it should not be forgotten that the concept
of reading readiness is basic to the development of good reading ability at all levels
from kindergarten on, we shall limit ourselves here to discussion of its role in the
elementary school (Tinker & Cullough, 1975).

The concept of reading readiness: the first step in teaching the developmental
process called reading is to provide guidance aimed at getting the learner ready for
the various tasks involved in the in the process. Children begin school on the basis
of administration, it has little relationship to learning the complicated process of
reading. Many children are absorbed into a school environment that resembles an
assembly line approach to education. Each child is specified time. Much of this

depersonalized atmosphere in education can be traced to the grade-level structure

which has dominated our educational system (Anonat, 2011).
Factors associated with Readiness for reading: relationship between mental age and
success in beginning reading, preschool Experience and information background,
visual

factors,

auditory

discrimination,

language

development,

psychological

maturity in reading (Anonat, 2011).

Readiness is relative matter depending greatly on what is to be learned and how it

will be presented. A child who is not ready to deal with sounds and symbols might
be able to recognize words of high personal interest such as his or her name. This
suggests that readiness for reading can only be thought of in terms of what the
child is to learn. One is not simply ready or unready to read, but ready for some
and not ready for others. Children are ready to learn knowledge and skills that
make sense to them and build on what they know and can do (Harris & Smith,
1986).
Throughout the notion, the problem of improving reading instruction continues to
be primary concern to educators. the repeated testimony of the literature in the
field, however, shows that determined and aggressive attempts to increase
instructional efficiency almost invariably yield gratifying result."...In recent years
educators have been increasingly conscious of the need to provide reading
readiness program for the considerable number of first grade entrants who
demonstrate their inability to benefit from formal reading programs as traditionally
administered in schools.

Kottmeyer, W.(1947). Readiness for Reading. Elementary English 24(6), 355.

Retrieved

from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/41383468?

seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
A new focus on readiness is at the forefront in reading education. Cognitive
reasoning and problem solving abilities are being examined as necessary
prerequisite skills to reading. Fitts and Posner (1967) view the childs confusion
about beginning reading as one caused by instruction geared one level above that
necessary for children to become aware of the skills. Bruner (1971) provides a vivid
account of what a beginning skill-learner must deal with: a skilled action requires
recognizing the features of a task, its goals, and means appropriate to its
attainment; a means of converting this information into appropriate action, and a
means of getting feedback that compares the objective sought with the state
attained (p. 112). In other words, before children can deal with the linkage of
instruction terms such as first sound,

letter, or word used so frequently in

readiness activities, they must have a firm understanding of these terms and the
relationship between them. The beginner must discover what the skill is used for, its
function, the salient aspects of the task to attend to, the technical concepts, and
the jargon for taking and thinking about the skill (Swanson, 1984).
Sometimes college students are confused about the concept reading rate. They
pick up heavy textbooks, flip the pages, and see hundreds and hundreds of pages.
Many decide to check out speed reading programs, enroll in special courses, or
purchase expensive self-help books. Actually, the situation isnt as dreadful as many

believe. In the first place, your reading rate will improve. Also, as you become more
comfortable with textbook reading, youll discover that frequently you can skim.
Much textbook material must be read rather slowly: the materials is new and
difficult, and you should - without the least embarrassment move at a careful
pace. Skimming is moving rapidly through the material to extract information and
ideas, usually for a specific purpose. You read to find out something. Sometimes,
however, you skim to discard: you check a book fast to see if it contains the data
you need and eliminate materials. You may skim for main ideas, for specific
information, for name date, a formula. You may reject what you dont need, and
pinpoint what is valuable to you (Meagher & Devine, 1997).
One of the most effective methods for beginning the kind of thoughtful reading
necessary for academic work is to get a general overview of the text before
beginning to read it in detail. By first skimming a text, you can get a sense of its
overall logical progression. Skimming can also help you make decisions about
where to place your greatest focus when you have limited time for your reading.
Here is one technique for skimming a text. You may need to modify it to suit your
own reading style (Freedman, n.d).
Prior to skimming, use some of the previewing techniques. Then, as yourself what
the focus of the text appears to be, and try to predict the direction of the coming
explanations or arguments. Read carefully the first one or two sentences of each
paragraph, as well as the concluding sentence or sentences. In between these
opening and closing sentences, keep your eyes moving and try to avoid looking up
unfamiliar words or terminology. Your goal is to pick up the larger concepts and

something of the overall pattern and significance of the text. Finally, return to the
beginning and read through the text carefully, noting the complexities you missed
in your skimming and filling in the gaps in your understanding. Think about your
purpose in reading this text and what you need to retain from it, and adjust your
focus accordingly (Freedman, n.d).

According Beale (2013) skimming refers to looking only for the general or main
ideas, and works best with non-fiction (or factual) material. With skimming, your
overall understanding is reduced because you dont read everything. You read only
what is important to your purpose. Skimming takes place while reading and allows
you to look for details in addition to the main ideas.
Skimming is taking the most important information from the page without reading
all the words. Strictly speaking, skimming isnt a reading technique but rather a
scavenging technique. You hunt for the choicest information and hope important
material doesnt pass you by. When you speed read, you skim to the extent that
you dont fixate on all the words. In effect, you weed out some words and focus on
the remaining ones. However, skimming takes the notion of passing by some words
to another level. In the act of skimming, you focus only on the essential ideas and
skip over the insignificant, marginal, and secondary (Sutz & Weverka 2015).

Samuel Johnson has aptly remarked (as cited in Ahuja & Ahuja, 2007) the person
who has the habit of skimming a large amount of material will invariably come
across certain articles or parts of books which are of great importance to him.

These parts can be read more carefully. But if he had never developed the habit of
skimming, the chances are that he would never have come across the important
part of the articles.

Smith rightly remarks (as cited in Ahuja & Ahuja, 2007) "There is no greater asset
to the reader of today than highly developed skill in skimming. Skimming enables a
person to select quickly content which he wants to read and to discard that in which
he is not interested or which is inconsequential to his purpose."
"This skill can be further developed to a very high degree and used profitably in
doing all kind of reading. Such development, however, requires instruction and
practice if it is to function in the best capacity. In skimming the intention of the
reader is to get the main idea so the reader intentionally leaves out chunks of
materials. He willingly accepts a lowered comprehension in order to achieve a
greater increase in reading speed. A good reader believes in economy. He may not
be a speed reading freak but he is an efficient reader. He has developed various
reading rates for covering different reading materials. Purposes for reading differ
appreciably. It is the purpose of reading which should dictate the approach. When
purpose of reading can be easily achieved through skimming alone, slow and
careful reading may be entirely wasteful (Ahuja & Ahuja, 2007).

In encouraging pupils to learn to get the main impression attention should be given
to the speed of reading. In fact, it is this type of reading which lends itself most
readily to the development of higher levels of speed. When a pupil is attempting

merely to get a general impression or the main ideas, efforts to increase his speed
are likely to be least disturbing and most fruitful. It is in this kind of reading that a
pupil may discover that he can really sweep over the material much more rapidly
and still get a very good idea of the main points. It is the type of reading which
lends itself most readily to the development of the skill in skimming (Bhardwaj,
1997).

As you know, flexibility is one sign of a power reader. Readers often encounter a
great deal of material that they would like to cover either because they are
interested in a particular topic or simply because they want to stay current in their
field or with local, national, and world events. When good readers want to cover
large amounts of material quickly, they skim. To skim is to pass quickly over
material - as quickly as you can - while getting a general, holistic view of the
content. Skimming is not for situations where a high level of comprehension is
required, but is very useful when it may be appropriate to accept a level of
comprehension somewhat lower than that obtained at average reading speeds
(Skimming, 2015).
The essential reading skills are Determining the main idea and the authors purpose
comprehending main idea, distinguishing between main ideas and supporting
details, recognizing supporting details, making inferences, drawing conclusions,
distinguishing between fact and opinion, analyzing organization and seeing
relationships, understanding

vocabulary, and

writing

paraphrases and short

summaries. Since there has been an increased emphasis nationally on promoting

critical thinking skills, both in schools and colleges and in the workaday world, these
activities are important for your intellectual development (Milan, 1996)

Ahuja, P. & Ahuja, G.C. (2007). Communication Skills: How to increase your
reading speed. New Delhi. Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd.
Anonat, R.D., (2011). Developmental Reading 2. Mandaluyong City. Books Atbp.
Publishing Corp.
Beale, A.M., (2013). Skimming And Scanning: Two important strategies for
speeding up your reading. Retrieved from
http://www.howtolearn.com/2013/02/skimming-and-scanning-twoimportant-strategies-for-speeding-up-your-reading/
Bhardwaj, A. (1997). Improving Reading Skills. New Delhi. Sarup & Sons.

Harris, L.A & Smith, C.B., (1986). Reading Instruction: Diagnostic teaching in the
classroom (4th ed). USA. Macmillan Publishing Company.
Meagher, L.D. & Devine, T.G., (1997). The Reading Connection: Reading skills and
college success. USA. A Times Mirror Higher Education Group, Inc.
Milan, D.K., (1996). Improving Reading Skills (3rd ed.). USA. McGraw-Hill, INC.
Skimming. (2015). Retrieved from
http://www2.palomar.edu/users/cthomson/R110Hybrid/Module
%205/mod5.1skim.htm
Sutz, R. & Weverka, P. (2015). Skimming as a Speed Reading Technique.
Retrieved

from

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/skimming-as-a-

speed-reading-technique.html
Swanson, B.B. (1984). Readiness for Reading Readiness. Reading Horizons, 24(2).
Retrieved from
http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1923&context=reading_horizons
Tinker, M.A. & Cullough, C.M., (1975),Teaching Elementary Reading (4th ed.). New
Jersey. Prentice-Hall, Inc.