Critical Reading Skills

Time4Learning
http://www.time4learning.com/cont
actUs.htm
What is Reading Comprehension?

Reading comprehension skills

separates the "passive" unskilled
reader from the "active" readers.

Skilled readers don't just read, they

interact with the text.

Inner Monologue
Benefits of Good Reading
Comprehension
Reading comprehension skills increase the
pleasure and effectiveness of reading.

Strong reading comprehension skills help in all

the other subjects and in the personal and
professional lives.

All the tests you take in elementary, middle, and

high school are geared towards determining if
you are at your reading grade level and/or
college ready.
Congress decides to mandate good
reading skills
Congress charged the National Reading
Panel (NRP) with researching the
effectiveness of various approaches to
teaching children to read.

They wanted to find out what methods

work best for reading improvement
Important areas

Five critical reading skills were found to

be very important for improvement:

Phonemic awareness
Phonics
Fluency
Vocabulary
Comprehension

(Appendix C, MINORITY VIEW by Joanne Yatvin, Ph.D.. Oregon

Trail School District, Sandy, Oregon)
Tactics that work

We are using the following strategies

that work for reading comprehension:

.Mind Mapping
. Direct instruction
. Use of decodable texts
. Embedded skills instruction
. Integrated reading and writing
. Access to quality literature
. Whole-class instruction
. Teacher modeling
Speed Reading
Develop "traditional" old fashioned speed reading habits
first

Once thoroughly ingrained it will allow the student to

input and scan information quickly

Reading becomes habitualized at mostly an unconscious

level.

In this version of speed reading, rather than the incoming

flow of information being the focus of attention, active
cognitive processes that organize information dominate.

See references to Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

How to make Speed Reading Actually
Work
The conscious focus of the brain is oriented
towards preparing a speech on the topic being
perused rather than trying to hope that text flying
by like the spray from a fire hose will make sense
It first requires the "student" to learn how to
speed read the "old fashioned way" at extremely
high speeds.
Once this is "achieved", the speed reader has to
completely re-learn how to speed read again
from scratch.
Mind Mapping

Basically going through information in

order to find the major concepts

A student can create a visual Mind Map or

a Linear Mind Map

Really helps for studying for tests in

general
Chunking Reading

Basically highlighting chunked portions of

the reading in order to read faster

Students practice reading the highlighted

areas faster and faster until they reach the
desired speed and comprehension levels
Vocabulary

Vocabulary is important to not only

reading, but writing.

Studying and utilizing vocabulary helps

reading comprehension

It is also very important for the verbal SAT

 References

Time4Learning, http://www.time4learning.com/contactUs.htm

Wiki Books, http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page

Rocket Reader,
http://www.rocketreader.com/download/RocketReaderDownload.html

OSPI, http://www.k12.wa.us/
Exercise Time!

New Vocabulary
DICT, DIT, SPEC/SPIC, TEND, SEN,
NOM/NOUN/NOWN/NAM

Mind Mapping EX
Exercise for your eyes

***See Sheets