Getting Ready To Read

A Publishing of the University of Costa Rica.

Created by: Esteban Sanabria, English Teacher

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Reading Is Nothing But Fun! Give Reading a Chance!

A Publishing of the University of Costa Rica.

Created by: Esteban Sanabria, English Teacher

Getting Ready to Read Why should you as a teenager read frequently and effectively?

I, as a teacher, would like to give you 6 of the most important reasons why you must give reading a chance to become part of your life: Reason Number

Explanation

1

Become an expert. Whether you are interested in science or fiction, reality or fantasy, reading can help you become an expert on the topic and use that in your life.

2

See the world—and travel through time. Books can take you from the frontiers of the Old West to the frontiers of space...and from the top of the Eiffel Tower to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

3

Find a cause. You are idealist. Reading can help you learn more about people and organizations that support the causes you believe in.

4

Discover new interests. Through reading, you may discover an interest in something you knew nothing about.

5

Get some free advice. Lots of novels feature teenager’s characters that have problems and pressures like the ones you may be facing.

6

Finally, you should read because that makes you SMARTER! As simple as that.

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Reading Strategies to Effectively Understand Texts

A Publishing of the University of Costa Rica.

Created by: Esteban Sanabria, English Teacher

Basic Reading Strategies The three most basic reading strategies are Skimming & Scanning, Guessing Meaning From Context, and Identification of Main Ideas.

Strategy: Skimming is a method of rapidly moving the eyes over text with the purpose of getting only the main ideas and a general overview of the content. With skimming, your overall understanding is reduced because you don’t read everything.

You read only what is important to your purpose.

Tips: 

Look at the title of the text to easily get the topic.



Read the first sentence of the first paragraph; that's usually the topic sentence or main idea.



Read the last paragraph of the text so you can get the conclusion.



Read any headings and sub-headings.



Notice any pictures, charts, or graphs.



Notice any italicized or boldface words or phrases.

This way you avoid reading every single detail of the reading without losing the important aspects of it.

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Reading Is Nothing But Fun! Give Reading a Chance!

Example: Read the following text and apply skimming on it: Pay attention to the first sentence .

Look at the title to get what the text will talk about

The Personal Qualities of a Teacher Here I want to try to give you an answer to the question: What personal qualities are desirable in a teacher? Probably no two people would draw up exactly similar lists, but I think the following would be generally accepted.

First, the teacher's personality should be pleasantly live and attractive.

This does not rule out people who are physically plain, or even ugly, because many such have great personal charm. But it does rule out such types as the over-excitable, melancholy, frigid, sarcastic, cynical, frustrated, and overbearing : I would say too, that it excludes all of dull or purely negative personality. I still stick to what I said in my earlier book: that school children

Read the entire last paragraph to get the conclusion of it.

probably 'suffer more from bores than from brutes.

Finally, I think a teacher should have the kind of mind which always wants to go on learning. Teaching is a job at which one will never be perfect; there is always something more to learn about it. There are three principal objects of study: the subject, or subjects, which the teacher is teaching; the methods by which they can best be taught to the particular pupils in the classes he is teaching; and - by far the most important - the children, young people, or adults to whom they are to be taught.

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Reading Is Nothing But Fun! Give Reading a Chance!

Pay attention to the first sentence.

A Publishing of the University of Costa Rica.

Created by: Esteban Sanabria, English Teacher

Strategy: Scanning: is another useful tool for speeding up your reading. Unlike skimming, when scanning, you look only for a specific fact or piece of information without reading everything. You scan when you look for your favorite show listed in the cable guide, for your friend’s phone number in a telephone book, and for the sports scores in the newspaper.

Tips: 

State the specific information you are looking for.



Try to anticipate how the answer will appear and what clues you might use to help you locate the answer. For example, if you were looking for a certain date, you would quickly read the paragraph looking only for numbers.



Read the title of the text so you know what the text is about.



Use headings and any other aids that will help you identify which sections might contain the information you are looking for.



Selectively read and skip through sections of the passage.



Look only for the words or answers that you need.



Take keywords into account. For instance, if you are looking for an address, then try to find verbs like dwell, live, stay, etc., and avoid the rest of them.

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Reading Is Nothing But Fun! Give Reading a Chance!

Example: Read the following text and apply scanning on it by answering these questions: 1. When were X-rays discovered? (Tip: Here look for dates, years, moths) 2. Who discovered them? (Tip: Look for names to answer this one) 3. What are the four characteristics of X-rays? (Tip: look for numbers like I, II, III or 1, 2, 3) Answer of question 1

The Discovery of X-rays

Answer of question 2

X-rays were discovered in 1895 by Roentgen while studying the phenomena of gaseous discharge. Using a cathode ray tube with a high voltage of several tens of kilovolts, he noticed that salts of barium would fluoresce when brought near the tube, although nothing visible was emitted by the tube. This effect persisted when the tube was wrapped with a layer of black cardboard. Roentgen soon established that the agency responsible for the fluorescence originated at the point at which the stream of energetic electrons struck the glass wall of the tube. Because of its unknown nature, he gave this agency the name X-rays. He found that X-rays could manifest themselves by darkening wrapped photographic plates, discharging charged electroscopes, as well as by causing fluorescence in a number of different substances. He also found that X-rays can penetrate considerable thicknesses of materials of low atomic number, whereas substances of high atomic number are relatively opaque. Roentgen took the first steps in identifying the nature of X-rays by using a system of slits to show that (1) they travel in

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Reading Is Nothing But Fun! Give Reading a Chance!

Answer of question 3

A Publishing of the University of Costa Rica.

Created by: Esteban Sanabria, English Teacher

straight lines, and that (2) they are uncharged, because they are not deflected by electric or magnetic fields.

The discovery of X-rays aroused the interest of all physicists, and many joined in the investigation of their properties. In 1899 Haga and Wind performed a single slit diffraction experiment with X-rays which showed that (3) X-rays are a wave motion phenomenon, and, from the size of the diffraction pattern, Answer of

their wavelength could be estimated to be 10-8 cm. In 1906 Barkla proved that question 3 (4) the waves are transverse by showing that they can be polarized by scattering from many materials.

Strategy: Guessing Meaning From Context: Sometimes unfamiliar words in a text are actually explained by the own author by using synonyms, antonyms, giving some details of the meaning, and family by rewording the word. However, it is our

responsibility to look for these helps in the text, as they not always are as visible and obvious as we would wish.

Rewording is when the author says the word in another Rewording

way that is typically easier to understand.

Let's Look at an Example:

Resentment, a feeling of bitterness and anger, is often felt by people who are passed over for promotions.

What

does

the

word resentment mean

in

this

sentence? According to the text, it means "feeling of bitterness and anger"

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Reading Is Nothing But Fun! Give Reading a Chance!

Synonyms

A writer sometimes uses synonym context clues to help with hard words. A synonym context clue is one or two words that mean almost the same as the one that the author does not expect us to know.

Let's Look at an Example:

The young girl was very aloof. She always seemed unsociable, What

unapproachable,

does

the

and

word aloof

sentence? According

uninterested.

mean

in

this

to the text, it is a synonym

of "unsociable, unapproachable, and uninterested"

Antonyms

Writers are using antonym context clues when they use a word with opposite meaning to give us hints about the word

that

they

do

not

think

we

will

know.

Let's Look at an Example:

Dianna appeared to be a very moral and upstanding young lady, but those who knew her knew that she was iniquitous.

What

does

the

word iniquitous mean

in

this

sentence? The word "BUT" indicates the possible presence

of an antonym. According to the text, it means the opposite of moral, which is immoral, and the opposite of upstanding which also could be immoral.

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Reading Is Nothing But Fun! Give Reading a Chance!

A Publishing of the University of Costa Rica.

Created by: Esteban Sanabria, English Teacher

A writer is using details as context clues when he/she Giving Details

gives us explanations or examples as hints about the word that he/she does not think we will know. There are several different kinds of Context Clues that are Details. Details that are examples of the unknown word, details that tell why the unknown word has taken place, and finally details that explain how the word relates to other things the author has stated.

Let's Look at an Example:

Father was ecstatic because Joshua decided to go to the college that he wanted him to.

What

does

the

word ecstatic mean

in

this

sentence? "Ecstatic" is how the Father felt, it is a state of

humor.

Intermediate Reading Strategies

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Reading Is Nothing But Fun! Give Reading a Chance!

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Reading Is Nothing But Fun! Give Reading a Chance!