Reading has to be the most important skill you can have. Practically everything you do here at school requires some kind of reading ability. Those who cannot read well must wait for someone else to show them what to do. Reading allows you to educate yourself on anything and everything. I will be allotting more time for reading in GTT this year.
READING FOR FUN(fiction)
Can you believe it? Some people read for fun! That's crazy, huh?! Reading for fun can take you to a distance place without ever leaving your seat. You can also gain insight to the thoughts and experiences others have had through their writings. Reading for fun can be very educational and transforming.
READING FOR INFORMATION(non-fiction)
When you read a textbook, you are normally reading for information, but you are also gaining insights into the world around you; the how and why of events that have happened. Technology is non-fiction writing, like history—it describes real-life events, people, ideas, and places. Here is a menu of reading strategies that will help you become a better textbook reader. As you come to passages in your textbook that you do not understand, refer to these reading strategies for help.
BEFORE YOU READ…
Set a Purpose
Why are you reading the textbook?
How does the subject relate to your life?
How might you be able to use what you learn in your own life?
Preview
Read the chapter title to find what the topic will be.
Read the chapter key events and section titles to see what you will learn about the topic.
Skim the photos, charts, graphs, or maps. How do they support the topic?
Look for key terms that are in color and boldfaced. How are they defined?
Always try to read the Chapter objectives and review questions before reading.
Draw from Your Own Background
What have you read or heard about concerning new information on the topic?
How is the new information different from what you already know?
How will the information that you already know help you understand the new information?
AS YOU READ…
Question
What is the main idea?
How do the photos, charts, graphs, and maps support the main idea?
Connect
Think about people, places, and events in your own life. Are there any similarities with those in your textbooks?
Can you relate the textbook information to other areas of your life?
Predict
Predict events or outcomes by using clues and information that you already know.
Change your predictions as you read and gather new information.
Visualize
Pay careful attention to details.
Create graphic organizers to show relationships in the reading.
LOOK FOR CLUES…
Compare and Contrast Sentences
Look for clue words and phrases that signal comparison, such as similarity, just as, both, in common, also, and too.
Look for clue words and phrases that signal contrast, such as on the other hand, in contrast to, however, different, instead of, rather than, but, and unlike.
Cause-and-Effect Sentences
Look for clue words and phrases such as because, as a result, therefore, that is why, since, so, for this reason, and consequently.
Chronological Sentences
Look for clue words and phrases such as after, before, first, next, last, during, finally, earlier, later, since, and then.
AFTER YOU READ…
Summarize
Describe the main idea and how the details support it.
Use your own words to explain what you have read.
Assess
What was the main idea?
Did you learn anything new from the material?
Can you use this new information in other school subjects or at home?
What other sources could you use to find more information about a topic?
READING TO LEARN
This section focuses on skills and strategies that can help you understand the words you read (reading comprehension).The strategies you use to understand whole texts depend on the kind of text you are reading. In other words, you don’t read a textbook the way you read a novel. You read a textbook mainly for information; you read a novel mainly for fun. To get the most out of your reading, you need to choose the right strategy to fit the reason you’re reading.
IDENTIFYING WORDS AND BUILDING VOCABULARY
What do you do when you come across a word you do not know as you read? Do you skip over the word and keep reading? If you are reading for fun, or entertainment, you might. But if you are reading for information, an unfamiliar word may get in the way of your understanding. When that happens, try the following strategies to figure out how to say the word and what the word means.
Reading Unfamiliar Words
Sounding out the word One way to figure out how to say a new word is to sound it out, syllable by syllable. Look carefully at the word’s beginning, middle, and ending. Inside the word, do you see a word you already know how to pronounce? What vowels are in the syllables? Use the following tips when sounding out new words.
Roots and base words The main part of a word is called its root. When the root is a complete word, it may be called the base word. When you come across a new word, check whether you recognize its root or base word. It can help you pronounce the word and figure out the word’s meaning.
Prefixes A prefix is a word part that can be added to the beginning of a root or base word. For example, the prefix, pre- means “before,” so prehistory or pretechnology means “before history” or “before technology.” Prefixes can change, or even reverse, the meaning of a word. For example, un- means “not,” so unconstitutional means “not constitutional.”
Suffixes A suffix is a word part that can be added to the end of a root or base word to change he word’s meaning. Adding a suffix to a word can also change that word from one part of speech to another. For example, the word joy, which is a noun, becomes an adjective when the suffix –ful (meaning “full of”) is added. Joyful means “full of joy.”
Determining a Word’s Meaning
Using syntax Like all languages, the English language has rules and patterns for the way words are arranged in sentences. The way a sentence is organized is called the syntax of the sentence. If English is your first language, you have known this pattern since you started talking in sentences. If you’re learning English now, you may find the syntax is different from the patterns you know in your first language.