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Reading Skills

Use scanning in research to find particular facts, to study fact-heavy topics, and to answer questions requiring factual support.

Scanning, too, uses keywords and organizational cues. But while the goal of skimming is a bird's-eye view of the material, the goal of scanning is to locate and swoop down on particular facts.

Facts may be buried within long text passages that have relatively little else to do with your topic or claim. Skim this material first to decide if it is likely to contain the facts you need.

Don't forget to scan tables of contents, summaries, indexes, headings, and typographical cues. To make sense of lists and tables, skim them first to understand how they are organized: alphabetical, chronological, or most-to-least, for example.

If after skimming you decide the material will be useful, go ahead and scan:

1. Know what you're looking for. Decide on a few keywords or phrases–search terms, if you will. You will be a flesh-and-blood search engine.

2. Look for only one keyword at a time. If you use multiple keywords, do multiple scans.

3. Let your eyes float rapidly down the page until you find the word or phrase you want.

4. When your eye catches one of your keywords, read the surrounding material carefully.

Scanning is a technique that requires concentration and can be surprisingly tiring. You may have to practice not allowing your attention to wander. Choose a time and place that you know works for you and dive in.

Making use of contextual clues to infer meanings of unfamiliar words from context.

Context clues are known as getting the meaning of a new unfamiliar word by looking for hints from the surrounding words in a sentence of a paragraph.

It could be in the form of:

· Synonym. It was an idyllic day - sunny, warm, and perfect for a walk in the park.

· Definition. Donna was lethargic; she didn't have the energy to get out of bed.

· Antonym. Donna is gregarious, unlike his brother who is quiet and shy.

· Explanation. I called him a nuisance because he annoyed me with his incessant line of questions.

Making inferences and predictions based on comprehension of a text.

One way that readers make inferences is by using context clues to figure out the meaning of an unknown word. By first making a prediction about the unknown word's meaning and then reading to determine if the context clues found in the text support the prediction, students can make inferences and develop vocabulary skills.

The inference is drawing conclusions based on information that has been implied rather than directly stated and is essential. People make inferences every day, both in oral and written communication. Many times, this is so automatic most readers or listeners don't even realize the information wasn't included in the conversation or text. For example, read the following sentences:

"My wife and I tried to pack light but we made sure not to forget our bathing suits and sunblock. I wasn't sure if I would get seasick again so I made sure to pack some medicine for upset stomachs."

You can deduct a great deal of information from these sentences:

The author is married. He and his wife are going on a trip. They are going to be on a boat. They will be around water. They will be going swimming. They have gone swimming before. The author has gotten seasick on a boat in the past.

This information was not clearly stated in the sentences, but you can use what was written to deduce or much more than what was said. Most of the information students get from reading comes from what is implied rather than direct statements, as you can see from the amount of information available by reading between the lines. It is through inferences that words take on meaning. For students with dyslexia, the meaning behind the words is often lost.

Predicting is an important reading strategy. It allows students to use information from the text, such as titles, headings, pictures, and diagrams to anticipate what will happen in the story (Bailey, 2015). When making predictions, students envision what will come next in the text, based on their prior knowledge. Predicting encourages children to actively think ahead and ask questions. It also allows students to understand the story better, make connections to what they are reading, and interact with the text.

Making predictions is also a valuable strategy to improve reading comprehension. Students can make predictions about a story, based on what they have already heard, read, or seen. This, in turn, will allow students to become actively involved in the reading process. To determine if their predictions are correct, students should be required to reread portions of the text to recall facts about the characters or events within the story. Picture walks can serve as a tool to organize information within a story, which can also increase a child's comprehension. During a picture walk, students are able to activate their prior knowledge and connect the visual images in the story to their own personal experiences.

Making predictions encourages readers to use critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Readers are given the opportunity to reflect and evaluate the text, thus extracting deeper meaning and comprehension skills. Students will also be more interested in the reading material when they connect their prior knowledge with the new information that is being learned.

Evaluative reading is the level of reading that is used if a reader is judging Shakespeare's Hamlet emotional complex that caused him to wish to take his own life.

When students engage in "word analysis" or "word study," they break words down into their smallest units of meaning — morphemes. Each morpheme has a meaning that contributes to our understanding of the whole word. As such, students' knowledge of morphemes helps them to identify the meaning of words and build their vocabulary.