Reading strategies

READING STRATEGIES

A.    3 R's for Academic Survival

Here is a lean and wiry system containing all the essential techniques for mastering textbook assignments.  This is an "exam passer".

1.      READ. Read the chapter paragraph by paragraph.  Read and re-read until you can answer the question: "What did the author say in this paragraph?"

2.      RECORD. Once you are able to describe what is in the paragraph, you will want to retain that learning by underlining, making notes in the margin, or making notes in your notebook.

3.      RECITE. Cover up your notes or printed page and recite aloud.  Remember!  If you can't say it now, you won't be able to say it tomorrow in class, nor write it in a week on an exam; so while you still have a chance, try and try again, until you can say it.

B.     SQ3R Method for Thorough Study

1.      SURVEY

Look over material critically.  Skim through the book and read topical and subtopical headings and sentences.  Read the summaries at the end of chapters and books.  Try to anticipate what the author is going to say.

WRITE these notes on paper, in sequence; then look over the jottings to get an overall idea or picture.  This will enable you to see where you are going.

2.      QUESTIONS

Instead of reading paragraph headings such as "Basic Concepts of Reading," change to read, "What are the Basic Concepts of Reading?"  These questions will become "hooks" on which to hang the reading material.

WRITE these questions out; look over the questions to see the emphasis and direction; then attempt to give plausible answers before further reading.

3.      READ

Read with smoothness and alertness to answer the questions.  Use all the techniques and principles demonstrated in class.

WRITE notes, in your own words, under each question.  Take a minimum number of notes-use these notes as a skeleton.

4.      RECALL**

Without looking at your book or notes, mentally visualize and sketch, in your own words, the high points of the material immediately upon completing the reading.

a. This forces you to check understanding.

b. This channels the material into a natural and usable form.

c. This points up what you do not understand.

d. This forces you to think.

5.   REVIEW

Look at your questions, answers, notes and book to see how well you did recall.nObserve carefully the points stated incorrectly or omitted. Fix carefully in mind the logical sequence of the entire idea, concepts, or problem.  Finish up with a mental picture of the WHOLE.

There are many expert writing about reading strategies, about how to read effectively and efficiently. Some writers for example : Eskey, Sanford, Garrold, and Caroll in carell state that there are interactive model in reading. They explain that effective and efficient second language reading requires both top-down and bottom-up strategies operating interactively. The intractive process in reading will be occurred when the readers make an interactive work between the top-down and bottom-up strategies, it enables the readers to be good readers.

In top-down strategies the students can use predictions, activating background knowledge, and then checking confirmation or refulations of the predictions. Top-down process start from general ideas to spesific one, so the readers try to understand the text by interpreting the text based on their experiences and background knowledge. While bottom-up strategies is decoding individual linguistic units.

Moreover, Brown suggests the strategies that can be used by the students in reading. The strategies are :

1.      Identify the purpose of reading

2.      Use grapheme rules and pattern to aid in bottom-up decoding

3.      Use efficient silent reading technique for relativity rapid comprehension

4.      Skimming

5.      Scanning

6.      Semantic mapping

7.      Guessing

8.      Vocabulary analysis

9.      Distinguish between literaland implied meanings and

10.  Capitalize on discourse markers to process relationship

There are many reading strategies that can be used by the readers in activities of reading, The strategies will help them to comprehend the text. Beside the strategies above, there are still many kinds of reading strategies to read effectively or efficient ; reading strategies above are just some of them. Thus, the readers can apply some of reading strategies in their reading activities to help them understanding the tex

Strategies For Active Reading

Reading at first may appear to be routine activity in which individual words are combined to produce meaning. Consequently, many collage students approach reading as a single-step process. They open the book, read, and close the book. Research reveals that effective reading is not a single-step process, but a complex set of skills involving activities before, during, and after reading. Here is a partical list of some of those skills.

Before Reading :

1.      Determining the subject of the material

2.      Determining how the material is organized

3.      Deciding what you need to remember from the material

4.      Defining your purpose for reading

During Reading :

1.      Identifying what is important

2.      Determining how key ideas are supported

3.      Identifying patterns of thought

4.      Drawing connections among ideas

5.      Anticipating what is to come next

6.      Reading ideas to what you already know

During and after reading :

1.      Identifying the author purpose for writing

2.      Analyzing the writers technique and language

3.      Evaluating the writers competence of authority

4.      Asking critical questions

5.      Evaluating the nature and type of supporting evidence

There are many different between active readers and passive Readers

Active Readers :

a.       Read each assignment differently

b.      Analyze the purpose of an assignment

c.       Compare and connect textbook readings with lecture content

d.      Find out what an assignment is about before reading it

e.       Keep track of their level of comprehension and concentration

f.       Read with pencil in hand, highlighting, jotting notes, and marking key vocabulary

Passive Readers :

a.       Read all assignment the same way

b.      Read an assignment because it was assigned

c.       Read everything at the same speed

d.      Accept whatever is in print as true

e.       Study each separately

f.       Check the length of an assignment before reading it

g.      Read until the assignment is complete

READING PHASES

There are three phases that the readers do in their reading activities, they are :

1.      Pre-Reading

Pre-Reading is important phases that must be done by the students. It need to be done better by the readers to make them easier and activating their background knowledge to help them understand the text. Pre-Reading make comprehension easier and better; the more difficult the material, the more pre-reading will help the comprehension. Pre-reading involves getting a quick impression or overview of what you are going to read before beginning to read. As a result, you will be able to read faster and follow the authors train of thought more easily. You might think of pre-reading as similar to looking at a road map before you start out on a drive to an unfamiliar place. The road map, like pre-reading gives you an idea of what lies ahead and how it is arranged.

            How to pre-read

Pre-reading involves looking only at those parts of the reading material that will tell you what it is about or how it is organized. The portions to look at in reading a textbook chapter are listed below ;

1.      Read the title

2.      Read the Introduction or Opening Paragraphs

3.      Read each Boldface Heading

4.      Read the First Sentence Under Each Heading

5.      Notice any Typograpical Aids

6.      Notice Any Graphs or Pictures

7.      Read the Last Paragraph or Summary

2.      During Reading

During reading is the activity that done by the readers when they read the text. During reading or while-reading guides students through the text, makes sense of complex text, and considering the relationship among ideas or characters in the text. Then, Vaezi states that while-reading consists of summarizing, reacting, questioning, arguing, evaluating, and placing a text within ones own experience.

3.      Post Reading

The last is post-reading that extends ideas and informations on the text are well understood by the readers. Post-Reading is also checking students comprehension and leading the students to a deeper analysis of the text. This phases is about re-comprehend the text. It is to check the comprehending that has built in pre- and during reading activities.

Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that pre-reading stage used for helping students in activating their background knowledge and provide the students with new information to make them comprehending text well, while-reading stage happens in reading process to help readers in understanding the text and facilitate them. The actual reading passages and post-reading stage helps them to check and evaluation their comprehension.

The Importance of Reading Strategies

Reading strategies are important to do by the readers in reading. They can help the students easiar in comprehending the text. They were hopely can improve their reading comprehension like stated in Learning Strategies Database that strategies can improve students reading comprehension. It is also stated that reading strategies can also echance understanding of the content information presented in a text, to improve attention and concentration while reading, to increase students motivation can be creating interest, and to make reading in more active process. By applying reading strategies in reading, it will help the students to more comprehend the text and recall the information that needed from the text.