Reading Skills

Reading Skills

Reading Group Procedures

ROLES:

1. Task Master: you watch the clock, respect the timelines, AND keep the discussion focused

2. Volume Dial: ensure the conversation stays at a conversational level

3. Peace Maker: The "U.N." member of the group

4. Passionate Participator: encourages everyone to share (in a non-threatening fashion)

5. Amazing Analyst: at the end of the reading group session, the analyst gives feedback to his or her groupmates about theway he or she participated (I liked how you piggy-backed on her ideas...).

 

PROCEDURE:

1. Round table summary (2mins): Task Master starts it off with the first detail from the previous night's reading, and the person to his or her left continues.  As your group gets better, it should move quite quickly - and completely.

2. Questions (2mins): if there were any questions from the night's reading, this is the time to ask

3. Vocabulary Study (3mins): Share 2-3 sentences you have created with the words. 

4.  Shreds of Humanity (2mins): share evidence of how the community scientists have been successful and unsuccessful in squelching any decidedly "human" attributes

5.  Stylistic Elements: (2mins): Share your notes on stylistic elements you have noticed in the chapters (similes, personification, metaphors, analogies, allegories...)

6.  Biggie Questions: (2mins): Share how one question from the list of questions applies to the chapter. 

7.  Closing: (1min) The Amazing Analyst gives feedback. 

 

 

How a Skilled Reader Reads

People who read well use many clues to understand what they're reading:

1. The alphabet and its sounds.
2. Words they know by sight.
3. Ways different parts of words are usually pronounced.
4. The normal meanings words have.
5. Knowledge about the subject.
6. What they want out of what they're reading.

Before, during, and after reading, they help themselves understand with these skills:

1. They remind themselves of things they already know.
2. They decide what's important and what's not important in what they're reading.
3. They make images in their heads of what they read about (pictures, sounds, even smells, tastes, and feelings).
4. They use clues in the writing to guess what the writer means. That is, they make inferences.
5. They retell, or summarize to themselves, what they're reading.
6. They go back and figure things out if they don't understand them.

The Reader's Bill of Rights

Daniel Pennac, a French writer, wrote a book called Better Than Life (1999, Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers). In it he laid out the Reader's Bill of Rights:

1. The right to not read
2. The right to skip pages
3. The right to not finish
4. The right to reread
5. The right to read anything
6. The right to escapism
7. The right to read anywhere
8. The right to browse
9. The right to read out loud
10. The right to not defend your taste

How to Read Fiction

When you read fiction for pleasure, sometimes you relax and go along for the ride. You read to entertain yourself, and you don't pay close attention to the way the author develops characters, point of view, plot, setting, tone, or theme. You lose yourself in the world of the book. This is a great reason to read. Keep doing it all your life. I do.
Sometimes, though, especially when the writer has done a really good job, you find yourself saying, "Wow," and noticing how the writer did it. Assigned reading in English class is about that kind of paying attention. It's also about reading for pleasure, but it's the pleasure of understanding something completely. Learning to do this makes reading a very rich experience. It's also a great reason to read. I do that too.
Here are some suggestions for reading fiction that has been assigned in class:

• If you have your own copy of the book, develop the habit of writing in it. Use pencil if you like. If you're using a school copy or a library copy, or you don't like to write in books, use Post-It™ notes.
• As you read, underline the names of main characters, the names of places, and any words whose meaning you don't know.
• If you don't need to know the meaning of an underlined word to understand what you're reading, keep going. If you have to know what it means, stop and look it up, and write the definition briefly in the margin of the page.
• Ask yourself questions as you read. Writers make choices about what they say, and they have reasons. See if you can find out the reasons. Write the questions in the margin, too.
• See if you can figure out what kind of people the main characters are from their actions and speech. Underline important statements and actions. Write comments in the margin.
• Make predictions about what is going to happen next. Even if you're wrong, it turns out that people who make predictions understand what they're reading better than people who don't.
• At the end of each chapter or section, write a brief summary on a page at the beginning or end of the chapter or on a Post-It™ note. A summary includes who, what, when, where, why, and how. It doesn't have to be in complete sentences. You can also make a web or outline, or even a cartoon strip of the events.
• When you finish reading a story, you should be able to describe these elements: point of view, characters, plot, setting, tone, time period, and theme.
• You should also have a good idea of the kinds of choices the writer made.
• You should have an opinion about the story, one you can support. If you like the story, you should be able to explain your reasons, and the same for disliking it.
• You should be able to extend your knowledge of the book. That is, you should be able to compare it to other books you have read, or compare it to real life. You could write a sequel (what comes after the story) or a prequel (what came before), or a story which is similar in some ways but not in others. You could use the author's vocabulary in your own writing.