Reading skills I

Unit one

1. Defining reading
What is reading?
Being a good teacher of reading starts with an understanding of what reading is. What
exactly happens between text, brain, and eye when we engage in this delightful, magical
practice called reading?
- Reading is the practice of using text to create meaning. The two key words here are
“creating” and “meaning”. If there is no meaning being created, there is no reading
taking place. For example, let’s say that
Little Billy encountered the following bit of text:
Bixto brum sammpo et meyo gamma. Burpo blaft darf.
Little Billy could certainly examine the arrangement of letter groupings and make the
appropriate sounds for each, but unless he is psychotic, these would be a meaningless
series of squeaks and grunts, and, as such, he would not be reading. Therefore we can
assume that sounding out words or simply barking sounds into the air like a trained
seal is not necessarily reading.
However, if I gave Little Billy a Superman comic strip with all the dialogue removed
he would be able to look at the pictures and get some sense of what’s going on. In this
case, Little Billy is using a text (a picture text), and he is creating meaning. Thus we
can say with all confidence that Little Billy is indeed reading. This means then that
every child can read the first day of kindergarten. That is, every child can pick up a
picture book and tell you what it’s about. While young children may rely more on
picture cues and letter cues, this will gradually change as they experience more print
and get small bits of instruction along the way.
- Reading is a constantly developing skill. Like any skill, we get better at reading by
practicing. And conversely, if we do not practice we will not get better and our skills
may deteriorate. From age 3 to 103, reading practice is what helps us become better
readers. I am a better reader this year than I was last year because I have read
thousands of more words and have been exposed to hundreds of new concepts and

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 ideas. This influx of words and concepts has enhanced the processing that takes place
as my eyeballs encounter text and my brain tries to make sense of it. I am just a micro-
second or two quicker and more efficient than last year. Next year, I hope to be an
even better reader.
- Reading integrates visual and non-visual information. During the act of reading,
the visual information found in on the page combines with the non-visual information
contained in your head to create meaning. In that way, what’s in your head is just as
important as what is on the page in the process of creating meaning (reading).
To illustrate: One day, because I had nothing better to do, I decided to read Stephan
Hawkings’, A Brief History of Time: From Big Bang to Black Holes (1988). (This
tells how boring my life has become since I started writing college textbooks.) Once I
began reading I discovered that even though my eyeballs hit every word, I had very
little idea about what I was reading. This was because the file folder in my head
(cognitive scientists call this a schema) related to physics contains very little
information. Schemata (plural form of schema) are the organized packages of
knowledge your brain uses to arrange and group similar experiences and concepts.
Schemata are the files in your file cabinet. Because of my puny, nearly empty
schema related to physics, I had to read, re-read, and re-re-read each chapter several
times. (I didn’t get much out of the book although I still keep it on my shelf to impress
people).
On the other hand, I recently looked at the textbook, Literacy: Helping Children
Construct Meaning, (Cooper & Kiger, 2006). Here I was able to skim it rather quickly,
comprehend all of it, and remember a great deal of what I read. The same brain was
used to read both texts. The difference was that this brain has a great deal of stuff
floating around inside related to reading instruction and very little in it related to
physics and cosmogony.
- Reading is the act of linking one idea to another. Putting ideas together to create a
sensible whole is the essential part of reading. It is not necessary to know every word
in order to read. Stop for a minute: As you read the last paragraph, I would wager that
99% of you didn’t know the meaning of the word, cosmogony. I would posit further
that 98.5% of you kept reading anyway with absolutely no inclination to look the word

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 up in a dictionary. You kept going because, even though you didn’t know the exact
definition of the word, you were still creating meaning with this text (hopefully). One
idea was being linked to another and thus, there was no need to stop. Also, you mostly
likely got a general sense of the word by seeing it in the context of the sentence and
paragraph. You may also have recognized a part of the word, cosmo, and linked it to
related words that you know such as cosmos or cosmic (this is called word analysis,
analogies, or looking for word families.) You may have guessed that this word has
something to do with space, universes, and physics (and it does).
- Stopping to sound out this word or looking it up in a dictionary would have disrupted
the meaning-making, idea-linking process and made comprehension more difficult.
Thus, it is not always important that readers know the meaning and pronunciation of
every single word they read as long as they are putting ideas together to create
meaning. In fact, good readers use minimal word and letter cues. By the way,
cosmogony is a subfield of cosmology which is devoted to studying the birth of the
universe. This may come in handy if you’re ever on a TV game show.

Traditional and current/modern Reading

Task 1.1
Do you agree or disagree with the following beliefs about reading process: what is
your reason?
1. The reader is a passive participant in the reading process?
2. Meaning is always found in the text.
3. There is no identical interpretation of a given text among different readers.
4. Reading is a passive process.
5. There is similarity between reading and conversation.
Similarities and differences between traditional and current reading
Similarities
- Both are the process of reading.
- Both are used to get information.
Differences

Traditional reading Current reading

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  Reading is passive process
 Meaning is found only in the reading  Reading is an active
text. process.
 Reader is passive participant  Meaning is created by the
 Reader emphasizes on visual interaction between the
information which is something that reader and the writer
can be picked up by the eye from a through the text.
written material.  The reader is active
participant that is the reader
uses his/ her skills and
background knowledge to
understand a text.
 Reader emphasizes on non-
visual information which
understanding of the
relevant language,
familiarity with the subject
matter, knowledge of the
word and the topic of the
writer, and some general
ability about the reading.
-

1. Purposes of reading

Reading is a purposeful process and it takes place for different purposes.

1.1. Reading for Pleasure
Research from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD, 2002) showed that reading enjoyment is more important for children’s
educational success than their family’s socio-economic status. Reading for pleasure

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could therefore be one important way to help combat social exclusion and raise
educational standards.
According to Krashen (1993, p. 85), who is a major proponent of the value of reading
for pleasure:
When children read for pleasure, when they get “hooked on books”, they acquire,
involuntarily and without conscious effort, nearly all of the so-called “language
skills” many people are so concerned about: they will become adequate readers,
acquire a large vocabulary, develop the ability to understand and use complex
grammatical constructions, develop a good writing style, and become good (but not
necessarily perfect) spellers. Although free voluntary reading alone will not ensure
attainment of the highest levels of literacy, it will at least ensure an acceptable level.
Without it, I suspect that children simply do not have a chance.
Research with children has shown that reading for pleasure is positively linked with
the following literacy-related benefits:
• It helps for reading attainment and writing ability, for reading that is done both in
school and out of school
• It develops Text comprehension and grammar ability, even after a variety of health,
wealth and school factors were statistically controlled for
• develop of vocabulary power
• develop Positive reading attitudes, which are linked to achievement in reading
• It develops Greater self-confidence as a reader
• It helps to Pleasure reading in later life
1.2. Reading for Information
When you are reading something to learn or understand a topic, you are reading for
information. Typically, the information you are reading is factual (nonfiction).
BEFORE
- Think about what you already know about the subject or the story before
beginning to read
- Set a purpose for reading that will direct you to the information
- Preview the materials by examining charts, pictures, graphs, headings, etc.

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- Predict what the text will be about or what the author will say Skim each passage
or paragraph.
- Pay attention to the first and last sentences of each paragraph to determine the
main idea or theme of that section.
- Slow down your reading and list the key words.
DURING
- Read the material carefully - verify your predictions and answer questions
- Identify method of organization
- Make connections to your life When you are reading, you might want to back up
and re-read something that isn’t clear or seems important
AFTER
- Take out the information by taking notes on note cards, paraphrasing,
highlighting, outlining, or making a data chart
- Summarize the information you’ve selected
- Reread to answer questions you still have Reflect, react, recap
1.3. Reading for critique
In graduate school, and indeed, in the workplace, you will often be called up on to
respond critically to source materials. Critical reading requires the abilities to both
summarize and evaluate a presentation of information (article, book, report,
speech or other performance etc). In academic writing, you will use critique in
research papers to critique sources to establish their usefulness, in position papers
to stake out your own position by critiquing others, in book reviews to combine
summary and critique, and in essay format exams, to demonstrate your
understanding of course material by critiquing it. In workplace writing, you might
use critique in legal briefs or other legal documents, in business plans and
proposals to critique less cost effective, efficient, or reasonable approaches, or in
policy briefs to communicate the failings or policies or legislation through
critique.
A summary is a brief restatement of the content of a passage in your own words;
however, an evaluation is a more difficult and ambitious undertaking. There is no
ready-made formula for determining the validity of a given piece of information.

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Critical reading, and it’s written component— the critique—require discernment,
sensitivity, imagination, knowledge of the subject, and a willingness to engage
intellectually with what you read. These skills are developed, as all skills are,
through practice. But you have to start somewhere, so let’s begin with posing two
broad questions to frame your critique:
1) To what extent does the author succeed in his or her purpose?
2) To what extent do you agree with the author?
Handling Question 1:
Before attempting an evaluation, you must be able to locate an author’s thesis and
identify the writing’s content and structure. You must understand the author’s
purpose. Authors write to entertain, inform, or persuade. Often these purposes are
blended.
Writing to Inform Writing that is intended to inform will provide definitions,
describe or report on a process, recount a story, give historical background, and/or
provide facts and figures.
Having determined this purpose, you can organize your critical response by
considering:
1) Accuracy of the information,
2) Significance of the information,
3) Fair interpretation of the information.
Writing to Persuade
Writing that is intended to influence the reader’s thinking. To make a persuasive
case, the writer must begin with an assertion that is arguable, some statement with
which reasonable people might disagree. Such an assertion, when it serves as the
essential organizing principle of the article or book, is called a thesis.
Having determined this purpose, you can critique the validity of the argument by
considering:
1) Clearly defined key terms,
2) used information fairly and accurately,
3) Argued logically without resorting to fallacious reasoning.

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 Writing to Entertain
Writing to entertain does not always mean making people laugh. A good book
may prompt a reader to reflect, become elated, get angry, or have many other
reactions. However, like a response to informative or persuasive writing, your
response to entertaining writing should be precisely stated and carefully
developed.
Having determined this purpose, you can critique this form of writing by asking a
series of questions:
1) Did I care for the portrayal of a certain character?
2) Did the characters seem overly sentimental, Vicious, Heroic, Something else?
3) Were the situations believable?
4) Was the action interesting or formulaic?
5) Did the sequence of events seem plausible?
Handling Question 2:
When you are formulating a critical response to a source, you must try to
distinguish your evaluation of the author’s purpose and success or failure at
achieving that purpose from your own agreement or disagreement with the
author’s views. Making that distinction allows you to respond to a piece of work
on its merits—not on your own prejudices and preferences. You must be an
unbiased, even-handed critic, evaluating an author’s clarity of presentation, use of
evidence, and adherence to principles of logic in order to make your own
argument about how well the author has succeeded in his or her purpose.

Identify Points of Agreement and Disagreement to Create Your Evaluation

- Be precise in identifying where you agree and disagree with an author. You will
find this easy to do if you organize your reaction into three parts:
- 1) Summarize the author’s position,
- 2) State your own position,
- 3) Elaborate on your reasons for your position.
- Note that your own position can be more nuanced than a simple “agree” or
“disagree.” For example, you might agree with the author’s position, but feel that

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 he has expressed his point of view poorly because he chose ineffective evidence.
In all cases, your critique will reflect your assessment both of the author’s thesis
and how well he or she has supported it.

Evaluate Assumptions
- One way to elaborate on your reaction to a piece of work is to explore the
underlying reasons for your agreement or disagreement. Your reactions are based
largely on assumptions that you hold and how those assumptions compare with
the author’s. An assumption (which is also called “warrant”) is a fundamental
statement about the world and its operations that you take to be true. A writer’s
assumptions might be explicitly stated; but just as often, assumptions are implicit
and you can only infer them.
- When you find an author’s assumptions invalid—that is, not supported by factual
evidence—or if you disagree with the values-based assumptions underlying the
author’s position, you may well disagree with the conclusions that follow from
these assumptions. Alternatively, if you find that your own assumptions are
contradicted by actual experience, or convincing evidence, you may be forced to
conclude that your premises were mistaken, and you may want to change your
position

Guidelines for Writing a Critique

- Introduce: Introduce both the writing under analysis and the author
- Summarize: Summarize the author’s main points, making sure to state the
author’s purpose for writing.
- Assess Presentation: Evaluate the validity of the author’s presentation as distinct
from your points of agreement or disagreement. Comment on the author’s success
in achieving his or her purpose by reviewing three to four specific points.
- Respond to the Presentation: Now it is your turn to respond to the author’s
views. With which views do you agree? Disagree? Discuss your reasons for
agreement and disagreement, when possible tying these reasons to assumptions—
both the author’s and your own.

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- Conclude: State your conclusions about the overall validity of the piece—your
assessment of the author’s success at achieving his or her aims and your reaction
to the author’s views. Remind the reader of the weaknesses and strengths of the
passage.

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