Critical Reading Skills
Time4Learning
http://www.time4learning.com/cont
actUs.htm
What is Reading Comprehension?
Reading comprehension skills
separates the "passive" unskilled
reader from the "active" readers.
Skilled readers don't just read, they
interact with the text.
Inner Monologue
Benefits of Good Reading
Comprehension
 Reading comprehension skills increase the
pleasure and effectiveness of reading.
 Strong reading comprehension skills help in all
the other subjects and in the personal and
professional lives.
 All the tests you take in elementary, middle, and
high school are geared towards determining if
you are at your reading grade level and/or
college ready.
Congress decides to mandate good
reading skills
Congress charged the National Reading
Panel (NRP) with researching “the
effectiveness of various approaches to
teaching children to read.“
They wanted to find out what methods
work best for reading improvement
Important areas
Five critical reading skills were found to be
very important for improvement:
Phonemic awareness
Phonics
Fluency
Vocabulary
Comprehension
(Appendix C, MINORITY VIEW by Joanne Yatvin, Ph.D.. Oregon
Trail School District, Sandy, Oregon)
Tactics that work
We are using the following strategies
that work for reading comprehension:
 .Mind Mapping
. Direct instruction
. Use of decodable texts
. Embedded skills instruction
. Integrated reading and writing
. Access to quality literature
. Whole-class instruction
. Teacher modeling
Speed Reading
 Develop "traditional" old fashioned speed reading habits
first
 Once thoroughly ingrained it will allow the student to
input and scan information quickly
 Reading becomes habitualized at mostly an
unconscious level.
 In this version of speed reading, rather than the
incoming flow of information being the focus of attention,
active cognitive processes that organize information
dominate.
 See references to “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell
How to make Speed Reading Actually
Work
 The conscious focus of the brain is oriented
towards preparing a speech on the topic being
perused rather than trying to hope that text flying
by like the spray from a fire hose will make
sense
 It first requires the "student" to learn how to
speed read the "old fashioned way" at extremely
high speeds.
 Once this is "achieved", the speed reader has to
completely re-learn how to speed read again
from scratch.
Mind Mapping
Basically going through information in
order to find the major concepts
A student can create a visual Mind Map or
a Linear Mind Map
Really helps for studying for tests in
general
Chunking Reading
Basically highlighting chunked portions of
the reading in order to read faster
Students practice reading the highlighted
areas faster and faster until they reach the
desired speed and comprehension levels
Vocabulary
Vocabulary is important to not only
reading, but writing.
Studying and utilizing vocabulary helps
reading comprehension
It is also very important for the verbal SAT
References
Time4Learning, http://www.time4learning.com/contactUs.htm
Wiki Books, http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page
Rocket Reader,
http://www.rocketreader.com/download/RocketReaderDownload.html
OSPI, http://www.k12.wa.us/
Exercise Time!
 New Vocabulary
 DICT, DIT, SPEC/SPIC, TEND, SEN,
NOM/NOUN/NOWN/NAM
 Mind Mapping EX
Exercise for your eyes
***See Sheets