Universidad Metropolitana
Título V Campus
Getting ready to read
Learning Zone - Inglés
Introduction
• One of many projects we have to do in
college includes “reading comprehension”.
Here, we will discuss how you will integrate
reading strategies to getting ready to read.
Purpose
The author’s background
& purpose for writing
Your background and
purpose for reading
The meanings you make
as you read
• The author has a purpose with the text and a
message to get across; also, the author will
choose the facts and ideas.
• “In doing this, the author draws on his
or her knowledge and feelings about a
subject. Obviously, what the author’s
write in a text determines what you
learn from it”.
Steps to follow before, while & after you read
• “Because what you get out of a text depends
on what you already know about the subject,
take FOUR STEPS before reading.”
Steps to follow:
1. Previewing before reading –
• Think about all types of titles.
• Skim through the pages, there you may
find more information about the text.
• There you will find words and terms that
the author repeats; mostly written in bold
or italics.
• You will find more information when you
see sentences like “ This chapter includes
information about…” or “ First we’ll
consider… then we’ll consider…”
• Illustrations may give you a clue of what
the text is about.
• Margin notes and/or footnotes are very
helpful.
Steps to follow:
2. What you already know about & how it
relates to you –
• Visualize what you already know.
• A helping tool is to brainstorm. Here, we
have a little chart that will show you how
to do it.
Brainstorming diagram:
words
concepts
Facts
Brainstorming
ideas
topics
sentences
Steps to follow:
3. Questions to improve your reading –
• Preparing questions and then answer with
what you already read.
• A perfect question to start with would be
“What do I expect to learn by reading this
material?”
Steps to follow:
4. Reading difficulty or load –
• Estimate the amount of time it will get
you to read the whole text & what is
necessary for you to master it.
• You can predict if the text is “light” or
“heavy”.
Read three times:
• How many times do I have to read the text ?
1.Relate yourself with the text.
2.Analyze what you read.
3.Corroborate what you read.
Practice: Read the next couple of paragraphs.
• A Nation on the Move: America Moves West
By: Henry Graff
Introduction
•
After the War of 1812, Americans turned their attention from problems
of Europe to the promise of a growing nation. Vast of changes had
begun to take place. One of the most exciting of these was the
migrating of the people into the region between the Appalachians and
the Mississippi. One visitor of the United States said in wonder,
“American seems to be breaking up and moving westward.”
•
A problem that faced every family deciding to move west was how to
go. There was no easy, direct route to follow. Recognizable roads
either did not exist or were in such poor condition that after a heavy
rain, wagons and horses simply bogged down in the mud.
The National Road
•
In 1811 the construction of a road, called the Cumberland or National
Road, began. This road would stretch from Cumberland, Maryland, to
Wheeling, a town in western Virginia. The road opened seven years
later, people by the thousands traveled on it, seeking a new life farther
west. Conestogas, or covered wagons, filled with goods bound for
market used to the road in both directions.
Channels
•
In the early 1800’s shipping goods from one section of the country to
another was expensive. The National Road had helped to lower this
cost. American businesspeople still searched for ways to move freight
across the country even more cheaply. A way truly to link the East and
the west had to be found. The answer, some thought, was the channel,
a waterway dug across land for ships to sail through.
Channels (continue)
•
DeWitt Clinton, the governor of New York, began in 1817 to push for
the construction of a canal linking the Great Lakes with the Atlantic
Ocean. Many people considered Clinton’s “Big Ditch”, as the project
was nicknamed, doomed to failure. Finally, the massive project got
underway. Eight years later the channel stretched from Buffalo, New
York, to Albany, New York, on the Hudson River. The Erie Channel,
costing $7 million, paid for itself within nine years. Its immense
success encouraged other states to begin channel projects.
Steamboats
•
Americans had always used the natural waterways to transport
themselves and their goods from one place to another. When a boat was
forced to sail against a current of a river, however, it was impossible to
be sure how long the trip would take.
•
Several Americans worked on an invention – the steamboat – that
would greatly aid river travel. They believed that a boat powered by
steam engines would be able to move upstream readily against a strong
current. Robert Fulton’s Clermont sailed up the Hudson River from
New York City to Albany in 1807. At that time, a new age of travel
and transport was born. It was also needed was a faster means of
transportation across land.
Railroads
•
Some Americans were convinced that steam engines could also be used
to move wagons faster on land. In 1828, investors in the city of
Baltimore began to build a railroad to the Ohio River. The fist spadeful
of earth was turned by Charles Carroll, the last surviving signer of the
Declaration of Independence. The merchants of Baltimore hoped that
the railroad would give faster, cheaper service to the West than
available.
•
By 1840’s railroad building was going on everywhere. During the
1850’s, the amount of railroad track in the United States increased from
9021 miles (14,343 kilometers) to 30,626 miles (49,002 kilometers).
The East Coast was now joined to the land beyond the Appalachian
Mountain by iron rails.
Practice: Fill the boxes with what you learned from the story.
Subheading
What do you
predict that
section is about?
What do you
already know
about the text?
What does the
text say about
this subtopic?
What did you
learn about this
topic?
Prepared by:
• Nirazette L. Gonzalez Abella
• Cristabel R. Ocasio Ilarraza
Bibliography:
• Book: Reading with meaning
• Strategies for college reading (Fifth
edition)
Revisado en mayo 2009.
• Revisado por:
• Priscilla J. Pérez Morales
• Prof. María Isaac