Enhancing Reading Skills by Comprehension

Reading is Fun

The purpose of reading is to connect the ideas on the page to what you already know. If you don't know anything about a subject, then pouring words of text into your mind is like pouring water into your hand.


Improving Comprehension.

Reading comprehension requires motivation, mental frameworks for holding ideas, concentration and good study techniques. Here are some suggestions.

Develop a broad background.
Broaden your background knowledge by reading newspapers, magazines and books. Become interested in world events.

Know the structure of paragraphs.
Good writers construct paragraphs that have a beginning, middle and end. Often, the first sentence will give an overview that helps provide a framework for adding details. Also, look for transitional words, phrases or paragraphs that change the topic.

Identify the type of reasoning. 
Does the author use cause and effect reasoning, hypothesis, model building, induction or deduction, systems thinking? See section 20 for more examples on critical thinking skills.

Anticipate and predict. 
Really smart readers try to anticipate the author and predict future ideas and questions. If you're right, this reinforces your understanding. If you're wrong, you make adjustments quicker.

Look for the method of organization.
Is the material organized chronologically, serially, logically, functionally, spatially or hierarchical? See section 10 for more examples on organization.
Create motivation and interest.
Preview material, ask questions, discuss ideas with classmates. The stronger your interest, the greater your comprehension.
Pay attention to supporting cues.
Study pictures, graphs and headings. Read the first and last paragraph in a chapter, or the first sentence in each section.
Highlight, summarize and review.
Just reading a book once is not enough. To develop a deeper understanding, you have to highlight, summarize and review important ideas.

Build a good vocabulary.
For most educated people, this is a lifetime project. The best way to improve your vocabulary is to use a dictionary regularly. You might carry around a pocket dictionary and use it to look up new words. Or, you can keep a list of words to look up at the end of the day. Concentrate on roots, prefixes and endings.

Monitor effectiveness.
Good readers monitor their attention, concentration and effectiveness. They quickly recognize if they've missed an idea and backup to reread it. 

Example Exercise:

I fly airplanes for work.

I am a pilot.

Sometimes, I take my little girl with me.

Her name is Bristol.

Bristol likes to look out the window of the airplane.

She likes to look at the clouds.

She thinks the clouds look like animals.

She points at one with her finger.

"I see a giraffe!" she says.

I also have a little boy.

My little boy does not like to be up high.

He does not come with me on the airplane.

He likes to play airplane with me.

We play airplane when I get home.

We run around the yard. We wave our arms in the air. 

We make airplane noises

Questions

1)  Who is telling this story?

A. Bristol.

B. A little boy.

C. A pilot.

D. A friend.

2)  What does Bristol like to do in the 

airplane?

A. Look out the window.

B. Run in the yard.

C. Sit in the back.

D. Be the pilot.

3)  Bristol points at something outside 

the window. What does she point 

at?

A. A giraffe.

B. Her dad.

C. A cloud.

D. A tree.

4)  Why doesn't the little boy like to fly?

A. _______________________

__________________________

__________________________