Wednesday, July 16, 2008

POWERFUL STEPS FOR STRENGTHENING YOUR READING COMPREHENSION

1.Analyze the time.

2.Analyze the passage which you are reading.

3.Rephrase each pargraph and make the expression of your own comprehension in your own words.

4.Read aloud in your mind if you are in an examination hall.

5.Re-read difficult or complicated places in the passage.

6.Try to slow down your reading rate and settle your attention on the most complicated areas.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Five Stages Of Reading Development

Learning to read doesn't just happen. It has to be taught through systematic, organized instruction. Reading is a skill which is built upon through stages and is an ongoing process.
If a stage of reading development has not been learned, students will flounder in their reading ability, which also affects their writing skills. It is imperative that teachers make certain students fully understand each stage of the reading/writing process before they move on to the next level.
Jean Chall, world renowned reading expert and psychologist for fifty years, and past professor emeritus at Harvard University cites her five stages of reading development below:
Stage 0:
Pre-reading Stage:
Unsystematic accumulation of understandings about reading between pre-school and kindergarten.
Stage 1:
Initial Reading or Decoding Stage (grades 1-2; Ages 6-7 )
Student's central task is learning arbitrary letters and associating them with corresponding parts of spoken words. Learner acquires knowledge about reading. Phonics.
Stage 2:
Confirmation, Fluency, Ungluing from Print, Automaticity Stage (grades 2-3; Ages 7-8)
Consolidation of what was learned in Stage 1. Requires reading many easy and familiar books for developmental reading. Gradual increase in functional and recreational reading. Common use of the basal readers. Functional reading important - content area texts - here's where we fail in our attempts to prepare our students. Range of possible recreational reading increases.
Stage 3:
Reading for Learning the New Stage: A First Step (Grades 4-8; ages 9-13)
Readers need to bring prior knowledge to their reading. Children acquire facts.
Stage 4:
Multiple Viewpoints Stage: (High School; Ages 14-18)
Should include instruction in reading/study skills, and reading strategies for success.
Stage 5:
Construction & Reconstruction Stage: College ; Ages 18 & up)
Adult literacy should stress acquisition of skills useful to the participants and the ability to apply those skills.
These are the stair steps of reading development. They are built upon and climbed, as students grow in their literacy development. Sometimes students get stuck in one of the stages. It's my job as a literacy specialist to "unstick" them so they can move on to the next phase and beyond, empowering them to become enthuiastic readers and writers.
Copyright © 2006 by Pamela Beers. All rights reserved.
Pamela Beers is a freelance writer, educator, and horse trainer. Her work as a literacy specialist, using Jeanne Chall's stages of reading, has changed reluctant readers into enthusiastic readers by making sure each student understands the skills needed in each of the five reading stages.

5 SUPER-POWER THINKING STRATEGIES FOR A STUDENT TO ACHIEVE ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

PREDICTIVE THINKING
Good reader are very sensitive when it comes to reading.They don't just jump on text and

speed up reading.The first thinking step a good reader will do is maknig certain predictions

about thoughts,events,outcomes and conclusions.Predictive thoughts determine how well and

how much you are going to understanding the reading text.The following two things are going to

happen with your predictions:

1.Your predictions might be denied by the reading text.

2.Your predictions might be confirmed.

Making predictions is a very sensitive thinking strategy for every good reader.Only bad readers

jsut jump on facts and start reading.


PICTORAL IMAGE CREATION

A good reader should be able to create images by turning words into ideas.When reading,you

should be able to turn the information from the text material into image.Images are like movies

in a reader's mind.Images which you are able to create in your mind through reading increase

your understanding of what you read.


RELATIVE DIFFERENCES

Another thinking strategy which is adopted by a good reader is drawing comparisons between

the existing knowledge and the new information.Most of your predictions should be primarily

based on your existing knowledge,the new information you have obtained from reading should

therefore deny or confirm your predictions.This is the main thing that determines the reason

why you are reading.

REBUILDING YOUR COMPREHENSION STATUS

Another thing which building way of thinking of a good reader is building comprehension

status.Checking your understanding by monitoring how it goes inside your memory.Remember

that whatever that is comprehended by you will be in your memory.If certain information seems

unclear,you should go back and re-read or if you discover an unknown word,a good reader will

stop and seek for the meaning.This reading attitude will rebuild your comprehension level.Good

readers seek to resolve all kinds of difficulties when they occur.

GAPS CONTROL IN UNDERSTANDING

Gaps in reading cannot be done away with when you are rading.It is an attitude of a good reader

to stop,check and correct those gaps.Gaps are bad signals which can carelessly result failure if

attention is not paid to that very area until they are resolved.Good readers are not discouraged

and get confused because of gaps.What you should do is reanalyze and sythesize.


(c)Copywright,written by Idowu Julius Babatunde
President of FIDELITY IMPACT EMPOWERMENT CENTER
NO 6 SURULERE RESIDENCE,OLAYIWOLA CRESCENT,
OPPOSITE GOVERNMENT ANNEX,OKEFIA,
OSOGBO,OSUN STATE,
NIGERIA.
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