{"id":133,"date":"2019-04-14T18:19:44","date_gmt":"2019-04-14T22:19:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/abestudentsuccess\/chapter\/critical-reading-skills\/"},"modified":"2020-09-11T10:41:18","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T14:41:18","slug":"critical-reading-skills","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/studentsuccess\/chapter\/critical-reading-skills\/","title":{"raw":"5.2 Critical Reading Skills","rendered":"5.2 Critical Reading Skills"},"content":{"raw":"
\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_130\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\"]\"A Reading for joy and learning.[\/caption]\n\nLearning to read critically is an\u00a0 important part of\u00a0 developing good study habits, and ultimately strong reading skills will enhance almost every area of your life.\n\n<\/div>\n
\n\nMost students entering college have not yet dealt with the level of difficulty involved in reading\u2013and comprehending\u2013scholarly textbooks and articles. The challenge may even surprise some who have pretty good reading and comprehension skills so far. Other students for whom reading has mostly consisted of social media, texts, forum chat rooms, and emails, find they are intimidated by the sheer amount of reading there is in college classes.\n

What is Reading Comprehension?<\/h1>\nReading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a message. In other words, how well do you understand what you read? This understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the written message. Comprehension is a \u201ccreative, multi-faceted process\u201d dependent upon four language skills: phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Proficient reading depends on the ability to recognize words quickly and effortlessly. It is also determined by an individual\u2019s cognitive development, which is \u201cthe construction of thought processes\u201d. Reading comprehension involves both the ability to decode (figure out) words (i.e. know what the words are) and also the ability to make meaning of the words strung together (comprehension) Some people learn through education or instruction and others through direct experiences.\n\nThere are specific traits that determine how successfully an individual will comprehend text, including prior knowledge about the subject, well-developed language, and the ability to make inferences. Having the skill to monitor comprehension is a factor: \u201cWhy is this important?\u201d and \u201cDo I need to read the entire text?\u201d are examples. Another trait is the ability to be self-correcting, which allows for solutions to comprehension challenges.\n

Vocabulary<\/h2>\nReading comprehension and vocabulary are inextricably linked. The ability to decode or identify and pronounce words is self-evidently important, but knowing what the words mean has a major and direct effect on knowing what any specific passage means. Students with a smaller vocabulary than other students comprehend less of what they read, and it has been suggested that the most impactful way to improve comprehension is to improve vocabulary.\n\nMost words are learned gradually through a wide variety of environments: television, books, and conversations. Some words are more complex and difficult to learn, such as homonyms, words that have multiple meanings and those with figurative meanings, like idioms, similes, and metaphors.\n

Reciprocal Teaching<\/h2>\nReciprocal teaching requires students to predict, summarize, clarify, and ask questions for sections of a text. The use of strategies like summarizing after each paragraph have come to be seen as effective strategies for building students\u2019 comprehension. The idea is that students will develop stronger reading comprehension skills on their own if the teacher gives them explicit mental tools for unpacking text.\n

Instructional Conversations<\/h2>\n[caption id=\"attachment_2564\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"417\"]\"\" Instructional conversations create higher-level thinking opportunities for students.[\/caption]\n\n\u201cInstructional conversations\u201d, or comprehension through discussion, creates higher-level thinking opportunities for students by promoting critical and aesthetic thinking about the text. There are several types of questions to focus on: remembering; testing understanding; application or solving; synthesis or creating; and evaluation and judging. It is helpful to use these types of questions through \u201cthink-alouds\u201d before, during, and after reading a text. When a student can relate a passage to an experience, another book, or other facts about the world, they are \u201cmaking a connection\u201d. Making connections helps students understand the author\u2019s purpose in a fiction or non-fiction story.\n

Text Factors<\/h2>\nThere are factors that, once discerned, make it easier for the reader to understand the written text. One is the genre, like folktales, historical fiction, biographies or poetry. Each genre has its own characteristics for text structure that, once understood, help the reader comprehend it. A story is composed of a plot, characters, setting, point of view, and theme. Informational books provide real world knowledge for students and have unique features such as: headings, maps, vocabulary, and an index. Poems are written in different forms and the most commonly used are: rhymed verse, haiku, free verse, and narratives. Poetry uses devices such as: alliteration, repetition, rhyme, metaphors, and similes. Students who are familiar with genres, organizational patterns, and text features in books they read are better able to create those text factors in their own writing.\n

The SQ3R Strategy<\/h1>\nThe SQ3R method has been a popular method of reading to learn. Textbooks require different reading methods than you might use for a novel, magazine, or website. When you approach a textbook, you are using it as a tool to learn the material that you need to know for your course. To achieve your aims, you will want to read with a purpose. One method for reading purposefully is called SQ3R. The acronym SQ3R reminds you of the elements of this reading method \u2013 Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review \u2013 that will help you become a more effective reader.\n\n<\/div>\n\"""\"\n

Survey<\/h2>\nBefore diving in to read the chapter \u2013 look over some of the key aspects.\n