Topic: Reading skills

Submitted to: Ms sehar rafiq

Submitted by: Kainat zulfiqar

Fahad Fazil

Manahil nadeem

Saba kamran

Aqsa zahid ali

Course title: Functional English

University of education lower mall campus

Date: 29-oct-2018
Reading skills:

Reading is a complex "cognitive process" of decoding symbols in order to construct or

derive meaning (reading comprehension). Reading is a means of language acquisition,

communication, and of sharing information and ideas

Skill development:
:

Both lexical and sub-lexical cognitive processes contribute to how we learn to read.

Sub-lexical reading, involves teaching reading by associating characters or groups of characters

with sounds or by using phonics or synthetic phonics learning and teaching methodology,

sometimes argued to be in competition with whole language methods.

Lexical reading involves acquiring words or phrases without attention to the characters or groups

of characters that compose them or by using whole language learning and teaching methodology.

Sometimes argued to be in competition with phonics and synthetic phonics methods, and that the

whole language approach tends to impair learning how to spell.

Other methods of teaching and learning to read have developed, and become somewhat

controversial.

Learning to read in a second language, especially in adulthood, may be a different process than

learning to read a native language in childhood. There are cases of very young children learning

to read without having been taught. Such was the case with Truman Capote who reportedly

taught himself to read and write at the age of five. There are also accounts of people who taught
themselves to read by comparing street signs or Biblical passages to speech. The

novelist Nicholas Delbancotaught himself to read at age six during a transatlantic crossing by

studying a book about boats.

Brain activity in young and older children can be used to predict future reading skill. Cross

model mapping between the orthographic and phonologic areas in the brain are critical in

reading. Thus, the amount of activation in the left dorsal inferior frontal gyrus while performing

reading tasks can be used to predict later reading ability and advancement. Young children with

higher phonological word characteristic processing have significantly better reading skills later

on than older children who focus on whole-word orthographic representation

Overview of reading skills by other authors:

These are the writers who have review the reading skills.

Stephen King:

“Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials, no batteries, hours of enjoyment for

each dollar spent. What I wonder is why everybody doesn't carry a book around for those

inevitable dead spots in life.”

Harper Lee:

"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing."

Mark Twain:

"Don't explain your author, read him right and he explains himself."
C.S. Lewis

“Clearly one must read every good book at least once every ten years.”

Types of reading skills:

One of the first things you learn about teaching is that there are different reading

techniques and the students should be aware of which technique is most suited, depending on the

reading task required by the text or by their teacher.

Training students to know their reading techniques and deduce when best to apply them is indeed

important, especially under exam conditions when time constraints come into play and decisions

need to be made depending on time availability and the importance of the task at hand.

 Skimming

 Scanning

 Intensive

 Extensive

Skimming:

Skimming is sometimes referred to as gist reading. Skimming may help in order to know

what the text is about at its most basic level. You might typically do this with a magazine or

newspaper and would help you mentally and quickly shortlist those articles which you might

consider for a deeper read. You might typically skim to search for a name in a telephone

directory.
 You can reach a speed count of even 700 words per minute if you train yourself well in

this particular method. Comprehension is of course very low and understanding of overall

content very superficial.

Scanning:

Picture yourself visiting a historical city, guide book in hand. You would most probably

just scan the guide book to see which site you might want to visit. Scanning involves getting

your eyes to quickly scuttle across sentence and is used to get just a simple piece of information.

Interestingly, research has concluded that reading off a computer screen actually inhibits the

pathways to effective scanning and thus, reading of paper is far more conducive to speedy

comprehension of texts.

Intensive Reading:

You need to have your aims clear in mind when undertaking intensive reading.

Remember this is going to be far more time consuming than scanning or skimming. This type of

reading has indeed beneficial to language learners as it helps them understand vocabulary by

deducing the meaning of words in context. It moreover, helps with retention of information for

long periods of time and knowledge resulting from intensive reading persists in your long term

memory.

This is one reason why reading huge amounts of information just before an exam does not work

very well. When students do this, they undertake neither type of reading process effectively,

especially neglecting intensive reading. They may remember the answers in an exam but will

likely forget everything soon afterwards.

Extensive reading involves reading for pleasure. Because there is an element of

enjoyment in extensive reading it is unlikely that students will undertake extensive reading of a

text they do not like. It also requires a fluid decoding and assimilation of the text and content in

front of you. If the text is difficult and you stop every few minutes to figure out what is being

said or to look up new words in the dictionary, you are breaking your concentration and diverting

your thoughts.

Reading strategies:

As I mentioned above that there are many reading strategies but, but there are five separate

strategies that together from the high five reading strategies. Reading strategies are following.

 Activating prior knowledge

 Questioning

 Visualization

 Drawing inferences

 summarizing

Activating Prior Knowledge:

Students think about what they already know and use that knowledge, along with other

clues, to better understand what they read or to predict what will happen next. It is assumed that

students will continue to read to see if their predictions are correct.

question that relates the idea to their experience. Students can predict whether a similar

experience might occur in the text.

Another option is that when students reach the halfway point of a story, teachers can have

students predict what will happen at the end of the story. Students can explain how they came to

this prediction, which will encourage them to look at what they are reading and gain a deeper

understanding of words and passages in the text.

Questioning:

Students develop and attempt to answer questions about the important ideas in the text

while reading, using words such as “where” or “why” to develop their questions.

Teachers can promote this strategy by putting words that are used to formulate questions (such as

“where” and “why”) on index cards for students to use. Teachers can also have students form

small groups and ask questions using these words.

The National Institute for Literacy offers a number of reasons that explain why questions are

effective for improving reading ability.

 Gives students a purpose for reading

 Focuses students’ attention on what they should be learning

 Helps students think actively as they read

 Encourages students to monitor their comprehension

know

Visualization:

Teachers can explain to students how visualizing what is described in the text will help

them remember what they read. A sample activity to promote this strategy involves students

examining objects placed in front of them. Later, they look carefully at a picture that depicts a

scene. Finally, the teacher removes the objects and picture, and then asks students to visualize

and describe what they saw.

Drawing Inferences:

Teachers can help students look for key words that will help in understanding the text,

demonstrating how they can draw inferences from these words. Teachers can also identify key

words in a sample passage and then explain what students can learn about the passage from these

terms.

Summarizing:

Teachers can ask students to describe the text in their own words to a partner or a teacher.

If students are having trouble with this activity, teachers can prompt students with questions like

“What comes next?” or “What else did the passage say about [subject]?”

In addition to the relaxation that accompanies reading a good book, it’s possible that the subject you read

about can bring about immense inner peace and tranquility.

while reading self-help books has been shown to help people suffering from certain mood

disorders and mild mental illnesses.

Student learning:

The term student-centered learning refers to a wide variety of educational

programs, learning experiences, instructional approaches, and academic-support strategies that

are intended to address the distinct learning needs, interests, aspirations, or cultural backgrounds

of individual students and groups of students

Reading strategies effect on student learning:

 Reading allows us to experience more sensations

 It makes us more empathic

 Books provide plenty of mental stimulation

 Less stressed when we read regularly

 Reading can improve are mind

Reading allows us to experience more sensations:

Reading increases the activity in the brain’s central sulcus, which controls our motor

skills. If we read a passage where a character is walking along a path the activity from the

neurons in this area make us feel as though we’re experiencing the walk ourselves. Then there’s
grounded cognition. A concept that proves that reading actually puts you in someone else’s shoes

though the brain’s biology.

It makes us more empathetic:

Literary fiction readers have a higher ability to empathize with other’s emotions and

thoughts than those who read mainly nonfiction. In other words fiction readers can be more

empathetic, from various perspectives, just by reading about their favorite characters.

Books provided plenty of mental stimulation:

Mental stimulating your brain on a regular basis can help slow down Alzheimer’s and dementia.

It’s like physical exercise; the more you move, the better shape you’re in. for your brain to say

healthy and alert, it needs exercise. Reading keeps your activity levels high and your brain power

nice and strong.

Students become less stressed when they read regularly:

When you make a habit of reading its easier for your brain to relax and temporarily transport

itself to another world. A good book can daily stressors evaporate, put you in your characters

shoes and keep you focused on the words you’re reading if you’re looking for an easy way to

relax and distress try to make a habit out of reading more often.

Reading can improve students memory:

When you read you’re engaging more than a few brain functions. Such as phonemic awareness,

visual and auditory processes comprehension, fluency, and more. Reading jolts your brain into
action. Maintain concentration, and allows your mind to process the events happening before

you. The more you read and engage that part of your brain , the easier it is to keep your memory

strong.

References:

 Adler, C. R (Ed). (2001). put reading first: The research building blocks for
teaching children to read. Jessup, MD:ED Pubs.

 Corey, S. M. (1953). Action research to improve school practices. New York, NY:
Teachers College Press

 Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2000).Strategies that work teaching comprehension to