PRE-READING SKILLS: Surveying, Skimming, Scanning

Recall of Previous Session Why do we need to pre-read? What are the uses of pre-reading strategies? What is the difference of pre-reading and reading? Why are both important? How do you do scanning? How can scanning help you as a reader?

Why do we need to pre-read? We don’t always have the time to read, or the interest in the reading material. Sometimes, we just want to find out a specific bit of information.

Uses of Pre-reading Strategies help us become effective managers of our time, resources, and energy help us, the readers, build up expectations and understandings about a text before we begin reading it

It’s not enough to pre-read. WE SHOULD READ.

Pre-reading Strategies Surveying Skimming Scanning

Scanning

Scanning PURPOSE: to help you find one specific bit of information within a relatively large body of information

Scanning HOW IT CAN HELP YOU uncovers irrelevant information accelerates reading speed and flexibility you know the material has the information you want, you just don’t know what specific page/chapter it can be found you are looking for something unknown, you won’t know exactly what it is until you find it

Scanning Parts of a book that can be helpful in scanning: Table of Contents Glossary Index headings chapter titles graphs, charts, tables, etc.

Scanning HOW TO DO IT: visualize the “thing” or information to be spotted—have a clear mental picture of the words use all available clues (headings, table of contents, boldfaced/italicized/underlined words) use systematic scanning patterns run eyes rapidly in the material using zigzag motion wide, side-by-side eye movement (for newspapers and other wide prints)

Scanning Game!

Formative Reading Quiz No. 1 Scanning a Reading Material

I. Scan the material given to you and answer the following questions. What is the main source of the article? How many school year resolutions does Lee-Chua suggest for students? How many steps does the writer suggest in order for one to establish concrete goals for a school year? Name one of the materials you can use in studying aside from organized notes. What should you be like (in terms of attitude) when you ask teachers for help?

II. True or False. Write TRUE if the statement is correct and FALSE if it is incorrect. In pre-reading the article “New (school) year resolutions for students”, it is BEST to use the pre-reading skill scanning in order to find out… …when the article was written. …the main idea behind the significance, in our lives as students, of not procrastinating. …the author’s stand about various types of teachers and how to deal with them. …the materials that can help me in my studying aside from my notes. …who wrote the article.

Today’s Learning Objectives To find out what surveying and skimming are To know the specific purposes of each pre-reading skill and to differentiate one from the other To skim, scan, and survey a reading material To cite the relevance of pre-reading skills in the overall process of reading

SURVEYING

Surveying PURPOSE HOW IT WILL HELP YOU to get a broad, overall picture of essentials in an article, chapter, or book HOW IT WILL HELP YOU facilitates reading increases subsequent reading speed improves comprehension gives ideas on whether you should skip, skim, read, or study the material helps you to be selective

Surveying HOW TO DO IT read the title read the first paragraph read all headings, italicized words, graphs, and tables read the last paragraph read the summary

Survey the article in one minute. Give one question you expect the article to answer just from surveying the title. True or False: The first heading includes a short discussion on what types of goals we should have as students. True or False: The second heading mainly discusses the tactics students employ in order to cram. True or False: The fourth heading talks about how to specifically take down notes.

SKIMMING

Skimming PURPOSE concentrates your attention on the essentials of a paragraph or a series of paragraphs to refresh your understanding of a passage after it’s read in detail

Skimming HOW IT WILL HELP YOU used to review material getting the main ideas and the general overview of the content skimming for meaning: relationships material is too important to discard (after surveying)

Skimming HOW TO DO IT read the first sentence of the paragraph read the last sentence of the paragraph read key words/phrases in between again, skimming for meaning: determine relationships

Scan (for) the little things. Survey (for) the big things. Skim (for) the meaning of both the little and big things.

What pre-reading skill should I use in order to… find out what Jars of Clay is? know what kinds of songs do Jars of Clay write, produce, and perform? understand the main idea of the song, “Our God is an Awesome God” by Jars of Clay?

What pre-reading skill should I use in order to… know who the author of The Giver is? get an idea of what the novel The Giver is about? list down the names of the characters in The Giver?

Scan (for) the little things. Survey (for) the big things. Skim (for) the meaning of both the little and big things.

Surveying 1. Based on the title and the summary, what do you think is the book about? 2. What two questions can you ask about the book based on the title and its summary? 3. How many chapters are there? Skimming 4. Read only the first and last sentences of each paragraph in the 1st chapter. What do you think is happening in the first chapter? Scanning 5. Who are the characters mentioned in the first chapter? 6. How is each character described? 7. Where are the charaters in the first chapter? 8. How is the placed described? Reflection 9-10. How long do you think you can finish the book? In what way did pre-reading skills help you determine that?

Recap: Today’s Learning Objectives To find out what surveying and skimming are To know the specific purposes of each pre-reading skill and to differentiate one from the other To skim, scan, and survey a reading material To cite the relevance of pre-reading skills in the overall process of reading