Reading for Speed READING SKILL

Reading Speed Many readers read slowly. They read carefully. If they don’t understand it 100%, they read it again. They try to understand every sentence 100%. They may read a sentence many times to understand it. This is good if you have time, but often you won’t have time.

SKIMMING LOOKING AT THE IMPORTANT WORDS

SKIMMING When you skim, you skip over parts of a reading. You read the most important parts and don’t pay attention to the small parts. You read for the gist (general meaning)

SKIMMING When you skim, you look at content words. Nouns Main Verbs Adjectives Adverbs I went to the store with my friends. I went to the store with my friends. Some bears can cause problems.

SKIMMING Some people only look for the big idea of every paragraph to guess the meaning of a longer text. Remember, the big idea is normally at the top of every paragraph. Paramedics encounter many dangers at work. They are exposed to hazardous materials, such as blood and chemicals. They also talk to dangerous victims who may have mental problems. In addition, they may have….

SKIMMING Some people only look for the big idea of every paragraph to guess the meaning of a longer text. Remember, the big idea is normally at the top of every paragraph. Paramedics encounter many dangers at work. They are exposed to hazardous materials, such as blood and chemicals. They also talk to dangerous victims who may have mental problems. In addition, they may have….

One way to improve your skimming speed is with a prompter. Let’s try it HERE: EASY PROMPTER In 1812 Canada was not yet a country. It was a British colony and part of British North America. British North America was divided into three provinces, Upper Canada, Lower Canada and Ruperts Land. What is now southern Ontario was Upper Canada. What is now southern Quebec and Labrador was Lower Canada. Ruperts Land was the rest of what is now eastern Canada. In July of 1812 the Americans invaded British North America. Many battles were fought in both Upper Canada and Lower Canada. Some of the battles were on land. Some were sea battles (battles between ships) on Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, or on the St. Lawrence River. There were not many roads so transportation by water was very important. Both sides invaded each other's territory but those invasions were either unsuccessful or temporary. When the war ended in 1814 the border with the United States remained the same as it was in 1812. The border included the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. It is still the border between Canada and the United States. Fort Henry is on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River at Kingston where the St. Lawrence River widens into Lake Ontario. The original Fort Henry was built by the British during the War of 1812. A bigger and stronger fort was built between 1832 and 1837 to protect Lake Ontario from any future attack from the United States. There were also naval shipyards in Kingston that the British wanted to protect. Also, the fort helped protect the Rideau Canal which was an important waterway between Kingston and Ottawa. There hasn't been another war between Canada and the United States and Fort Henry has never been attacked. Today Fort Henry is a tourist attraction.

SCANNING LOOKING FOR SPECIFIC INFORMATION

SCANNING When you scan, you look for specific information. Question: When did the man leave home? You look for “leave home” in the text.

SCANNING When you scan, you look for specific information. You look for key words. You look for specific meanings. Which sentences have present continuous? You look for words with “ing” at the end.

SKIMMING AND SCANNING USING BOTH TOGETHER

General + Specific 100% of the text! SKIMMING AND SCANNING You might be wondering – if skimming is reading general ideas, and scanning is reading specific ideas, aren’t you reading the whole text? General + Specific 100% of the text!

SKIMMING AND SCANNING What you should try to do is skim the text first. Read through it quickly. Don’t read any sentence more than once. Focus on content words.

SKIMMING AND SCANNING Second, read the questions. This will show you what to look for.

SKIMMING AND SCANNING Third, scan for the big idea of each paragraph.

SKIMMING AND SCANNING With each question, scan for the answer in the paragraph with the matching big idea.

SKIMMING AND SCANNING You can also try to search for the key words from the question inside the text, but this can take longer. Where did the blue dog run? blue dog run