READING COMPREHENSION

Transcription

1 READING COMPREHENSION Reading comprehension skills are essential to understand everything you read. In high school and in college you will be expected to derive information from passages of varying length and difficulty. From the SAT or ACT to your senior thesis, strong reading skills will be vital for success. You will also apply reading comprehension skills in your writing. You will use these skills to develop your thesis statements and to make your writing more thoughtful and interesting! Like the grammar section, this section cannot address every aspect of reading comprehension. The skills listed here are the most crucial skills and must be mastered before you are ready to tackle more complex skills. Test-taking hints for Reading Comprehension: The secret to correctly answering reading comprehension questions is to choose the BEST answer. Reading comprehension questions usually do not provide you with perfect choices, so you must choose the choice that is most closely supported by the passage. Do not rely on outside information to answer any questions about a passage. If you do not think the passage has provided you with sufficient information to answer the question, read the passage again. It is quite possible that you are simply overlooking the answer. There is the possibility that the correct answer is not enough information provided, but be sure to exhaust all other possibilities before choosing this answer College Bound, Inc.

2 DETAILS Details are what you want after your best friend gets back from a date. Details are what your friends want to hear when you have a juicy story to tell. Details are the specific pieces of information included in a passage to support the main idea or argument in the passage. Without details, your reader will get frustrated and lose interest. REMEMBERING details when READING: It is important to pay attention to and remember as many details from a passage as you can. Then you can answer questions about the passage and respond appropriately to the passage. The more details you can remember without going back to the text, the better. This will be especially helpful when taking the SAT or ACT, where you will be expected to read passages quickly and then answer several questions about each passage. ACTIVE READING may help you remember details more easily. Active reading includes underlining and/or highlighting important points in a text as you read. The important details will then be much easier to find when you are answering questions later! For visual people: Another helpful device to remember details is to paint a picture in your head of what is going on as you read. Just like the saying, a picture is worth a thousand words, you will remember dozens more details if you can see them! College Bound, Inc.

3 USING details when WRITING: When writing, be sure to follow the following guidelines: Think of details as evidence. The more evidence you have, the stronger your argument will be. Have at least three details, or facts, to support your main idea or thesis. 1 Keep your details interesting. If your details are weak, your argument will be weak. The Reading Lab provides hundreds of helpful questions to challenge your student s ability to read for details. With your student, select a few passages from the Lab that are appropriate for their level. Have he/she read a passage, and then try to answer as many of the questions as they can without looking back at the text. It may be tough to remember many details at first! They may be tempted to look back at the passage, but have them continue practicing. They will improve with practice!!! 1 See Chapter on Thesis Statements College Bound, Inc.

4 MAIN IDEA You have probably already encountered questions asking you to identify the main idea of a passage. idea. You may have also been told that each of your essays should be focused on one main This section will help you to identify the main idea in a passage and to focus each of your essays on one main idea. The main idea is just as it sounds. It is the main point in a passage, article, book, and so forth. IDENTIFYING MAIN IDEA IN READING Sometimes the main idea of a passage will be explicitly stated. In other passages, it will not be as obvious. The following questions, either considered separately or together, may be helpful in identifying the main idea of a passage: 1) What is the passage mostly about? 2) What is the author s point? 3) What idea brings together most of the information? Practice makes perfect. Read the passages on the next page, and try to identify the main idea of the passages. Talk over the passages with your partner. Ask yourself the questions above, and consider whether the main idea you have selected would be too broad, too narrow, or right on target College Bound, Inc.

5 PRACTICE PASSAGE #1 Tim walked up the path, afraid of what he might find around the corner. Looking back, he realized he had no choice but to find out. He heard a twig crack, and his feet went numb. He thought to himself, If I get out of this alive, I ll never, ever play a practical joke on Beth again. As he rounded the corner, his muscles tightened like a stretched rubber band. This is it, he said. MAIN IDEA: Tim is afraid of what is around the corner. PRACTICE PASSAGE #2 Sarah, you are the nicest sister a guy could ever want. Knowing that I have a migraine, you ve so thoughtfully decided to practice your trumpet right next to me. All of my friends were wrong when they said you were annoying and inconsiderate! MAIN IDEA: Sarah is annoying and inconsiderate College Bound, Inc.

6 PRACTICE PASSAGE #3 Scientists expect Generation X to embark mid-july of this year. The infestation should last 6-8 weeks, during which many areas of Virginia, DC, and Maryland will be filled with the humming music of the male mating call. Many residents of the metro-dc area dread the invasion, but George Harrison of George Washington University eagerly awaits their debut. MAIN IDEA: The anticipation of the Generation-X infestation in the metro-dc area. Section V of this Handbook contains supplemental questions to passages contained in the Reading Lab. Included in Section V is one question per passage asking you to identify the main idea of the passage. You can also continue to practice identifying the main idea in other passages. What is the main idea of the most recent newspaper article you ve read? What is the main idea of your favorite movie? USING MAIN IDEA IN WRITING In high school and college you will write essays. Sometimes you will need to develop a main idea from a given topic. Sometimes you will be expected to create your own topic and main idea. In both instances, ALWAYS be sure you STICK WITH YOUR MAIN IDEA! The following is an excellent test to ensure your essay adheres to one main idea: 1) Write your main idea at the top of your first page. 2) Highlight each sentence and/or phrase that directly relates to your main idea. 3) Remove any sentences and phrases that aren t highlighted College Bound, Inc.

7 MAKING INFERENCES SCENARIO: Joyce s sister, Diana, comes home from school, goes straight to her room, and slams the door. Joyce hears Diana crying, so Joyce knocks on the door. Diana responds, That s it! I m never going to college! Knowing that Diana was supposed to receive her PSAT score at school today, Joyce infers that: A. Diana won a million dollars. B. Diana likes peanut butter. C. Diana is not pleased with her PSAT results. If you chose C, that is a good start. Diana may like peanut butter and may have won a million dollars, but these possibilities are not mentioned in the passage. The only conclusion you can logically reach is C. (Reaching a conclusion is the same as making an inference.) When reading, you will be asked to: 1) Make inferences based on information given (just as you did above). 2) Identify whether an author s conclusion is valid or invalid. (Pretend the passage above ends with the statement, Joyce concludes that Diana won a million dollars. You may also be expected to state that Joyce s conclusion is invalid, because it is not supported by the evidence.) 3) Identify why an author s inference is valid or invalid. Sometimes authors explicitly state their conclusions. Sometimes they do not! When writing, any inferences you state or imply must be well-supported by evidence you include. PRACTICE: The Reading Lab provides excellent passages you can read with your student to practice identifying and making inferences College Bound, Inc.

8 CAUSE AND EFFECT For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. --Sir Isaac Newton s Third Law of Motion CAUSE: EFFECT: Why something happens. The result of the cause. Sometimes one cause may lead to many effects. Sometimes many causes may lead to one effect. Examples: CAUSE: You review algebra and geometry with your partner at College Bound every week during the school year. EFFECT: You raise your Math SAT Score by 200 points. CAUSE: Rodney talked to Kim in the hallway after class. EFFECT: Rodney and Kim were late to their next class. Certain SIGNAL WORDS help identify a CAUSE in a passage. Some examples include: because for due to since Certain SIGNAL WORDS help identify an EFFECT in a passage. Some are: accordingly consequently so hence as a result of hence therefore thus PRACTICE: Using a newspaper or your personal knowledge, list at least 5 cause and effect relationships from today s news: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) CAUSE EFFECT College Bound, Inc.

9 FACT AND OPINION The difference between fact and opinion can often be difficult to decipher, but it s important to understand the difference when you are reading and writing. FACTS can be CHECKED OR VERIFIED. OPINIONS CANNOT be CHECKED OR VERIFIED. Opinions are how someone feels about something. To figure out whether a statement is a fact or an opinion, use the following test: If you can use one or more of your five senses to prove the statement, the statement is probably a fact. If not, it is probably an opinion. If someone CANNOT disagree with the statement, the statement is probably a fact. If they could, it is probably an opinion. IDENTIFYING FACT AND OPINION WHILE READING: MISCONCEPTION: Any statement in a textbook, newspaper, or any other printed source is entirely factual. THE TRUTH: Literature is FILLED with opinions even textbooks and newspapers. Authors can support these opinions with facts, which may make them valuable opinions, but they are STILL OPINIONS! Being able to identify fact and opinion in will help you better understand the information in a passage College Bound, Inc.

10 USING FACT AND OPINION IN WRITING: Using fact and opinion in your writing will probably prove to be easier than identifying it in passages. Always be AWARE of your use of facts versus opinions. Do not treat opinions as facts, and do not treat facts like opinions. Most essays you write in high school and college will contain facts and opinions. Your thesis statement 2 will provide the framework for your essay and will be your argument, or your OPINION. You will support or prove your opinion by using evidence, or FACTS. In creative writing, instead of a thesis statement, you will likely have a main idea. For example, your main idea may be Overcoming an Obstacle. Your opinion might be that you overcame an obstacle when you got a B+ in English last semester. You would support this opinion with facts. These facts could range from mentioning that you had always received C s in English before, that you spent an extra hour a night on your English homework last semester, and that you are experiencing continued success in your current English class. Practice: The Reading Lab Supplement contains questions to passages in the Reading Lab. Included in the Reading Lab Supplement are questions asking you to identify the facts and/or opinions in the passages. 2 See the discussion on thesis statements in Chapter Four, Section F College Bound, Inc.

11 THESIS STATEMENTS You have probably been in an argument. Maybe you were arguing with a friend over what you were going to do that afternoon, or maybe you have been in an argument with your parents about staying up too late or not helping out around the house. The more arguing you have done, the more practice you have had at creating thesis statements. A thesis statement succinctly states your argument, which is usually limited to one sentence. Most papers you will write in high school, college, and beyond will be structured around thesis statements. READING THESIS STATEMENTS: Identifying an author s thesis statement, or ARGUMENT, is essential to understanding a passage. If you cannot identify an author s thesis, you have not clearly understood the passage. Questions addressing Author s Purpose and Author s Argument in the Reading Lab will be extremely helpful in practicing how to identify an author s thesis. WRITING THESIS STATEMENTS: You should develop your thesis statement based on available evidence. NEVER try to FORCE the evidence to support your thesis statement. If you need to revise your thesis statement based on information you obtain, that is fine! There is no reason to cling to a dead thesis statement. When writing, your thesis statement is most effectively included either in the beginning or at the end of your essay. Most instructors prefer thesis statements to be the last sentence of your introduction College Bound, Inc.

12 Strong thesis statements 1) are supported by the evidence. As a general rule, you should have at least 3 details to support any thesis statement. If you cannot find at least three pieces of supporting evidence, REVISE your thesis! 2) are specific and original. Stating that Romeo and Juliet is good means that you then must define good, and you are still left with a really boring thesis!) 3) incite debate. You could say that gravity is important, but could someone debate that? Think of a thesis statement that gets people fired up and disagreeing with you!) Some examples of strong thesis statements: --The death penalty should be outlawed in the United States. --School uniforms would impede rather than facilitate learning in DC public schools. --The committee should approve an eight o clock curfew for teenagers. --Eminem s Stan satirizes the misplaced adoration of popular performers. --Seemingly insignificant differences between the Quarto and Folio versions of King Lear vastly affect the characterization of Cordelia. Discuss with your partner whether the thesis statements above are strong. Would you agree or disagree with these statements? What evidence would you use to prove them wrong? PRACTICE: Current events, politics, and literature (even the newspaper) are good sources for thesis statements. You develop opinions all the time now it is time to practice effectively writing your opinions and supporting them with facts! The Reading Lab Supplement contains questions to passages contained in the Reading Lab. Included in the Reading Lab Supplement are questions asking you to formulate thesis statements from the given passages. Support your thesis statements with evidence College Bound, Inc.