Reading Comprehension Tips

1. Reading Comprehension Tips Suggestions for reading non-fiction and for completing reading comprehension tests *Presentation based on Vivien Martin’s Test-Prep Strategies

2. Reading Strategies Vary • There are many strategies to help with reading comprehension.

3. How To Pick a Strategy • Which strategies you use will depend on WHAT you are reading and WHY you are reading.

4. Non Fiction Reading • This presentation focuses on non-fiction and assumes a testing situation.

5. Overall strategy • When reading non-fiction, you generally want to read it quickly through one time to get the overall idea of the text – a technique called skimming.

6. Purpose of Skimming • Do not try to understand all the words or the information. Pay attention to any subheadings or pictures/diagrams.

7. Reading Comprehension Test • If it is a reading comprehension test, read the questions and find the answers. • Sometimes, reading the questions first will help.

8. 6 Types of READING (NON-FICTION) questions • General • Explicit • Implicit • Author’s Logic • Vocabulary • Comparison

9. 1. General Questions • General questions usually involved: • Finding the “main idea” of the passage • Related to the title

10. General Questions cont. • Answer is found quickly within the passage • Usually in the first OR last paragraph • Refer to the title to determine main idea

11. General questions cont. • Questions may ask things such as: • The main idea of this selection is… • What is another possible title for this article? • The third paragraph is mainly about…

12. 2. Explicit Questions • “Explicit” means that it is “obvious”. These questions are also known as “fact-based” questions. • Answer is found quickly within the passage.

13. Explicit continued… • Choose the KEY word/s in the question and then scan the passage for those key words. Usually the answer is in that sentence or the line above or below the key words.

14. Explicit continued… • Examples of “explicit” types of questions: • Who does the author describe as shy? • What was the reason Sam did not like to eat green eggs and ham? • When did Wendy stop caring about her education?

15. 3. Implicit Questions • “Implicit” means that it is an inference question. • You have to make an educated guess based on the “clues” to the question. • You have to “read between the lines”

16. Implicit continued • Inference or Implicit Questions ask the reader to understand ideas that are not directly stated in the text. • Don’t assume facts not in the reading – rather infer what the author is saying about what is there.

17. Implicit continued • Readers must infer underlying meaning by using their own knowledge, ideas, and judgment. • You can’t infer unless you understand the main idea & facts, so answer those questions first.

18. 4. Author’s Logic • These are questions that ask you to put yourself in the author’s “shoes”

19. Author’s Logic cont. • These questions ask about: • Tone • Purpose • What would go in another paragraph or chapter? • What sources were used or could have been used? • What was the inspiration for this piece?

20. Author’s Logic cont. • Answering these questions usually requires you to • Understand the main idea to determine purpose, audience, or inspiration

21. Author’s Logic Strategies • Read the first and last paragraphs to decide “what would come next” • Look at word choice (big words, casual words, 1st or 3rd person) to determine TONE

22. 5. Questions about Vocabulary • Some questions might ask you to choose the synonym of a word from the passage.

23. Connotation • If you don’t know the meaning of the word, decide if it sounds negative or positive • If the word sounds positive, go to the answer choices and eliminate the negative choices. A positive sounding word will never have a negative synonym. (and vice versa) • It helps to recognize negative prefixes such as dis-, mis-, un-, etc.

24. Vocabulary Continued • Questions might ask you understand the word in context of a sentence.

25. Strategy • Read the sentence and use clues within the sentence to come up with own definition. Read the answer choices and find the word that is closest to own definition. Example: I took copious notes, so I don’t think I missed one word the teacher said. Copious means— a. few b. many c. sloppy d. selective

26. Vocabulary continued • Questions might ask you to demonstrate that you understand multiple meanings of a word. • You can often figure out vocabulary questions by finding and then reading the sentence in which the word is located.

27. 6. Comparison Questions • These are usually only used when you are reading two texts. • These questions ask you to look for similarities between the texts or explain differences.

28. Comparison Continued • It might be one of the other types of questions but about both texts, such as comparing the sources used in the two texts

29. A review: • Read the passage quickly to determine the main idea. • Read the questions and decide what type of question is being asked and the best way to answer. • Apply the strategies

30. Questions