page 2: Reading Strategies

Reading strategies result in readers making text come alive and understanding meaning. Review the reading strategies you learned in previous units.  Following are two reading strategies:

• Skimming is reading a text quickly to understand its main points.
• Scanning is to glance through text to locate specific pieces of information.

Skim and scan the following features before reading your novel:

Covers	A front cover includes the title of the story and the author’s name, and it may include an image to represent the story. The back cover often includes a very brief summary to increase interest in the book, and possibly some reviews from other readers.
Dedication	A dedication is a short message written by the author devoting the book to someone or something significant to the author. Dedications usually are presented at the beginning of the book and sometimes appear on a separate page. Example Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote this dedication in his novel The Little Prince. To Leon Werth. – I ask children to forgive me for dedicating this book to a grown-up. I have a serious excuse. This grown-up is the best friend I have in the world. I have another excuse: this grown-up can understand anything, even books for children. I have a third excuse: he lives in France where he is hungry and cold. He needs to be comforted. If these excuses are not enough, then I want to dedicate this book to the child this grown-up once was. All grown-ups were children first (but few of them remember it), so I correct my dedication. To Leon Werth  when he was a little boy.
Acknowledgements	An acknowledgement page contains the author’s statement of thanks to people who have provided assistance or support in the writing of the story.  Authors may thank their publishers, editors, sources, illustrators, and/or their family members - whoever was helpful as the story was being written.
Prologue	A prologue is an introduction to a story that provides some details about events that have occurred in the past or details about the characters in the novel. Some novels have prologues; many do not.
Special Features	Some novels contain more than the written words. You may find illustrations or pictures, glossaries, maps, timelines, or family trees. These special features may be placed at the beginning or end of the novel, or sometimes they are scattered throughout the story.