Reading Strategies
Completion requirements
Unit 4
What do kids like to do?
Reading Strategies
You used various reading strategies in previous units to determine the author's purpose in a story. Three additional strategies are listed on page 9 of Literacy in Action 4B:
- use what you know
- visualize
- synthesize
These new strategies will help you to make sense of news articles you will read.
Use what you know means using your background knowledge to make sense of what you are reading.
For example, if you are reading an article about students performing the play The Three Little Pigs, you can use your background knowledge to understand what the author is talking about. You may be familiar with what performing a play is, and you may know the story about the Three Little Pigs. You may have also seen other people performing before.
If you have never read about astronauts in space, you may be unfamiliar with that topic and may need to read such an article closely for understanding. You may have to read other articles about space to get a better idea of the author’s message.
Visualizing means to use the information to make a picture in your mind of what you are reading.
Watch the video in which a teacher explains how to use visualizing to understand the main idea in a poem. The title of the poem is not provided so you have to imagine what is happening to discover meaning.
Download the Visualizing Technique document to read information as it is discussed in the video.
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- Download the document Visualizing Technique.
- IMPORTANT NOTE: When the download screen opens:
- Click the "Open with" button.
- Select "Adobe Reader".
- Click "OK".
- You will then be able to view the document Visualizing Technique.
- Can't view the file? View Skill Builder: Saving Dynamic PDFs.
Synthesize means putting details together to arrive at a main idea.
When synthesizing, you connect new information with other information you have read or viewed previously.
- For example, when you join several tiny blurred puzzle pieces to form one large distinct picture, you used the process of synthesizing to determine the main idea of all those puzzle pieces.
- In another example, a cook assembles individual ingredients which may not have a connection to you. However, when they are put together and baked, you will recognize the product - a cake!
If everyone who reads the same information and has the same background knowledge about what was read, each person should arrive at the same main idea.
You will learn how to do use synthesis when you read different news articles.
Now it is time to use these new strategies. On the next page, you will revisit Reading News Articles.