Understanding Reading Comprehension

• Reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game where readers use prior knowledge, language structure, and context to make sense of a text.
• Reading is the ability to assign meaning to symbols.
• Communication is the process of interaction involving at least two entities expected to exchange information.
• Sender -> receiver, speaker -> listener is the communication model.

Summary of Reading

• Reading unlocks other skills like recognizing letters or identifying words.
• Reading is a complex process that involves a series of stages and reading growth.
• Being good at reading one type of text doesn't guarantee proficiency in all types.
• Literary texts are creatively written, while factual texts are purely informative.
• Decoding, making sense of a text, is part of understanding a text, but too much focus on it isn't advisable for proficient reading.
• Proficiency requires accuracy (understanding the text) and fluency (reading without obstacles).

Stages of Reading Development

• Reading Development refers to the progression from readiness to proficiency.
• Stage 0 (Pre-Reading): No reading occurs; children utter incomprehensible words.
• Stage 1 (Initial Reading): Children acquire basic reading skills.
• Stage 2 (Confirmation and Fluency): Learned skills are put into practice.
• Stage 3 (Reading for Learning the New): Acquiring new information and perspectives.
• Stage 4 (Multiple Viewpoint): Validating or negating previously acquired information.
• Stage 5 (Construction and Reconstruction): Making informed decisions and judgments when evaluating information.
• A good reader is strategic in monitoring interactive processes that assist comprehension.

Characteristics of a Good Reader

• They employ varied reading strategies to increase comprehension.
• A good reader is motivated to read & learn, and always has an objective before reading.
• Good reading allows for one to find relevance of reading in daily life.
• A good reader is mentally engaged, constantly asking self-questions to understand the text.
• Problem-solving involves paying attention to every detail of text.

Schemata

• Schemata involves the summation of learnings acquired through experiences and other sources.
• Schemas serve as a background knowledge that helps understanding.
• Experiences and acquired information both play key roles
• Blueprint allows for an understanding of the content

Psychological Process of Reading

• Recognizing printed language and assigning meanings based on schemata are key.
• It is important to relate schemata with the author's ideas.
• Readers create or modify knowledge based on combined schemata and the author's idea.

Three Ways of Processing Information When Reading

• Bottom-Up Approach: Depends on information in the book (book to person).
• Top-Down Approach: Reading with understanding by connecting to prior knowledge (mind to book).
• Interactive Approach: Equal inter-reliance.

Reading Types

• 4P's of Reading: Reasons for reading
• Scanning and Skimming: Goal is to get an overview of the text.
• Intensive Reading: Academic survival.
• Extensive Reading: Pleasure.
• Detailed Study Reading: Reading in order to create an output afterwards
• Literature Reading: Done for appreciation.
• PROGRAM reading activities are encountered inside the classroom
• Read aloud - the repeat after me activity.
• Shared understanding of text becomes collaborative, all contribute.
• Guided reading involves questions or activities to answer in order to understand the text.
• Fluency test involves reading the text and a teacher to correct pronunication if required.
• Independent reading involves freedom to choose preferred reading material.

Developemental Reading

• Skills learned are mastered and ready to move on to the next set of reading activities to more advanced skills.
• Selective- reading only a portion of the text.
• Remedial program offered to those who are inadequate in reading skills.
• Strategic new type of reading where the reader thinks out loud as they processes the text.
• Performance can be measured in speed reading, subvocalizing etc

Aspects of Perfomance

• Speed reading involves getting as much information in the shortest amount of time possible
• Subvocalized reading involves practicing in your mind how text should be read aloud
• Proofreading is an import aspect of recognizing language structures

Being Aware of Intelligence Types

• Multiple intelligences: reader taps into their type of intelligence to better understand reading material
• Musical - sound
• Bodily kinesthic - hands-on
• Spatial - for your eyes only
• Interpersonal - relates to others
• Intrapersonal - relates to self

Achieving Greater Understanding

• Asking self-questions while reading engages the mind.
• Defining goals in reading reinforces the purpose.
• Investigate further; try a wide range of reading materials that interest you.
• Negotiate with your environment; create a conducive atmosphere for reading.
• Gauge your reading capability so you can know what materials are best suited for you.

Genre or Test Types

• Genre is defined as a group of artistic composition with slilar characteristics
• Language Genre is any form of oral and written communication with common observable patterns.
• Texts with observable patterns help readers form generalizations about reading materials.

Literary Genres

• Literary Genres are creatively written
• Prose is language is in ordinary form - lyric, narrative, dramatic
• Poetry includes figurative language which enhances emotional themes

Factual

• Informative
• Recounts chronoligcal order
• Explains with details

Narrative and Explanative Text

• Narrative relates to texts which explain or illustrate an event
• Explanatory text helps give information

Critical Reading

• Critical thinking involves the ability of the reader to judje peices of information
• Critical reading relates to the ability to understand the meaning and undertones of text
• Two types of ideas are directly stated and implied

Critical Thinking and Underatanding

• Drawing out unsaud ideas from details within text
• Give meaning to difficult words by infering from context
• Use text to give meaning and understanding

Understanding Figures of Speech

• Similes - compares two dissimilar things using like
• Metaphors - compares dissimilar things to create a vivid image
• Personification-assigning human attributes to nonhuman things
• Hyperbole-deliberate exaggeration
• Onomatopoeia imitates the natural sound of a thing
• Alliteration repeating consonant sounds right next to each other
• Synecdoche - when a smaller unit is used to signify a larger unit or vice versa
• Metonymy a word is used to replace or represent another closely related word
• Oxymoron a phrase that uses two contradictory words to create a new meaning
• Paradox a statement that appears to contradict itself but contains some truth, theme, or humor
• Irony discrepancy between expectation and reality
• Euphemism soft or inoffensive word or phrase that replaces a harsh truth

Hypertext

• Hypertext relates to language that is used and encoded in electronic devices
• Involves reader interaction and choice in what to read

Hypertext and Reading

• Online reading presents a different process to tradional as the reader will get "lost"
• Interactive with choices
• Multisequential process

Improving Hyertext Reading

• Employ comprehension-monitoring skills
• Review and analyze information
• Be evaluative of information
• Sythnesize

Graphic organizers

• Used to illustrate ideas that were taken from texts you have read
• Ven diagrams compare similarities and differences
• Chart shows differences

Writing Overcome

• Remove the feeling of " I can't write "
• Remind yourself what you have achieved
• List relevant ideas
• Interview
• Take writing in steps