TOPIC READING SKILLS

This module intends to help course participants to learn about reading techniques
and about the Barretts Taxonomy of reading comprehension

Learning Outcomes:

To read critically for meaning and understanding, and give personal response.
To recognize and identify different levels of Barretts Taxonomy.
To skim and scan a given text
To locate authors message and intention.
To identify and justify the choice of word(s),
To recognize and identify expressions and figure of speech which reflect the
message and intention

Content:

READING TECHNIQUES BARRETTS TAXONOMY

APPRECIATION
SKIMMING SCANNING LITERAL
COMPRE-
HENSION

REORGANI- EVALUATION
SATION

INFERENTIAL
COMPREHENSION

A. SKIMMING AND SCANNING

1. What is skimming
Skimming is a quick reading of a text with the purpose of mainly to identify the
main ideas of the text.
It involves glancing through a text to get a general impression or to get an
overview of the content.
Skimming is 3 to 4 times faster than regular reading and it is usually done
when there is a lot of material to read and only a short amount of time is
available.
When we skim we skips the details to get the gist of the text.

2. What is the purpose of skimming?

 To find out:
Purpose of text
What needs to be read
Whats important and whats not relevant
Text organisation

3. How to skim
Read the first and last paragraph
Read headings, subheadings, titles, subtitles, and illustrations
Read the first sentence of every paragraph
Skimming works well with dates, names and places

4. What is scanning
Scanning is a quick reading of a text with the purpose of mainly to search
for key terms or to search for a particular information in the text
When we already know what we are looking for we can scan through a
text to find the information
It is a good reading technique to use to determine whether a text will have
the answers you are looking

5. How to scan
First look at how the author organizes his information
Look for bold faces, italics, or different sized fonts
The author may also put key information in the margins of pages
Scanning works well with dates, names and places
Try to anticipate how the answer will appear and what clues you might use
to help you locate the answer
Use headings and any other aids that will help you identify which sections
might contain the information you are looking for
Read selectively and skip through sections of the passage