ARE YOU A GOOD READER?
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| Image taken from www.barnesandnoble.com. |
I came across the following list while reading an assignment, taken from the book What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction, for my instructional psychology class - do you do any of the following things as you read? If you do, there is a good chance that your reading comprehension skills are Greater Than Average...
What Good Readers Do When They Read
- Good readers are active readers.
- From the outset, they have clear goals in mind for their reading. They constantly evaluate whether the text, and their reading of it, is meeting their goals.
- Good readers typically look over over the text before they read, noting such things as the structure of the text and text sections that might be most relevant to their reading goals.
- As they read, good readers frequently make predictions about what is to come.
- They read selectively, continually making decisions about their reading - what to read carefully, what to read quickly, what not to read, what to reread, and so forth.
- Good readers construct, revise, and question the meanings they make as they read.
- Good readers try to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words and concepts in the text, and they deal with inconsistencies or gaps as needed.
- Good readers draw from, compare, and integrate their prior knowledge with material in the text.
- They think about the authors of the text, their style, beliefs, intentions, historical milieu (here is a definition of milieu), and so forth.
- Good readers monitor their understanding of the text, making adjustments in their reading as necessary.
- Good readers evaluate the text's quality and value and react to the text in a range of ways, both intellectually and emotionally.
- Good readers read different kinds of text differently.
- When reading narrative, good readers attend closely to the setting and characters.
- When reading expository text, good readers frequently construct and revise summaries of what they have read.
- For good readers, text processing occurs not only during "reading," as we have traditionally defined it, but also during short breaks taken during reading... [and] even after the reading has ceased.
- Comprehension is a consuming, continuous, and complex activity, but one that, for good readers, is both satisfying and productive.
Note. Modified from "effective Practices for Developing Reading Comprehension," by N.K. Duke & P.D. Pearson, 2002, in A.E. Farstrup & S.J. Samuels (Eds.), What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction (3rd ed., pp.205-206), Newark, DE; International Reading Association.
