Understanding the Reading Process

by abdo Wed Apr 06, 2011 1:26 pm

Understanding
the Reading
Process

· How to be a good reader?

Good
readers understand the processes involved in reading and consciously control
them. This awareness and control of the reading processes is called
metacognition, which means "knowing about knowing." Some students
don't know when they don't know. They continue to read even though they are not
comprehending. Poor readers tolerate such confusion because they either don't
realize that it exists or don't know what to do about it. Poor readers focus on
facts, whereas good readers try to assimilate details into a larger cognitive
pattern.

Five Strategies of Good Readers

1. Predict:
Make educated guesses. Good readers make predictions about
thoughts, events, outcomes, and conclusions. As you read, your predictions are
confirmed or denied. If they prove invalid, you make new predictions. This
constant process helps you become involved with the author's thinking and helps
you learn.

2. Picture:
Form images. For good readers, the words and the ideas on the page
trigger mental images that relate directly or indirectly to the material.
Images are like movies in your head, and they increase your understanding of
what you read.

3. Relate:
Draw comparisons. When you relate your existing knowledge to
the new information in the text, you are embellishing the material and making
it part of your framework of ideas. A phrase of a situation may remind you of a
personal experience or something that you read or saw in a film. Such related
experiences help you digest the new material.

4. Monitor:
Check understanding. Monitor your ongoing comprehension to test
your understanding of the material. Keep an internal summary or synthesis of
the information as it is presented and how it relates to the overall message.
Your summary will build with each new detail, and as long as the message is
consistent, you will continue to form ideas. If, however, certain information
seems confusing or erroneous, you should stop and seek a solution to the
problem. You must monitor and supervise you own comprehension. Good readers
seek to resolve difficulties when they occur; they do not keep reading when
they are confused.

5. Correct
gaps in understanding. Do not accept gaps in your reading
comprehension. They may signal a failure to understand a word or a sentence.
Stop and resolve the problem. Seek solutions, not confusion. This may mean
rereading a sentence or looking back at a previous page for clarification. If
an unknown word is causing confusion, the definition may emerge through further
reading. When good readers experience gaps in comprehension, they do not
perceive themselves as failures; instead, they reanalyze the task to achieve
better understanding