Reading

Welcome to New Orleans—the birthplace of jazz! Listen to the music of Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton, march in a Mardi Gras parade, eat some crawfish, and, yes, do some reading, too.
 
Just as good drivers use certain strategies to navigate the road when they drive, good readers use a variety of strategies to process information while they read. Active reading strategies are helpfulbecause they break down the complex reading act into smaller parts.
What does it mean to read actively?
To read actively, you should approach a reading passage the way you would prepare for a trip.
 
Before you go on a road trip, you need to pack your bags and plan your route. When you start to read, you should concentrate, preview, use your knowledge, and ask questions.
 
During your road trip,'reading the road' is important. Look out for detours or road closures. Are there hairpin curves up ahead? Similarly, you need to stay alert as you read, looking for answers to your questions, making connections to your own knowledge, and thinking critically.
 
After you reach your destination, you stop and review where you have been. This is when you check your gas gauge, write in your travellog, and take pictures to remember your trip. When you are finished reading, you should answer questions, make notes on the text, and summarize the reading.
 
In the Model that follows, you will learn more about
 
* pre-reading strategies
* reading strategies, and
* post-reading strategies.
* active reading
* engaging with a text while reading, as by making predictions,visualizing and thinking about its information, and writing questions or notes; the three-stage process of pre-reading, reading, and review
* active reading strategies
* strategies that help readers process the information they read
* SQ3R
* an acronym that means Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review, an active reading strategy and basic study procedure
* pre-readingstrategies
* active reading strategies used before reading, including previewing the text
* reading strategies
* active reading strategies used during reading
* review strategies (also called post-reading strategies)
* active reading strategies used after reading, including summarizing, paraphrasing, outlining, and mapping
What do you do before you read?
Before reading a passage,perform the following steps to ensure that you get the most out of what you read:
 
* Look at the title. The title will give you a clue as to what will follow.
* Check for subheadings, words in italics, graphs, or other visual aids, and read any summary. Authors use these cues to help the reader identify important information.
* Use your prior knowledge. If you are already familiar withthe subject matter, think about what you already know about the topic before you begin to read.
* If possible, identify the organization of the passage. This will give you a clue as to what the author is trying to say.
What do you do as you read?
While you read, you should:
 
* Try to predict the theory, plot, events, etc. In this way you become involved in the process.
* Picture inyour mind the characters, the statements, or relationships made. Using visualization can help to create vivid images while you read.
* Ask questions about the reading to help you engage with the material.
What do you do after you read?
After you complete your reading:
 
* Examine the information you just read.
* Write a summary of the reading in your own words. This activity willhelp with comprehension because it forces you to condense the information you have read.
* Ask yourself questions to test your understanding.
Example #1
Before Reading: Before reading a passage, it is important to prepare by previewing the passage and asking yourself some key questions. Read only the title, first sentence, last sentence, and source (highlighted onscreen) in the upcoming...