2. Before You Begin
Think back on the last 24 hours. What did you read and what was your purpose for reading? List everything you read in the first column of a two-column chart. Then list your purposes for reading in the second column.
Questions: How many items did you read for pleasure? Work? Family related matters? Other? Now imagine your life if you were able to read only a portion of the items that you listed.
Woman Reading a Book*
Reading purposes
Good readers read for a purpose. They read to
Good readers scan for information. They speed up or slow down according to their familiarity with the text.
- learn about something (newspaper, magazine, website).
- research a subject or study for a test (textbook, driver's manual).
- be entertained (novel, comic book).
- learn how to do something (cookbook, instructional manual).
- find specific information (as in looking for the due date on a bill, finding details on the charges on a doctor's statement, or checking the TV listings).
- When hunting for restaurants in the White Pages, good readers will quickly scan a page.
- Looking for an answer in a book, good readers will skim until they find it.
- Reading medical advice for their child, they will slow down to make sure they understand all the terminology.
Whatever their purpose for reading, comprehension is the goal.
Required: Read the following text from Applying Research in Reading Instruction for Adults by Susan McShane. (Chapter 7, p. 72-73.)
* Woman Reading a Book Image byPetr Kratochvil (Public domain pictures)