Introductory: Reading and Vocabulary

academic words

Academic refers to learning. So, words specific to what you learn in school are academic words. Example: Plane, table, odd, and force are words that have different meanings in school than they do in daily life.

activate prior knowledge

Activate means "to turn on." Prior knowledge is information you already know about a subject.

Ask questions

Active readers ask questions. Questions often start with the words who, what, where, when, why, and how. Example: What is the main point? Why is this important? How does this work?

Make mental images

Create pictures in your mind based on something you read or hear. Example: If you read a poem with the words "watery grave" and "deadly sea storm," you might picture a dark, angry ocean tossing a sinking ship.

prefixes

Groups of letters at the start of words that change the words' meaning. Example: Un-, re-, and ex-.

word families

Groups of words that are made by adding suffixes or prefixes to a root. Example: Size, resize, sized, and sizeable.

suffixes

Letters that are placed at the end of words and change the words' meanings. Example: -ing, -ed, and -ize.

Use text features and visual cues

Look for what an author uses in the text or on the page to get your attention. Example: Text features can include bold print, text boxes, and titles. Visual cues include pictures and lists.

Make predictions

Make a guess about what is going to happen. This guess is usually based on information, observations, experiences, or feelings.

Draw inferences

Make conclusions based on what you read and what you already know. Example: If you saw the phrase "eight reading strategies" and then saw that there were eight more pages, you could make an inference that each page would include one reading strategy.

phrasal compounds

Single ideas made up of two or more words. Example: 17th-century England.

Summarize

The main idea of a text reworded in a focused, shorter way. Example: The main idea of his book was to show that the cell is the basic unit of life.

summary

The main idea of a text reworded in a focused, shorter way. Example: The main idea of his book was to show that the cell is the basic unit of life.

context

The part of a text that surrounds a word or passage and helps to determine its meaning. Example: In the sentence "The sum of 4 + 4 is 8," you can use context to find out that the word sum means "answer to the problem."

Monitor and apply fix-up strategies

To monitor means to check to make sure that what you are reading makes sense. A fix-up strategy is something you can use to make sure you understand what you are reading. If you read an article that said someone lost 100 pounds in two weeks, you would probably think there was a mistake.

active reading strategies

Tools to help readers understand and make meaning from what they read. Example: Asking questions, making mental images, and summarizing.