Critical Reading Skills-1

Critical Reading Skills
Time4Learning
http://www.time4learning.com/cont
actUs.htm
READING CRITICALLY
Critical reading is a more ACTIVE way of
reading. It is a deeper and more complex
engagement with a text. Critical reading is
a process of analyzing, interpreting and,
sometimes, evaluating. When we read
critically, we use our critical thinking skills
to QUESTION both the text and our own
reading of it. Different disciplines may
have distinctive modes of critical reading
(scientific, philosophical, literary, etc).
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
READING AND CRITICAL READING?
WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE TO
PREPARE FOR CRITICAL READING?
There are two steps to preparing to read

critically:
1. Self-Reflect: What experiences,
assumptions, knowledge, and perspectives
do you bring to the text? What biases might
you have? Are you able to keep an open
mind and consider other points of view?
2. Read to Understand:
a. Examine the text and context: Who is
the author? Who is the publisher? Where
and when was it written? What kind of text
is it?
b. Skim the text: What is the topic? What
are the main ideas?
c. Resolve confusion: Look up unfamiliar
words or terms in dictionaries or
glossaries. Go over difficult passages to
clarify them.
WHAT IS THE PROCESS FOR
READING CRITICALLY?
To read critically, you must think critically. This
involves analysis, interpretation, and
evaluation. Each of these processes helps you
to interact with the text in different ways:
highlighting important points and examples,
taking notes, testing answers to your questions,
brainstorming, outlining, describing aspects of
the text or argument, refle
cting on your own reading and thinking, raising
objections to the ideas or evidence presented,
etc.
Analysis Asks: What are the
patterns of the text?
 Analysis means looking at the parts of something to detect patterns. In looking at
these patterns, your critical thinking skills will be engaged in analyzing the
argument the author is making:
 What is the thesis or overall theory?
 What are the supporting points that create the argument? How do they relate to
each other? How do they relate to the thesis?
 What are the examples used as evidence for the supporting points? How do they
relate to the points they support? To each other? To the thesis?
 What techniques of persuasion are used (appeals to emotion, reason, authority,
etc.)?
 What rhetorical strategies are used (e.g. definition, explanation, description,
narration, elaboration, argumentation, evaluation)?
 What modes of analysis are used (illustration, comparison/contrast, cause and
effect, process analysis, classification/division, definition)?
Interpretation Asks: What do the
patterns of the argument mean?
Interpretation is reading ideas as well as sentences. We need to
be aware of the cultural and historical context, the context of its
author’s life, the context of debates within the discipline at that
time and the intellectual context of debates within the discipline
today.
What debates were the author and the text engaging with at
that time?
What kinds of reasoning (historical, psychological, political,
philosophical, scientific, etc) are employed?
What methodology is employed and what theory is
developed?
How might my reading of the text be biased? Am I imposing
21st century ideas or values on the text? If so, is this
problematic?
Evaluation Asks: How well does the text
do what it does? What is its value?
Evaluation is making judgments about the intellectual/cognitive, aesthetic,
moral or practical value of a text. When we are considering its
intellectual/cognitive value we ask questions such as these:
How does it contribute to the discipline? Are its main conclusions original?
Does the evidence and reasoning adequately support the theory/theories
presented?
Are the sources reliable?
Is the argument logically consistent? Convincing?
Are any experiments, questionnaires, statistical sections, etc designed and
executed in accordance with the accepted standards of the relevant discipline?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the theory?
How would competing theories criticize this text? How could the author
reply?
Overall, is the theory/approach in this text better than competing
theories/approaches? In other words, what are its comparative strengths and
weaknesses? In reading critically we need to keep competing theories in mind.
Goals of Critical Reading
to recognize an author’s purpose

to understand tone and persuasive
elements
to recognize bias
 Notice that none of these goals actually refers to
something on the page. Each requires
inferences from evidence within the
text:recognizing purpose involves inferring a
basis for choices of content and language
 recognizing tone and persuasive elements
involves classifying the nature of language
choices
 recognizing bias involves classifying the nature
of patterns of choice of content and language
Critical reading is not simply close and
careful reading. To read critically, one must
actively recognize and analyze evidence
upon the page.
What is Reading Comprehension?
Reading comprehension skills

separates the "passive" unskilled
reader from the "active" readers.
Skilled readers don't just read, they

interact with the text.
Inner Monologue
Benefits of Good Reading
Comprehension
 Reading comprehension skills increase the
pleasure and effectiveness of reading.
 Strong reading comprehension skills help in all

the other subjects and in the personal and
professional lives.
 All the tests you take in elementary, middle, and

high school are geared towards determining if
you are at your reading grade level and/or
college ready.
Congress decides to mandate good
reading skills
Congress charged the National Reading
Panel (NRP) with researching “the
effectiveness of various approaches to
teaching children to read.“
They wanted to find out what methods

work best for reading improvement
Important areas
Five critical reading skills were found to be
very important for improvement:
Phonemic awareness
Phonics
Fluency
Vocabulary
Comprehension
(Appendix C, MINORITY VIEW by Joanne Yatvin, Ph.D.. Oregon

Trail School District, Sandy, Oregon)
Tactics that work
We are using the following strategies
that work for reading comprehension:
 .Mind Mapping
. Direct instruction
. Use of decodable texts
. Embedded skills instruction
. Integrated reading and writing
. Access to quality literature
. Whole-class instruction
. Teacher modeling
Speed Reading
 Develop "traditional" old fashioned speed reading habits
first
 Once thoroughly ingrained it will allow the student to

input and scan information quickly
 Reading becomes habitualized at mostly an

unconscious level.
 In this version of speed reading, rather than the

incoming flow of information being the focus of attention,
active cognitive processes that organize information
dominate.
 See references to “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell

How to make Speed Reading Actually
Work
 The conscious focus of the brain is oriented
towards preparing a speech on the topic being
perused rather than trying to hope that text flying
by like the spray from a fire hose will make
sense
 It first requires the "student" to learn how to
speed read the "old fashioned way" at extremely
high speeds.
 Once this is "achieved", the speed reader has to
completely re-learn how to speed read again
from scratch.
Mind Mapping
Basically going through information in

order to find the major concepts
A student can create a visual Mind Map or

a Linear Mind Map
Really helps for studying for tests in

general
Chunking Reading
Basically highlighting chunked portions of

the reading in order to read faster
Students practice reading the highlighted

areas faster and faster until they reach the
desired speed and comprehension levels
Vocabulary
Vocabulary is important to not only

reading, but writing.
Studying and utilizing vocabulary helps

reading comprehension
It is also very important for the verbal SAT

References
Time4Learning, http://www.time4learning.com/contactUs.htm
Wiki Books, http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page
Rocket Reader,
http://www.rocketreader.com/download/RocketReaderDownload.html
OSPI, http://www.k12.wa.us/
Exercise Time!
 New Vocabulary
 DICT, DIT, SPEC/SPIC, TEND, SEN,
NOM/NOUN/NOWN/NAM
 Mind Mapping EX
Exercise for your eyes
***See Sheets

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Critical Reading Skills

There are two steps to preparing to read

to recognize an author’s purpose

Reading comprehension skills

Skilled readers don't just read, they

 Strong reading comprehension skills help in all

 All the tests you take in elementary, middle, and

They wanted to find out what methods

(Appendix C, MINORITY VIEW by Joanne Yatvin, Ph.D.. Oregon

 Once thoroughly ingrained it will allow the student to

 Reading becomes habitualized at mostly an

 In this version of speed reading, rather than the

 See references to “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell

Basically going through information in

A student can create a visual Mind Map or

Really helps for studying for tests in

Basically highlighting chunked portions of

Students practice reading the highlighted

Vocabulary is important to not only

Studying and utilizing vocabulary helps

It is also very important for the verbal SAT

Wiki Books, http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page

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