|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Professional Reference Computers Posters Movies |
Reading
READING KEYS
Miles Craven
Macmillan
Reading Keys is by far the most visually appealing reading textbook on the market, and one of the most user friendly. Well organized format. Interesting articles on important and relatable subjects. Good exercises on targeted vocabulary. Good use of color, blurbs, and cartoons. Numerous, large, quality photos. Key skills study sheets. Activity sheets. Vocabulary index. 3 books: introducing, developing, extending. What more could you ask of a reading textbook?
Targeted skills: previewing, identifying cohesion, inferring meaning, identifying the topic, scanning, identifying time order, understanding the main idea, skimming, separating fact and opinion, identifying cause and effect, guessing meaning from context, using a dictionary, recognizing parts of speech, word groups, synonyms, suffixes, connecting words, prefixes, antonyms, words with different meanings.
ACTIVE SKILLS FOR READING
Neil Anderson
Heinle & Heinle/Thompson Learning
I've seen many reading textbooks, and have been impressed with very few. This is by far the best. The series is progressive. The articles are not too long, the vocabulary and concepts are not too difficult, the topics are usually not boring or irrelevant. The teachers manual begins with a technical but easy to understand introduction to reading skills, including the author's approach: ACTIVE - Activate prior knowledge, Cultivate vocabulary, Teach for comprehension, Increase reading fluency, Verify reading strategies, Evaluate progress. Exercises include discussion, comprehension, speed, fluency, and vocabulary. Multiple choice, matching, true/false, circle, and fill in the blank are all used. Every chapter has skill boxes and vocabulary boxes. Each chapter in the teachers manual includes background notes on the topic. In the back of the students book are a speed chart, a comprehension chart, a skills index, and a vocabulary index. A wide range of skills, tasks, and tools, a systematic learning approach, a progressive structure, a user friendly format, and reader friendly material combine to make this an ideal textbook.
[Well, as you can see, since writing this review, I've discovered a few more reading textbooks. But for a basic reading textbook, I would still reach for Active Skills. The primary reason is the articles. The biggest complaint from reading students is that the material is boring, difficult, or irrelevant. In Active Skills, you will find interesting, easy-to-read articles with universal themes. The writing is simple and flows, but the material still contains more than enough ideas for the classroom. The second edition is due soon.]
EASY TRUE STORIES
Sandra Heyer
Longman
Easy True Stories is designed to provide low skill, low vocabulary students with maximum comprehension at maximum speed through basic, integrated strategies. 20 human interest stories, several of them touching, are told through simplified versions of newspaper and magazine articles. The first page of each chapter is a wordless comic strip that tells the story visually. The second page is a 125-175 word story accompanied by a large photo. The third and fourth pages are vocabulary, comprehension, discussion, and writing exercises. The introduction offers VERY practical classroom insights and suggestions for teachers trying to compensate for the students' level, including listening, speaking, grammar, drawing, and technology. Appendix includes story background, teaching tips, and answer key. Easy True Stories turns the tables on limitations, minimizing handicaps and maximizing resources, giving teachers and students the advantage.
STORIES WORTH READING, SKILLS WORTH LEARNING
Betsy Gassriel, Gail Reynolds
Thompson / Heinle
Stories Worth Reading, Skills Worth Learning uses by far the most integrated approach of any reading textbook I've found. The pre-reading page of each chapter tells the story with a series of wordless comics. Pictures, maps, graphs, charts, timelines, questionnaires, puzzles, and so on are put to good use throughout each chapter. At the end of each chapter is what the author calls One Step Forward: further study through Internet, library, encyclopedia, photos, movies, journals, music, posters, design projects, community activity, guest speakers, parties, art, interviews, television, presentations, taste tests, and so on. The stories are interesting, the exercises are diverse, the layout is well organized. Each chapter is accompanied by a corresponding CNN video clip. The instructor's manual includes answer keys, handouts, and video transcripts. READING ADVANTAGE
Casey Malarcher
Thomson / Heinle
High beginner to high intermediate. 4 books, 20 lessons per book, 200-600 words per article. "All readings are based on a carefully-considered word list and include the most commonly used words in written English, as well as everyday phrases and idioms. Key vocabulary, phrases, and idioms are recycled both within each book and from book to book, ensuring that learners understand and remember what they have learned." Reading Advantage keeps the reader's interest with many fascinating articles. By far the best teacher's manual of any reading textbook I've seen.
READING AND VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT
Facts & Figures
Thoughts & Notions
Cause & Effect
Concepts & Comments
Patricia Ackert, Linda Lee
Thomson / Heinle
"Up to 12/24 words are introduced in each lesson. These words appear in boldface type. Those underlined are illustrated and/or glossed in the margin. All of the new vocabulary items are used several times in the lesson, and then systematically recycled throughout the text." Expands vocabulary from 300 to 2500 words. 5 articles per theme. Answer key, video transcript, CNN video, activity website, and ExamView Pro for customized tests and quizzes.
READINGS FOR TODAY
Themes for Today - beginner
Insights for Today - high beginner
Issues for Today - intermediate
Concepts for Today - high intermediate
Topics for Today - advanced
Lorraine C. Smith, Nancy Nici Mare
Thomson / Heinle
Two articles per topic, skills table, skills index, a variety of exercises - including dictionary skills and cloze test. CNN video, college edition InfoTrac, and ExamView Pro for customized tests and quizzes. Instructor's manual: teacher notes, answer key, video transcripts, and assessment.
VISIONS: Language, Literature, Content
Mary Lou McCloskey,
Thomson
Visions is by far the most skills based reading textbook I've seen. It is also by far the most task based. More space is devoted to skills and tasks than to reading material.
The Visions table of contents includes title, author, genre, skill, and content area. Before each chapter is objectives, use prior knowledge, build background, build vocabulary, text structure, reading strategy. After each chapter is reading comprehension, build reading fluency, listen - speak - interact, elements of literature, word study, grammar focus, from reading to writing, across content area. Under objectives: reading, listening, grammar, writing, content.
Under reading comprehension: recall facts, identify activity, identify mood, draw conclusions, interpret, compare and contrast, determine sequence of events, identify how many, identify missing elements, analyze, make inferences, paraphrase text, explain why, understand author's perspective, connect your experiences, form questions, determine characteristics, identify themes, analyze character relationships, understand tone, analyze text types, evaluate author's style and methods, use context clues, connect ideas, identify steps in a process, recognize character traits, raise questions, ask questions, revise questions, analyze causes and effects, identify the main idea, analyze illustrations, understand the author's purpose, understand features, make judgments, respond, reflect, understand character motivation, present an opinion, understand plot, recognize character traits, predict, connect themes, identify steps in a process, find similarities and differences across texts.
Under text structure: poem, personal narrative, folktale, personal narrative, excerpt from a novel based on a true story, interview, fable, except from a novel, excerpt from a nonfiction book, song, excerpt from a diary, play, excerpt from a personal narrative, informational text.
Under reading strategy: compare and contrast, diagram, read aloud, visualize, underline, cause and effect table, fact versus opinion, main idea, details, timed silent reading, outline, make inferences, timeline, cause and affect chart.
Under build reading fluency: word recognition boxes, key phrase boxes, echo reading, reading chunks, adjust reading rate for quotations, repeated reading, listen to audio, scanning, memorization, reading aloud to engage listeners.
Under elements of literature: genre, first person point of view, author, purpose, rhyme, instructions, characterization, free verse, motivation, personification, theme, visuals with captions, repetition, tone, problems and resolutions, headings, traits, motivations, and points of view.
Each unit is followed by an expand and apply section: listening and speaking workshop, viewing workshop, writer's workshop, projects, further reading. At the end of the book is a 6 page skills index.
So many skills so clearly identified and such a variety of activities so well connected to the skills. And all this is just from surveying the first book in a series of four. If you're a reading teacher who wants to go into the classroom prepared, Visions is your textbook.
INTERACTIVE READER PLUS FOR ENGLISH LEARNERS
McDougal Littell / Houghton Mifflin
A good reading textbook has a lot of study support. The more support, the better. Of course, these helps double as a lesson plans. Check out this story and the accompanying support, minus the graphics.
"Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros What they don't understand about birthdays and what they never tell you is that when you're eleven, you're also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six,, and five, and four, and three, and two, and one. And when you wake up on your eleventh birthday you expect to feel eleven, but you don't. You open your eyes and everything's just like yesterday, only it's today. And you don't feel eleven at all. You feel like you're still ten. And you are - underneath the year that makes you eleven. Like some days you might say something stupid, and that's the part of you that's till ten. Or maybe some days you might need to sit on your mama's lap because you're scared, and that's the part of your that's five. And maybe one day when you're all grown up maybe you will need to cry like if you're three, and that's okay. That's what I tell Mama when she's sad and needs to cry. Maybe she's feeling three. Because the way you grow old is kind of like an onion or like the rings inside a tree trunk or like my little wooden dolls that fit one inside the other, each year inside the next one. That's how being eleven years old is. You don't feel eleven. Not right away. It takes a few days, weeks even, sometimes even months before you say eleven when they ask you. And you don't feel smart eleven, not until you're almost twelve. That's the way it is. Only today I wish I didn't have only eleven years rattling inside me like pennies in a tim Band-Aid box. Today I wish I was one hundred and two instead of eleven beacuse if I was one hundred and two I'd have known what t say when Mrs. Price put the red sweater on my desk. I would've known how to tell her it wasn't mind instead of just sitting there with that look on my face and nothing coming out of my mouth. "Whose is this?" Mrs. Price says, and she holds the red sweater up in the air for all the class see. "Whose? It's been sitting in the coatroom for a month." "Not mind," says everybody. "Not me." "It has to belong to someboday," Mrs Price keeps saying, but nobody can remember. It's an ugly sweater with red plastic buttons and a collar and sleeves all stretched out like you could use it for a jump rope. It's maybe a thousand years old and even if it belonged to me I wouldn't say so. Maybe beacuse I'm skinny, maybe beacuse she doesn't like me, that stupid Sylvias Saldivar says, "I think it belongs to Rachel." An ugly sweater like that, all raggedy and old, but Mrs. Price believes her. Mrs. Price takes the sweater and puts it right on my desk, but when I open my mouth nothing comes out. "That's not, I don't, you're not....Not mine..." I finally say in a little voice that was maybe me when I was four. "Of course it's yours," Mrs. Price says. "I remember you wearing it once." Becuase she's old and the teacher, she's right and I'm not. Not mine, not mine, not mine, but Mrs. Price is already turning to page thirty-two, and math problem nunmber four. I don't know why but all of a sudden I'm feeling sick inside, like the part of me that's three wants to come out of my eyes, only I squeeze them shut tight and bite down on my teeth real hard and try to remember today when I am eleven, eleven. Mama is making a cake for me for tonight, and when Papa comes home everybody will sing Happy Birthday , happy birthday to you. But when the sick feeling goes away and I open my eyes, the red sweater's till sitting there like a big red mountain. I move the red sweater to the corner of my desk with my ruler. I move my pencil and books and eraser as far from it as possible. I even move my chair a little to the right. Not mine, not mine, not mine. In my head I'm thinking how long till lunchtime, how long till I can take the red sweater and throw it over the schoolyeard fence, or leave it hanging on a parking meter, or bunch it like a little ball and toss it in the alley. Except when math period ends Mrs. Price says loud and in front of everybody, "Now Rachel that's enough," because she sees I've shoved the red sweater to the tippy-tip corner of my desk and it's hanging all over the edge like a waterfall, but I don't care. "Rachel," Mrs. Price says. She says it like she's getting mad. "You put that sweater on right now and no more nonsense." "But it's not-..." "Now!" Mrs. Price says. This is when I wish I wasn't eleven beacuse all the years inside of me - ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one - are pushing at the back of my eyes when I put one arm through one sleeve of the sweater that smells like cottage cheese, and then the other arm through the other and stand there with my arms apart like if the sweater hurts me and it does, all itchy and full of germs that aren't even mine. That's when everything I've been holding in since this morning, since Mrs. Price put the sweater on my desk, finally lets go and all of a sudden I'm crying in front of everybody. I wish I was invisible but I'm not. I'm eleven and it's my birthday today and I'm crying like I'm three in front of everybody. I put my head down on the desk and bury my face in my stupid clown-sweater arms. My face all hot and spit coming out of my mouth because I can't stop the little animal noises from coming out of me, until there aren't any more tears left in my eyes, and it's just my body shaking like when you have the hiccups, and my whole head hurts like when you drink milk too fast. But the worst part is right before the bell rings for lunch, that stupid Phyllis Lopez, who is even dumber than Sylvia, says she remembers the red sweater is hers! I take it off right away and give it to her, only Mrs. Price pretends like everything is okay. Today I'm eleven. There's a cake Mama's making for tonight, and when Papa comes home from work we'll eat it. there'll be candles and presents and everybody will sing Happy Birthday, happ birthday to you, Rachel, only it's too late. I'm eleven today. I'm eleven, ten, eight, seven, six. five, three, two, and one, but I wish I was one hundred and two. I wish I was anything but eleven, because I want today to be far away already, far away like a runaway balloon, like a tiny "o" in the sky, so tiny-tiny you have to close your eyes to see it......
Before You Read: Connect to Your Life. What was turning 11 like for you? Or, what will turning 11 be like? Use the word web below to explore your thoughts. Jot down words and phrases that come to mind.
Key to the Story. What Do You Think? Have you ever felt that time passes too slowly or that it takes too long to grow up? Read the following statement from Eleven. "And when you wake up on your eleventh birthday you expect to feel eleven, but you don't." What would you say to Rachel, the character in the story who feels this way? Write your response in the balloon.
Preview: This short story hells how a girl named Rachel feels about turning 11 years old. What will happen on her birthday when Rachel gets a "present" she doesn't want?
As The Story Begins - It is Rachel's eleventh birthday. - Rachel describes how she feels about being eleven years old.
As The Story Continues - Rachel's teacher finds a sweater in the coatroom. - All the students say the sweater is not theirs. - Someone says the sweater belongs to Rachel.
As The Story Ends - Rachel pushes the sweater to the edge of her desk. Her teacher tells her to put the sweater on. Another student remember that the sweater is hers.
Focus: Rachel describes what turning eleven years old is like. Mark It Up: As you read, underline statements that tell you about Rachel's feelings. And example is highlighted.
Focus: Read to find out what Mrs. Price, Rachel's teacher, does that upsets Rachel.
Focus: Rachel looks at the ugly, red sweater on her desk. Notice how the sweater makes her feel. Mark It Up: As you read, underline details that show how Rachel reacts to the sweater.
Pause and Reflect: Do you agree with Rachel's feelings about birthdays? (Connect) YES / NO because ______ .
Pause and Reflect: 1) Mark It Up. Why does Rachel wish she were 102 instead of 11? Find the answer in the text and circle it. (Clarify) 2) Place a check mark next to the three details below that correctly describe the sweater. (Clarify) - plastic buttons - blue - ugly - stretched out - wool
Reading Check: What does Rachel mean when she says that her birthday party at home will be "too late"?
English Learner Support - Language. Pronouns: Find the sentence in blue type. In this sentence, the pronoun this refers to the "red sweater" mentioned later in the sentence. The teacher is asking, "Who is the owner of the red sweater?"
English Learner Support: Vocabulary. Tippy-tip: The word tip means "end." Tippy-tip means "a little beyond the tip." When Rachel pushes the sweater to the tippy-tip corner of her desk, the sweater starts to fall over the edge of the desk.
English Learner Support: Vocabulary. Idiom: The phrase holding in means "not expressing" or "not showing." Rachel has been feeling sad since this morning, but she has not cried until now.
More About: Tree Rings - If you cut down a tree and look a the top of the stump, you'll see many circles or rings. Each ring represents one year of the tree's life. The tree produces a new ring every year.
What Does It Mean? When Rachel says that all of her younger selves are "pushing at the back of my eyes," she means she is going to cry.
Words to Know: expect - verb, to look forward to something that is likely to occur except - preposition, other than; but sudden - adjective, happening without warning invisible - adjective, impossible to see; not visible
If all this isn't enough, there's 33 pages of academic and informational reading, followed by 47 pages of test preparation strategies:
ACADEMIC AND INFORMATIONAL Analyzing Text Features: Reading a Magazine Article, Reading a Textbook Understanding Visuals: Reading Graphs, Reading a Transit Map, Reading a Diagram Recognizing Text Structures: Main Idea and Supporting Details, Problem and Solution, Sequence, Cause and Effect, Comparison and Contrast, Argument Reading in the Content Areas: Social Studies, Science, Mathematics Reading Beyond the Classroom: Reading an Application, Reading a Public Notice, Reading a Web Page, Reading Technical Directions, Reading Product Information (warranties), Reading a Train Schedule TEST PREPARATION STRATEGIES Successful Test Taking, Reading Test Model: Long Selections Reading Test Practice: Long Selections Reading Test Model: Short Selections Reading Test Practice: Short Selections Functional Reading Test Model: Return / Exchange Form Functional Reading Test Practice: Instructions for Placing a Classified Ad Revising and Editing Test Model Revising and Editing Test Practice Writing Test Model Writing Test Practice Scoring Rubrics STRATEGIC READINGS
Jack Richards, Samuela EcKstut-Didier
Cambridge
Some authors and editors, in an effort to make a reading textbook as enjoyable and useful as possible, cram too many features on a page and do not pay enough attention to overall arrangement. The unintended result is a disorienting, jigsaw puzzle, treasure hunt effect: here a feature, there a feature, everywhere a feature; part of a story on one page and the remainder of the story on a another page; half an exercise in one column at the bottom of the page and the other half of the exercise in another column at the top of the page. Strategic Reading has fewer features and a simpler design, but doesn't compromise enjoyment or usefulness: one page for a chapter introduction, one page for an article, one page for comprehension check, one page for vocabulary expansion, consistently arranged subheadings and subsections. Relevant topics, interesting articles, plenty of pictures. Veteran author Jack Richards has once again given us a textbook with a user friendly format and quality material.
FAR FROM HOME: Reading and Word Study
AT HOME IN TWO LANDS: Intermediate Reading and Word Study
William Picket
Thomson / Heinle
Far from Home and At Home in Two Lands are about "everyday problems and progress, hopes and fears...problems and opportunities, successes and failures, virtues and flaws of a wide variety of people." Almost every reader can relate to almost every character in almost every story. Either it fits them or it fits someone they know. The relateability of the stories makes vocabulary building easier. Teacher's guide: textbook answer key, review tests with answer key, transparency masters.
OUR OWN STORIES
OUR OWN JOURNEYS Norine Dresser Longman In Our Own Stories, immigrants encounter American culture. In Own Our Journeys, westerners encounter other cultures. Inevitably, this leads to culture class. The latter part of each story is devoted to mutual understanding. Each chapter includes comprehension, vocabulary, discussion, and writing exercises, as well as a "culture capsule" background article. Our Own Journeys includes a "dictionary discoveries" section. You'll be hard pressed to find a better collection of articles on intercultural understanding in easier to understand language. If all these stories are true, an awful lot of research went into these books.
RETHINKING AMERICA: A Cultural Reader
M.E. Sokolik
Thomson / Heinle
Rethinking America is an excellent selection of snapshots of American culture, the best I've seen in any textbook. 3 books. Intermediate, high intermediate, and advanced. Extensive almanac. Instructor's manual includes transcript of CNN video. Instructor's manual: sample lesson plan, textbook answer key, video transcripts, skills index.
TASK READING
Evelyn Davies, Norman Whitney, Meredith Pike-Baky, Laurie Blass
Cambridge
EXTREMELY practical, in-the-trenches selections: forms, maps, directories, lists, signs and symbols, timetables / schedules, ads, announcements, itineraries, questionnaires, memos, fliers, posters, editorials, menus, profiles, obituaries, travel guides, excerpts, tickets, entertainment programs, even dictionary entries, telegrams, and comics. The exercises are practical, too. The book is in 3 parts: reading for information, reading for meaning, reading for pleasure. Includes conversations between two foreign college students, Roberto from Brazil and Machiko from Japan, as they acquire and apply reading skills in a variety of everyday situations.
From the teacher's notes: "Most modern courses in English as a second or foreign language offer teachers a communicative syllabus, which gives as much importance to the functional uses of the language as to its linguistic forms. This book aims to support and complement such courses, by recognizing reading as a communicative rather than a passive activity. But developing real communicative ability in a foreign language, and being an active reader of it, requires from the learner more awareness and consciousness of learning strategies, than does reading in the native language. Task Reading, therefore, emphasizes these approaches to reading in a foreign language: 1) Transfer of reading skills from the native language to English. 2) The use of authentic or realistic source texts. 3) Pre-text orientation, especially the identification of reader and writer intent."
ACCESS READING: Reading in the Real World
Tim Collins Thompson / Heinle Access Reading helps adult learners meet EFF, SCANS, and CASAS standards through a series of well organized, thorough, accessible selections and exercises with an integrated skills approach. Designed to prepare students for their roles in the community, family, and workplace. Includes a scope and sequence table of contents, a standards table of contents, a reading strategies table of contents, a teamwork exercise section, a vocabulary index, and a skills index. A portfolio and skills checklist help students and teachers monitor progress. Vocabulary index includes unit and page numbers. Skills index includes subcategories. Plenty of pictures, illustrations, and boxes. Visual friendly format. Supplementary tools include instructor's manual, tape / CD, and website.
Sample from the skills and sequence table of contents, Book One, Chapter Two, Around Town: Reading: Read a profile of an immigrant family. Reading Strategy: Use the first sentence of each paragraph to find the main idea. Graphic Organizer: Use a chart to organize information. Study Skill: Staying organized. Sample from the standards table of contents, same book, same chapter: EFF: Become and stay informed. Form and express ideas and opinions. Work together. Promote family growth and development. Strengthen the family system. Do the work. Work with others. SCANS: Teach others. Work well with people. Understand social systems. Acquire and evaluate data. Interpret and communicate information. Serve customers. CASAS: Communicate in interpersonal interactions. Communicate personal information. Use the telephone book. Use community services. Understand basic safety procedures. Use community services to achieve community integration.
Chapter titles from the reading strategies table of contents: Use pictures and the title to find the main idea. Use the first sentence of each paragraph to find the main idea. Scan for specific dates and times. Read and draw conclusions. Use pictures and captions to find the main idea. Use background information to help you read. Use related words to help you read. Scan for specific information. Use the context to figure out new words. Read and make inferences. Identify cause and effect. Use headings to scan for information. Use the context to predict the meaning of new words. Learn to take notes. Question the information in a reading. Distinguishing fact from opinion. Ask and answer 'wh' questions. Understand a process. Distinguish between main ideas and details. Skim for the main idea.
Exercises: accessing information [pre-reading], giving voice [discussion], accessing information [post-reading], taking action, bridging to the future, community connection, family connection, work connection, enriching your vocabulary [grammar], study skill, review, your portfolio, summing up [skills checklist].
Instructor's manual includes: Teaching notes for key parts of every unit, answer key for all exercises and teamwork activities in the student book, reproducible test for each unit and a reproducible answer sheet to help students prepare for standardized testing, information about scientifically based research on learning and reading strategies (including multiple intelligences and diverse learning styles), placement information,
lsson plan suggestions, assessment strategies.
EXPLORING FUNCTIONAL TEXTS
Diane Henderson, Jenepher Snell, Le sow Ling
Learners
Similar to Access Reading, Task Reading, and Survival English - graphs, timetables, lists, diagrams, maps, plans, charts, advertisements, posters. The illustrations are adequate, though not near as realistic, but the exercises are better. For example, in the chapter entitled Rules for Passengers: "Imagine you are the owner of a ferry. You transport people from the mainland to an island and return. the journey takes about one hour. Passenger safety and comfort are your first priorities. Complete the information about the ferry in the table below. Then write a list of 10 rules for your passengers. Write a paragraph explaining what passengers must do in the even of the ferry beginning to sink."
CHALLENGING COMPREHENSION PRACTICES
Redspot Publishing
Extremely visual friendly and extremely user friendly. Paragraph summaries on the side of the page. Answer keys upside down on the same page as the exercises. One major exercise is for the whole article, one major exercise is for a selected section of the article. The other exercises are for individual paragraphs. 3 units - reading skills, answering skills, speed / accuracy.
READING RITES: Improve Your Reading Skills series
Mervyn Blake EPB / SNP / Panpac Table of contents: Reading for Meaning - skimming for the gist, understanding the big picture, being sensitive to paragraph structure, reading by phrase. Answering Questions - Answering the specific question, inferring from the text, expressing it in your own words. Summary Skills - understanding what is required, finding relevant points, note-making / re-expression, the write-up.
SCORE IN COMPREHENSION
Graemie Spencer Shinglee Publishers Table of contents - Comprehension Skills: Mastering the Grammar of Answers, alternative ways of answering a question, using a main clause to answer a question. Selecting Relevant Information, match the information with the mark scheme, removing irrelevant phrases from within sentences, spotting the answer with synonyms. Interpreting Text: making an intelligent guess, find the clue, two kinds of inference, logical inference (deduction), empirical inference (induction), inference in the question. Vocabulary Skills: Words, Phrases, and Sentences. Discovering the Clue, Looking for synonyms at the location, looking for context clues, same word, different meaning. Substituting Similar Phrases, recognising similar meanings, recognising grammatical equivalence, replacing adverbs, choosing the correct grammar, answers which are not permissible, grammar and meaning. Understanding Difficult Text, sophisticated language, idioms, imaginative language, looking for links. Summary Skills: Introduction. Purpose and Relevance. Listing, what is a list, practise listing, fluent writing exercises, text based exercises. The Scoring Zone, finding the scoring zone in a passage. Using Your Own Words, sentence level practice, using simple language, paragraph level practice, imaginative language. Interpreting the Passage, interpreting descriptive details, imaginative language in discursive passages, interpreting examples.
GET IT RIGHT! English Reading Comprehension
Toh Weng Choy, Phyllis Chew Oxford University Press / Singapore Skills: "Skimming: to the the gist of the passage; Scanning: to extract specific details from the passage; Peripheral perspective: to draw inferences from given information; Word Building: to enlarge the repertoire of words; Eliciting and rewriting: to write a terse, well-directed summary." Taxonomy: "These skills to a large extent meet the main areas of the Barrett taxonomy: Literal comprehension, Reorganisational comprehension, Inferential comprehension, Evaluative comprehension, Appreciative comprehension."
READING COMPREHENSION BUILDER
Research & Education Association Press Preparation for standardized exam - SAT * ACT * AP * GRE *GMAT * LSAT, etc. Each chapter has 3 sections - diagnostic test, review / drills, vocabulary list. Tests and drills included answer keys. Tests include detailed explanations.
Table of contents: vocabulary enhancer, basic reading comprehension, reading for content, reading for style, reading short passages, reading medium passages, reading long passages, attacking critical reading questions, mini tests.
|