SFL/METU Fall 2017 DBE Reading Handout 1 ELEMENTARY GROUP Surveying, Predicting, Skimming and Scanning (Student s Copy) PART 1. DISCUSSION Discuss the following questions with a partner. 1. Do you read often? What do you like reading? 2. Why do people read? What are the purposes of reading? Below you will see examples of what people read and how they read it. Match what people read and how they read. When we read 1. a job advertisement to look for a job, 2. a film poster to choose a film to watch, 3. long articles to see which one is more suitable for our homework, we generally a.look at the visuals and read the titles b. read quickly to find some keywords c. read quickly to get the main idea 4. user reviews before we buy a product, 1
PART 2. EFFECTIVE READING STRATEGIES Below you will see some statements. Decide which reading strategies are effective and which ones are ineffective. Write E for the effective ones and I for the ineffective ones. Think about the reasons why they are effective or ineffective. 1. say words quietly to myself 2. look for linking words (like "and", "but", "so" ) to help me understand the ideas 4. ask for my teacher's help everytime I see a word I don't know 5. find the sentence that contains the main idea 6. read a lot of different things to learn new words and improve my reading 7. try to translate the sentences into Turkish 8. look at titles, pictures and graphs before reading 9. think of some questions about the topic before I read 10. look up only a few unknown words in the dictionary while reading 11. underline keywords in the text With effective reading strategies, you can learn to be a good reader. Being a good reader will help you a lot in your studies as a language learner and in your own department. The effective strategies above are general stategies that will help you in all kinds of reading. However, you need different strategies for different purposes of reading. As a university student, mostly you will read academic texts. Sometimes, you will read to get the main idea of a text, and sometimes you will need to look for specific information. You should use the correct strategies in the correct situation. Below, you will practice how to do Surveying, Predicting, Skimming and Scanning. 2
PART 3. SURVEYING SURVEYING means taking a broad look at a text, a chapter, a book etc. the purpose of surveying how will surveying help you? how to do surveying to get an overall picture of an article, chapter, or book. Surveying: increases reading speed helps you understand the text better helps you decide what to do: will you skip the material, will you skim it, scan it or will you study it carefully? Look at the cover page and the contents if it is a book. What do they tell you? Look at the visuals (pictures, graphs etc.) What do they show? Read the titles and the subheadings How many paragraphs are there in the text? How many texts are there in the chapter? Practice 1. Survey the webpage below. Answer the questions. You have 5 seconds. 1. What is the page about? 2. What are people doing in the photos? How many people are there? 3. What is the title and the subheading? 4. How many paragraphs are there? ONLINE Book Club NEW MEMBERS: Peter Blake comes from New York. He is an engineer. He is married and has one daughter. He likes reading very much. Ada and Ninoy Manlapaz come from Manila, in the Philippines. They are teachers. They are married and they have two children. They read a lot of books. www.onlinebookclub.com 3
PART 4. PREDICTING PREDICTING means trying to tell what the text is about before you read. the purpose of predicting how will making predictions help you? how to make predictions to get ready for the new information in the text Predicting: increases your interest in the text and it connects you to the text activates your knowledge about the topic and connects the old information in your mind with the new information in the text helps you understand the text better Look at the visuals, read the titles and the subheadings Predict what the text is about. Practice 2. Look at the pictures and the title. You have 10 seconds. 1. What do you think the text is about? 2. What details about this topic do you think you will read in the text? Then, go to page 7. Read the text and check your prediction. SPAIN Spain is a large country in the South of Europe. It has a long coastline on the Mediterranean Sea, and a short coastline on the Atlantic Ocean. There are mountains in Spain such as thecordilleracantabrica and the Pyrenees, where many peaks exceed 3,000 meters; but there is a lot of flat land, too. Important lowlands include the Andalusian Plain in the southwest, and the Ebro River Basin in the northeast. 4
PART 5. SKIMMING SKIMMING means reading very quickly to get the general idea from a text. the purpose of skimming how will skimming help you? how to do skimming to get a general idea about the text to find out what the text is about to identify the main ideas in a text Skimming: increases the reading speed saves time (this is important if you have limited time) helps you review materials easily before exams Avoid reading every word. Let your eyes skim quickly over the text Read the title and subheadings Read the introduction, or the first paragraph Read the first and last sentence of each paragraph Read the last paragraph Focus on the CONTENT WORDS (nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs). Practice 3. Skim the texts. Choose the topic of each paragraph from the alternatives. Focus on the content words ONLY. You have 15 seconds. Text 1. a) managers of a hotel b) a hotel in London Text 2. a) daily routine of a manager b) a manager s dietary habits Text 3. a) a bad café in a museum b) a museum of poor quality art Text 1. My favorite hotel is in London. It s called Hotel Camilla and it s on Bassington Street, near the centre of town. It s a small hotel about ten rooms but it isn t very expensive and it s very good. The white sheets in the rooms are from Italy, the flowers are fresh every day and the food and drink in each room is free. The managers of Hotel Camilla are Luis and his wife, Camilla. Luis is Spanish and Camilla is British. The guests are from all over the world. Rooms are about 80 for one night - that s cheap in London. Text 2. My manager is called Mr. Moody. She s a workaholic. She starts work at seven o clock every morning. She doesn t have breakfast. She has coffee at eleven o clock and she has salad for lunch. She doesn t go to the restaurant she eats her salad at her desk. She finishes work at about eight o clock. She doesn t have any friends. Text 3. The museum of Bad Art (MOBA) in Dedham, near Boston, USA, is about twenty years old. It is in the basement of a theatre, next to the toilet. The museum is open from two o clock to nine o clock. There are over 400 pieces of bad art in the museum. Some of the art is really bad. There aren t any staff in the museum (it s very small) and there isn t a café, but there s a café upstairs in the theatre and the museum is free. 5
PART 6. SCANNING SCANNING means going over the text quickly to find specific information. the purpose of scanning how will scanning help you? how to do scanning to find a specific fact to find a specific word to answer a specific question Scanning: increases your reading speed saves you time because you do not focus on irrelevant information Identify what you need to find in the text. Do you need a number, a person s name, a date? In questions, underline the question word and think about what it means Underline the key words Move your eyes quickly over the text several lines at a time Practice 4. a) Read the sentences. Underline the question words and the key words in the questions. 1. What do civil engineers build? 2. What do they use to plan their work? 3. What are the three examples of outside work places? 4. Why is working outside difficult? 5. Why do civil engineers like their work? b) Scan the text below and answer the questions in Exercise A. You have 25 seconds. Civil engineers do important work. They design and build bridges, roads, railways, and airports. Some of the time they work in offices. They use computers to plan their work. They can also work outside in a lot of different places, for example, in deserts, on the sea, and in our cities. Sometimes, working outside is difficult because of the weather. Civil engineers also work long hours and weekends, but they like their work because it is important and useful. 6
PREDICTING Practice 2. (page 4) Now, read the text and check your prediction. SPAIN Spain is a large country in the South of Europe. It has a long coastline on the Mediterranean Sea, and a short coastline on the Atlantic Ocean. There are mountains in Spain such as the Cordillera Cantabrica and the Pyrenees, where many peaks exceed 3,000 meters; but there is a lot of flat land, too. Important lowlands include the Andalusian Plain in the southwest, and the Ebro River Basin in the northeast. 7
OLR 0.5 Text 11 page 23 A. Thinking about the topic. You will read a text about Buckingham Palace. What do you know about this place? Take notes and share your ideas with a friend. _ B. Skimming. Skim each paragraph. Match each paragraph with a title. Be careful! There is one EXTRA. Time: 30 seconds. Paragraph 1. Topic A. Family members of the Queen Paragraph 2. Topic B. The palace and tourists Paragraph 3. Topic C. General information about the palace Paragraph 4. Topic D. The Queen s daily routine Paragraph 5. Topic E. The rooms and residents of the palace Paragraph 6. Topic F. Activities in the palace Topic G. Rules of eating dinner in the palace C. Checking predictions. Check your knowledge about the palace. Which ones are correct? Which ones are not in the text? D. Scanning. Read the statements. Underline the key words. Then, scan the text and find the information. Then, mark True (T), False (F), or No Information (NI) T F NI 1. The Queen of England lives in Buckingham Palace. T F NI 2. The Prime Minister goes to the palace every Tuesday. T F NI 3. 300 people work on the clocks in the palace. T F NI 4. Eight people look after the Queen s dogs. T F NI 5. The Queen has breakfast alone in the mornings. T F NI 6. Dinner starts at six o clock in the palace. T F NI 7. Visitors can see the palace. E. Reading and thinking. Which information about the Palace or the Queen is interesting to you? Underline. Share your ideas with a friend. 8
GIVING LONG OR SHORT ANSWERS In reading comprehension activities, sometimes you need to answer open-ended questions. e.g. What do civil engineers build? You can give short answers or long answers in this type of questions. Both of them are correct. e.g. Long answer: Short answer: They build bridges, roads, railways and airports. Bridges, roads, railways and airports. In the long answer, you write a full sentence (a structure that includes a subject and a verb); in the short answer, you only give the piece of information that the question asks, e.g. the object of the sentence in the example above. Practice 5. Read the text below and give both long and short answers to the questions. Paul studies engineering. Every day he gets up at 7:30 and goes to the university. He attends lectures in the morning. He has lunch at 1:00, and in the afternoons he works in the computer center. He goes home at 5:30. In the evenings he works on his computer. 1. When does Paul get up? Long answer: Short answer: 2. Where does Paul work in the afternoons? Long answer: Short answer: 9
IDENTIFYING IRRELEVANT INFORMATION In open-ended questions, you need to write the answer to the question only. You shouldn t write down information that is NOT related to the question. e.g. QUESTION: What do civil engineers build? ANSWER: Civil engineers do important work. They design and build bridges, roads, railways, and airports. The first sentence is IRRELEVANT because the questions does NOT ask you to mention the type of work that engineers do. The question asks only the things that engineers build. Practice 6. Read the text and the answer to the question below. Cross out the irrelevant information and write the correct answer. Many people work in offices. Some people work in small offices for one or two people, but many now work in open-plan offices. In these offices, people work together in one big room. New research from Australia shows that there are various advantages to these offices. In open-plan offices, a lot of people can work in one small area. Naturally, people can talk to their colleagues easily because they are all in the same room. One downside of this, though, may be that the office can be really noisy. This may make it very hard to concentrate on work. QUESTION: State the two advantages to open-plan offices. ANSWER 1: 1) A lot of people can work in one small area. 2) Naturally, people can talk to their colleagues easily (because they are all in the same room). One downside of this, though, may be that the office can be really noisy. ANSWER 2: 1) A lot of people can work in one small area. Naturally, people can talk to their colleagues easily (because they are all in the same room). 2) One downside of this, though, may be that the office can be really noisy. NOTE: If you list the two advantages together in one item, only the first one is graded if the information in both sentences is correct. The second item is not accepted. It is not an advantage. Practice 7. Read the text and the answer. Cross out the irrelevant information and write the correct answer. Grace Kelly was an actor and a princess. She was born on 12 th November 1929, in Philadelphia. Her first film was Fourteen Hours in 1951. She only appeared in the film for a few minutes, and it wasn t her best work. She was also in Rear Window in 1954 and High Society in 1956. In these films, she had one of the leading roles. She received good reviews for her acting in these films. In the same year that she appeared in High Society, she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco. After that, her name was the Princess of Monaco or Princess Grace. She was killed in a car crash on 14 th September 1982, and this was a big news story. QUESTION: In which films was Grace Kelly the main character according to the text? ANSWER: She was also in Rear Window (in 1954) and High Society (in 1956). In these films, she was one of the main actors. sentence is unnecessary. It is not necessary to mention the years.) DIRECT ANSWER: 10
CHANGING THE SENTENCES TO FIT THE QUESTION Sometimes, the answer is not worded the same way as the question. In other words, you cannot simply copy and paste the answer from the text because the structure does not fit. You need to shape the answer to fit the question. Example: Many people work in offices. Some people work in small offices for one or two people, but many now work in open-plan offices. In these offices, people work together in one big room. New research from Australia shows that there are various advantages to these offices. In open-plan offices, a lot of people can work in one small area. Naturally, people can talk to their colleagues easily because they are all in the same room. One downside of this, though, may be that the office can be really noisy. This may make it very hard to concentrate on work. QUESTION: How are open-plan offices different from small offices? ANSWER 1: Some people work in small offices for one or two people, but many now work in open-plan offices. In these offices, people work together in one big room. X ANSWER 2: Open-plan offices are big rooms, and people work together in one big room. However, in small offices, only one or two people work together. The first answer contains just sentences from the paragraph. These sentences contain the answer, but their function is not to talk about the differences between the two offices. We need to focus on each office and state the differences. In other words, we need to write our answer according to the structure and focus of the question, not the text. MAKING THE NECESSARY CHANGES FOR CLARITY Sometimes, we can take a portion from the text to answer a question. However, we need to be careful about the use of pronouns. When we simply take a portion of a sentence with a pronoun, the reader may not understand the answer. Example: Many people work in offices. Some people work in small offices for one or two people, but many now work in open-plan offices. In these offices, people work together in one big room. New research from Australia shows that there are various advantages to these offices. In open-plan offices, a lot of people can work in one small area. Naturally, people can talk to their colleagues easily because they are all in the same room. One downside of this, though, may be that the office can be really noisy. This may make it very hard to concentrate on work. QUESTION: What do we learn from the research in Australia? ANSWER 1: (We learn that) there are various advantages to these offices. X ANSWER 2: (We learn that) there are various advantages to open-plan offices. When you say these offices, the reader cannot understand what kind of offices that you are talking about. The phrase open-air offices is not in the question. You need to find the noun in the text and write it in the answer. 11
Practice 8. Do the following tasks related to the text below. Remember to avoid irrelevant information. WORK AND STRESS We all need to work in order to live. Some people are lucky with their work. This is because their jobs are healthy. What do we mean by healthy, and how can we find a healthy job? 1 Jobs that are healthy Florists, personal trainers, professors, and nutritionists all have healthy jobs according to research. There are many reasons for this. A florist for example, sells flowers and plants to customers. This is a very relaxing work. A personal trainer, on the other hand, is usually very fit. He or she trains other people to lose weight and to keep fit. A nutritionist has a healthy job too. He or she knows all about healthy food and teaches people to eat well. 2 Stressful jobs However, research also shows that some jobs are unhealthy. They cause a lot of stress and worry. For example, a taxi driver drives all day. He often faces traffic jams and difficult passengers too. A fire fighter puts out dangerous fires and sometimes saves people from burning buildings. An MD (Managing Director) runs a large company. It is an interesting job, but it is also stressful. The MD has to keep everyone happy the staff and the customers. 3 What people want Most people are looking for the perfect job. They want a job that is interesting, with a good salary and not much stress. However, it is difficult to get everything. Healthy, relaxing jobs are usually not very well paid. On the other hand, people with stressful jobs often get good salaries. For example, the head of a big company gets a lot of money, but he or she does not always have good health, or the time to enjoy life. 12
Step 1. Read the questions and answer them according to the text. 1. Why is being a florist healthy according to the text? 2. What makes life difficult for taxi drivers? 3. What is good about being a Managing Director? 4. What kind of jobs are well-paid? 13
Step 2. Read the answers to the questions in the list. Mark ( ) if the answer is correct. Mark (~) if the answer is partially correct, but not fully correct. Mark (X) if the answer is not correct. Explain why. Discuss with your friends. 1. Why is being a florist healthy according to the text? 1. A florist sells flowers to customers and this is very relaxing work. 2. Because selling flowers and plants is very relaxing work. 3. Being a florist is very relaxing work. 4. Selling flowers and plants to customers is very relaxing work. 5. Because it is very relaxing. 6. It is healthy because it is very relaxing work / it is very relaxing. 7. Flowers and plants are very relaxing. NOTE: The text does not say this at all. 8. A florist for example sells flowers and plants to customers. NOTE: This answer is too indirect, so it is not sufficient. 2. What makes life difficult for taxi drivers? 1. Traffic jams and difficult customers make life difficult for taxi drivers. 2. Traffic jams and difficult customers. 3. They often face traffic jams and difficult passengers. 4. A taxi driver drives all day. NOTE: This is his job, not the difficulty. The question asks what makes driving all day difficult. 5. He often faces traffic jams and difficult passengers too. NOTE1: He is an inappropriate preposition here. They would be correct. NOTE2: Do not include too in your answer. 14
3. What is good about being a Managing Director? 1. It is an interesting job. 2. An MD (Managing Director) runs a large company. 3. It is an interesting job, but it is also stressful. NOTE: This is his job, not the good part of being an MD. 4. The MD has to keep everyone happy the staff and the customers. NOTE: This is not something good about being an MD. 4. What kind of jobs are well-paid? 1. Stressful jobs are well-paid. 2. Stressful jobs. 3. Healthy, relaxing jobs are usually not very well paid. NOTE: This does not answer the question. It is not sufficient on its own. 4. Healthy, relaxing jobs are usually not very well paid. On the other hand, people with stressful jobs often get good salaries. NOTE: Too much irrelevant information. 5. On the other hand, people with stressful jobs often get good salaries. NOTE: On the other hand does not belong here. The rest of the answer included the answer, but the focus is wrong. The question is not about people who get good salaries. This question does not fully answer the question. 6. People with stressful jobs often get good salaries. NOTE: The question is not about people with good salaries. This answer does not fully answer the question. 15