–8TH GRADE READING COMPREHENSION SUCCESS–
SKIM AHEAD AND JUMP BACK
Skimming ahead enables you to see what’s coming up.
Before you begin reading, scan the text to see what’s
ahead. Is the reading broken up into sections? What are
the main topics of those sections? In what order are they
covered? What key words or ideas are boldfaced, bul-
leted, boxed, or otherwise highlighted?
Skimming through a text before you read helps
you prepare for your reading task. It’s a lot like
checking out the course before a cross-country
race. If you know what’s ahead, you know how
to pace yourself. This head start will give you
an idea of what’s important in the passage
you’re about to read.
When you finish reading, jump back. Review the
summaries, headings, and highlighted information.
(This includes both what you and the author high-
lighted.) Jumping back helps you remember the infor-
mation you just read. You can see how each idea fits into
the whole and how ideas and information are connected.
PRACTICE 1
Just to test yourself, skim ahead through Lesson 2. Look
at the summaries, headings, and other reading aids. Then
answer the questions below.
Questions
1. What is the main thing you will learn in Lesson 2?
2. What are the main topics of Lesson 2?
4 LESSON 1 • LearningExpress Skill Builders
3. What key words or phrases are defined in Lesson 2?
FINDING KEY WORDS AND IDEAS
In any text, some facts and ideas are more important than
others. To be an active reader, you need to identify key
ideas. By highlighting or underlining the key words and
ideas, you’ll make important information stand out.
You’ll also make it easier to find that information when
you want to write a summary or to study for an exam.
Of course, to highlight key words and ideas, you
must be able to determine which facts and ideas are most
important. Ask yourself: What’s the most important
information to understand and remember?
Here are two guidelines for highlighting or under-
lining a text (you’ll learn a lot more about this in the next
lesson when you learn how to determine the main idea):
1. Be selective. If you highlight four sentences in a
five-sentence paragraph, you haven’t helped
yourself at all. The key is to identify what’s most
important in that passage. Ask yourself two
questions:
a. What is the author trying to say and what is
the main idea of his or her passage?
b. What information is emphasized or seems to
stand out as important?
You can also highlight information that you find
particularly interesting.
2. Watch for clues that indicate an idea is impor-
tant. Words and phrases like most important, the
key is, and significantly signal that key informa-
tion will follow. Watch for visual clues, too. Key
 –BECOMING AN ACTIVE READER–
words and ideas are often boldfaced, under-
lined, or italicized. They may be boxed in or
repeated in a sidebar.
PRACTICE 2
Lesson 2 will show you how to identify topic sentences
and main ideas. Meanwhile, you can do your best and
practice looking for verbal and visual clues.
Questions
Read the paragraph below, twice, and highlight the
most important information.
Wind Chill Factor
People have known for a long time that they
feel colder when the wind is blowing. The rea-
son for this is simple. The faster the wind blows,
the faster your body will lose heat. To educate
the public, scientists in Antarctica performed
experiments and developed a table to give
people a better idea of how cold they would
feel outside when the wind was blowing. This
is important because prolonged exposure to
cold temperatures can be dangerous.
LOOK UP UNFAMILIAR WORDS
Looking up unfamiliar words is another very important
active reading strategy. You need to know what the words
mean to understand what someone is saying. After all,
a key word or phrase can change the meaning of a whole
passage.
Whenever possible, have a dictionary with you
when you read. Circle and look up any unfamiliar words
right away. (Circling them makes them easier to find if
you lose your place.) Write the meaning in the margin.
That way, you won’t have to look up the meaning again
if you forget it; it will always be there to refer to. (Of
LearningExpress Skill Builders • LESSON 1
course, if you don’t own the book, don’t write in it!
Instead, write down the vocabulary word and its defin-
ition in a notebook.)
If you don’t have a dictionary with you, try to fig-
ure out what the word means. What clues does the
author provide in that sentence and surrounding sen-
tences? Mark the page number or write down the word
somewhere so you can look it up later. See how closely
you were able to guess its meaning. (You’ll learn more
about this in Lesson 3.)
PRACTICE 3
Questions
Read the paragraph below carefully. Circle any unfamiliar
words, and then look them up in the dictionary. Write
their meanings below or in the margins. Then reread the
paragraph to fully understand its meaning.
We’d just moved to South Mountain, and I did-
n’t know anyone in the neighborhood. On my
first day at South Mountain High, I was petri-
fied. I’m shy to begin with, you know, so you
can imagine how I felt walking into that strange
school. I wore my favorite outfit to bolster my
confidence, but it didn’t help much. It seemed
like everyone was staring at me, but it was prob-
ably just my imagination running rampant, as
usual. In fact, I thought I was imagining things
when I walked into my new homeroom. I
couldn’t believe my eyes! There, sitting in the
front row, was Maggie Rivers, my best friend
from Oakwood Elementary School.
5
 –8TH GRADE READING COMPREHENSION SUCCESS–

RECORD YOUR QUESTIONS
AND COMMENTS
As you read, you’re bound to have questions and com-
ments. You’re also likely to have reactions to the read-
ing. You might wonder why the author used a certain
example, or you might think a particular description is
beautiful. Write your questions and comments in the
margin (or on a separate piece of paper if the book is
not yours) using the code that follows.
Place a if you see connections between the text
and other texts you have read, or if you
understand the experience being described.
Place an ! in the margin if you are surprised by the
text or the writer’s style.
Place a in the margin if there is something you
read that you like about the text or the style.
Place a in the margin if there is something you
read that you don’t like about the text or the
style.

Place a ? in the margin if you have a question
about the text or if there is something that
you don’t understand.
Place a ✓ in the margin if you agree with what the
author wrote.
Place an X in the margin if you disagree with what
the author wrote.
This kind of note taking keeps you actively involved
with your reading. It makes you think more carefully
about what you read—and that means you will better
understand and remember the material.
Here’s an example of how you might respond to
the Wind Chill Factor passage:

Wind Chill Factor

People have known for a long time that they feel colder when the wind is blowing. The reason
✓ for this is simple. The faster the wind blows, the faster your body will lose heat. To educate the
public, scientists in Antarctica performed experiments and developed a table to give people a
better idea of how cold they would feel outside when the wind was blowing. This is important
because prolonged exposure to cold temperatures can be dangerous. ?

As you used this shorthand, you would know that:

The next to the first line means that you
remember the cold temperatures on your
school ski trip last February.
The ✓ next to the second line means that you know
that cold winds make your body lose heat.
The next to the third line means that you wish
the author had included the table to make the
point more clear.
The ? next to the fifth line means that you don’t
know how long is “prolonged.”

6 LESSON 1 • LearningExpress Skill Builders