Reading Skills in the

Malaysian Primary School

English Language
Curriculum
 The Reading Module
• The Reading module begins by developing pupils’
ability to read words, phrases and sentences. Pupils are
taught reading skills and strategies to further develop
their reading ability so that they can progress to
reading a variety of texts for information and
enjoyment. Pupils are also taught to apply word attack
and dictionary skills in order to develop pupils’ ability to
read independently. Appropriate reading materials
should be utilised to enhance pupils’ reading skills. By
the end of Year 6, pupils will be able to read a variety
of texts effectively and efficiently so that they become
avid and independent readers.

Source: DSKP KSSR 2016

 Reading skills re- visit
• Skimming
• Scanning
 Reading Comprehension skills
• Literal comprehension
• Reorganisation
• Inferential comprehension
• Evaluation
• Appreciation
Skimming is used to quickly gather the most important
information or ‘gist’. It’s not essential to understand each
word when you are skimming.

Run your eyes over the text, noting important information.

Use skimming to quickly get up to speed on a current business
situation.
Examples of Skimming:

• The Newspaper – to quickly get the

general news of the day
• Magazines – to quickly discover
which articles you would like to
read in more detail
• Business and Travel Brochures – to
quickly get informed
How to Skim?

Working quickly…

1. Read the title if there is one.

2. Read the introduction or the first paragraph if there is one.
3. Read the first sentence of every other paragraph.
4. Notice any pictures, charts, or graphs.
5. Notice any italicized or boldface words or phrases.
6. Read the summary or last paragraph if there is one.
 Scanning is a reading technique to be used when you want
to find specific information quickly. In scanning you have a
question in your mind and you read a passage only to find
the answer, ignoring unrelated information.

Examples of Scanning:

 A google search list on the internet.

 A bus / airplane schedule
 A conference guide
 A graph
 Activities to teach
skimming and scanning
"I Spy" Skimming / “Find the word” race

Help pupils skim through a text to find words quickly

with a modified game of "I Spy.“
Pick out a few words from the story ahead of time and
then get the stopwatch ready.
Say one of your words aloud and see how fast your
pupils can skim through the particular page or
paragraph to find it.
You can modify the game by having her search for the
longest word in a paragraph, the name of a character
or all the words that start with a particular letter.
Running Race

• prepare 9 or 10 questions about the details of a text; these questions

should not be subjective but have one clear objective answer. This
activity can work both before students read the text or as a review
activity when students have finished the reading.
• Put students into pairs with each student having a copy of the text in
front of them and make enough copies of the questions for each
pair. Cut the questions so they are in strips of paper, and give each
pair question number one only.
• When you tell students to start, they should race to find the correct
answer to the first question, and then one partner should run their
written answer to your desk to show you. If the student is correct, give
them question number two, and so on until a group has answered all
of the questions correctly.
• For more advanced students, you can mix-up the order of your
questions so that they do not follow in order with the text.
Story Webs

• Help your pupil practice his skimming skills by teaching him

to identify the main idea of a paragraph, passage or
instruction. It's important for him to be able to distinguish
between the main idea and the supporting details.
• To do this, have him create story webs. In these webs, the
main idea of the story or paragraph goes in the center and
all of the supporting details surround it like a web.
• Have your pupil try to figure out the main idea and then pick
out the supporting details from the story.
• After he attempts the activity, help him make any necessary
corrections and try the activity again with another story.
• Have skimming activities where you
copy the text, blocking out everything
but the title, pictures, first lines of each
paragraph, and the last paragraph.
• From this information, get your students
to identify the main idea and why the
author is writing this story.
• Have a discussion about what they
already know about the text and what
they think they will learn in the details.
• Give students the “6W questions” to ask about the
author’s purpose after reading an entire text.

- Who is writing this text and who did the author want to
read this text?
- What is the author saying?
- Why is the author saying this?
- When did the author write this story?
- Where does this story take place?
- How did the author write this story?

By getting the basics of the author’s purpose, we can

more easily understand what the main idea is.
 Conclusion
 Skimming and scanning is used when
reading all types of documents.
 We skim to get the idea of what a document
is about and typically skim all documents
before we actually begin to read.
 As we skim, we…
 think about the topic
 think about what we already know about the topic
 start to guess or anticipate the details we are
going to read about.
 We scan for specific information.
 We work quickly when we skim and scan.
 Literal Comprehension
• Understanding what is explicitly stated
by the author in the text
• Literal meaning is simply what the text
says. It is what actually happens in the
story. This is a very important level of
understanding because it provides
the foundation for more advanced
comprehension. Without
understanding the material on this
level, you could not go any farther.
 Literal Comprehension
• Recognition
- Recognition of Details
- Recognition of Main Ideas
- Recognition of a Sequence
- Recognition of Comparison
- Recognition of Cause and Effects
- Recognition of Character Traits
Recognition of main ideas
Examples of cause and effect text
 Literal Comprehension
• Recall
- Recall of Details
- Recall of Main Ideas
- Recall of a Sequence
- Recall of Comparison
- Recall of Cause and Effects
- Recall of Character Traits
 Reorganisation
• Classifying
• Outlining
• Summarising
• Synthesizing
 Inferential Comprehension
• Inferring Supporting Details
• Inferring Main Ideas
• Inferring Sequence
• Inferring Comparisons
• Inferring Cause and Effect Relationship
• Inferring Character Traits
• Predicting Outcomes
• Interpreting Figurative Language
• Using background knowledge or
determining the relationships
between events in the text to draw
conclusions not explicitly stated in the
text.
 Inferential Meaning
• Inferential meaning involves
determining what the text means. You
start with the stated information. This
information is then used to determine
deeper meaning that is not explicitly
stated. Determining inferential
meaning requires you to think about
the text and draw a conclusion.
 Inferencing
• Inferencing is a reading skill in which you read
between the lines and use your knowledge and
experience to understand what is left unsaid.
• This skill is useful because writers often do not tell us
directly what they mean.
• We have to use our past experiences, knowledge,
and whatever information or clues given in the text
to understand what is not stated.
 Activities to teach inferential skill

• riddles
- What am I?”
One page on another
dark stains in ordered patterns
knowledge bound together.

• “whodunit” stories.
 Predicting
• Prediction is the use of one’s knowledge about
language and the context in which it occurs to
expect what is coming next in writing or speech.
Good readers:
– Begin by quickly glancing over the text to make
some prediction about what they are going to
read
– Look for familiar words or topics, to get some
background knowledge about the topic
– Find out the writer’s purpose of a particular text
(fiction, non-fiction); the format used (book,
newspaper etc.); the content
 Prediction
• Prediction is an important skill in reading because it
helps you to be an effective and fast reader.
Predictions can be made by:
– Asking questions that the text might answer
By asking questions that the text may answer, it
will help you to identify the main points of the
text and the details.
– Using prior knowledge or experience
– Drawing logical association
Predicting
 Drawing conclusion
• Drawing conclusions is an
important skill to help you get
the most out of your reading
and to understand the writer’s
point of view.
 How to draw conclusion
To draw an appropriate conclusion from a
text, take the following steps:
a) Read the paragraph and identify the
topic sentence or the main idea
b) Look for supporting details as evidence
that you can use to reach a conclusion.
Examples of evidence are facts, statistics,
reasons, definitions, and descriptions
c) Combine your prior knowledge with the
supporting details to draw conclusions.
d) Ask these questions:
i. What is the writer trying to prove?
ii. What is the consequence of these events?
iii. What is going to happen because of these
actions?
iv. What can I conclude from the paragraph?

Sometimes conclusions are pointed out in the

paragraph itself.
Some expressions that point to a conclusion:
therefore, it is believed that, in fact, as a result
 Evaluating
• Judgements of Reality or Fantasy
• Judgements of Facts or Opinion
• Judgements of Adequacy and Validity
• Judgements of Appropriateness
• Judgements of Worth, Desirability and
Acceptability
 Evaluative Meaning
• Evaluative meaning is what the text is
telling us about the world outside the
story. Readers must analyze what they
have read. Then, they must form an
opinion based on the information
 Evaluating
To evaluate information in a text you need to ask
yourself the following:
• Do I understand the point being made?
• Is there unity in the text – does the writer stick to the
point all through?
• Are all the ideas and examples clearly connected
and easy to follow? (coherence)
• Are the words specific and concise? (effective
language)
• Is sufficient support given to ideas expressed?
• Is the tone reasonable and convincing?
 Appreciation
• Emotional Response to the content
• Identification with Characters or
Incidents
• Reactions to the Authors’ Use of
Language
• Imagery
 A typical comprehension lesson:

1. Start with word-by-word decoding and

translation (using controlled vocabulary)
2. Followed by comprehension questions
(who, what, when, where etc) most of
which involve answers (literal
comprehension)
3. End with checking answers with little/no
explanation
 Problems:
no training of higher-order comprehension skills:
 interpretive (read between the lines)
 critical (read for evaluation)
 creative (read beyond the lines)
no development of students’ skills in syntactical,
semantic, lexical, stylistic analysis and making
excursion to their knowledge of the world to
confirm meaning
loss of contextual focus, overview, and immediate
frustration as soon as the reader encounters an
unknown word
 Tutorial Task
Discussion Questions
• In groups of 4, select a reading passage
for a Year 4/5 class.
• Suggest a reading skill that you think is
appropriate for the text.
• Suggest appropriate activities that focus
on the reading skills that you have
suggested