UNIT 1 GLOBAL AFFAIRS

Lesson1:
How to improve your
reading skills

English III
English Program
UCEN
Teacher: Ellen Peñaloza NúÑEZ
Material taken and adapted from different sources for educational purposes of this program.
LET’S START WORKING!
Lesson 1: reading techniques
What is SKIMMING?
 Skimming is one of the tools you can use to
read more in less time.
 Skimming refers to looking only for the
general or main ideas.
 With skimming, your overall understanding
is reduced because you don’t read
everything.
What is SKIMMING?
 You read only what is important to your
PURPOSE.
 Skimming takes place while reading and
allows you to look for details in addition to
main ideas.
How can I do it?
How can I SKIM a text?
Let’s say you’re doing research on a long
chapter or a website. By reading the first few
paragraphs in detail you will get a good idea of
what information will be discussed. Once you
know where the reading is headed, you can
begin to read only the first sentence of each
paragraph. Also called topic sentences.
How to SKIM:
What is SCANNING?
 Scanning is another useful tool for speeding
up your reading.
 When Scanning, you look only for a specific
fact or a piece of information without
reading everything .
What is SCANNING?
 In Scanning you have a question in your mind
and you read a passage only to find the answer,
ignoring unrelated information.
 For scanning to be successful, you need to
understand how your material is structured as
well as comprehend what you read.
 Scanning allows you to find details and other
information in a hurry.
How to SCAN:

 State the specific information you’re

looking for.
 Try to anticipate how the answer will
appear and what clues you might use to
help you locate the answer.

 Selectively read and skip through sections

of the passage.
Is everything clear by now?...
Any questions?
 Activity 1
What would you do in the following situations,
skim or scan?:
1. You are looking on the internet for suitable material to
support your debate topic. SCAN

2. You and a friend want to go and see the latest blockbuster

movie and you need to check at which cinemas it is showing
and at what times.
SKIM
 Activity 1: skim or scan?:
3. You have to decide among three articles to read on
‘Alternative medicine’. You have to choose one to SKIM
summarize.

4. You want to find out the exact meaning of the word ‘joint’
and look it up in an online dictionary. SCAN

5. You are looking through a database to find an activity that

will help you increase your reading speed. SKIM
Nice job!
Let’s
continue
now!
What is a referent?
Identify Pronoun referents
 Identifying referents
Take a look at this paragraph from
a biology article . What do these
words refer to?:
vaccines
Weak germs
They (line 4):__________________
germ
They (line 6):__________________
It (line 10): ___________________
• You can also help your immune
system to fight germs by getting
vaccinated. Vaccines are medicines.
They contain dead or weak germs
that cannot make you sick. Instead,
they cause your body to make
antibodies. If the same germ ever
shows up again, then your antibodies
attack it. You can also keep your body
healthy by eating a healthy diet to
make your immune system strong.
WELL DONE! GREAT JOB TODAY!