Reading Skills

​Reading Skills: An Introduction

Herman English 2​

​Today we're going to talk about four main skills: ​

• Inferencing

• Context Clues

• Annotating

• Textual Evidence

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These are four skills that will help you read and understand all texts better!

​What is an inference?

A conclusion based on evidence and reasoning.​

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Based on details given in a text, you can often infer (or make an inference) to discover something.

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​You make inferences without realizing it all the time!

​For example,

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​If the text says "The grass in front of the school was wet", what could you infer?

​What is textual evidence?

Textual Evidence is parts of the text that support our answer. Like detectives have evidence to back up their arrest, we have to have evidence to back up our claim. ​​

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You MUST have textual evidence in order to make an inference. If you don't have evidence, it's just a guess.

​Whenever you answer any question about a text, it's important to have textual evidence to back it up.

​Let's practice making inferences using textual evidence!

Multiple Choice

What is an inference?

•  An inference is something that you think is true based on information that you have.

• An inference is directly written in the text

Multiple Choice

Before the 1800's people didn't have right or left shoes.  They had shoes of just one shape that they used for both feet.  When people first saw right and left shoes, they laughed.  They called them "crooked shoes."  "What a silly idea," they said.  You can tell that shoes before 1800:

• were pretty

• didn't look alike

• didn't fit very well

Multiple Choice

Tim looked out the window. The house looked so lonely. Tim's father put the last suitcase in the trunk and started up the car. Thor, his dog, put his head on Tim's lap, like he understood how  Tim was feeling. "It's okay Thor," he said, "Dad says we will like California." What is happening?

• Tim is sad because his dog doesn't have a house to live in.

• Tim is taking a trip to visit peolpe he doesn't know.

• Tim is taking Thor to live with his grandmother.

• Tim is moving to California with his family.

Multiple Choice

Which sentence from the selection supports that the computer was not working properly?

• Rita took three hours to finish her homework.

• Ritaʼs homework was not finished.

• Rita had to write out her story instead of typing it.

• Ritaʼs homework was not done correctly.

Multiple Choice

Sometimes we have to “read between the lines.” Authors don’t always tell us everything. We need to use textual evidence and prior knowledge to understand the text better. 

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

In real life, people who can back up an opinion about a text with Textual Evidence are taken more seriously than people who can only give a reason of “just because".

• True

• False

​What are context clues?

​Context clues are hints in a text that can help you to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words.

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There are a lot of different types of context clues, let's go over them! ​

​Definition/Explanation

Sometimes the text will give you the definition of an unknown word or explain it, just in a different part of the text. ​

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Let's try one!​

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Multiple Choice

Diane was so tired that she couldn't get out of bed. She had played 5 soccer games the day before and was exhausted from them. She felt like a sloth, barely able to work up any energy. She had never felt so lethargic in her life.

What is the best meaning for lethargic as it is used in the paragraph above?

• sore

• exhausted

• dead

• lazy

Open Ended

What textual evidence/context clue would help you determine the last answer? Type the part of the sentence that told you lethargic meant exhausted.

Diane was so tired that she couldn't get out of bed. She had played 5 soccer games the day before and was exhausted from them. She felt like a sloth, barely able to work up any energy. She had never felt so lethargic in her life.

​Synonyms

Synonyms are words that mean the same thing. Sometimes you can figure out an unknown word by looking for synonyms near it.

Multiple Choice

The young girl was very aloof. She always seems unsociable, unapproachable, and uninterested.

Which could aloof most likely mean?

• not friendly

• talkative

• uninteresting

• horse-like

Open Ended

The young girl was very aloof. She always seems unsociable, unapproachable, and uninterested.

Which words are synonyms for aloof?

​Antonyms

Antonyms are words that mean the opposite of one another. Sometimes you can use antonyms as context clues in order to figure out an unknown word or phrase. ​

Multiple Choice

We thought the athletes would be famished after their game, but they were not hungry at all.

What does famished mean?

• mean

• disturbed

• angry

• hungry

​Logic

​Sometimes you can figure out the meaning of a word using logic. What would make sense given the paragraph?

Some text here about the topic of discussion

Multiple Choice

Because he ate candy morning, noon and night, it was inevitable that he would have a lot of cavities in his teeth.

What does inevitable mean?

• unlikely

• unavoidable

• rude

• unexpected

Open Ended

Because he ate candy morning, noon and night, it was inevitable that he would have a lot of cavities in his teeth.

What part helped you determine the answer?

​Sounds like?

When other clues aren't working for you, ti can be helpful to think about what the unkown word sounds like.

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There are things called root words (we will be further studying later) but these are the foundation of words. This means that words that sound alike can sometimes have the same meaning.

For example, you could guess the meaning of the word memoir or memorobilia because they sound like memory. ​

Some text here about the topic of discussion

​Other context clue tips

1. Look at your answer choices and try substituting them in. Sometimes they will sound wrong and that can help you to eliminate them.

2. Read the WHOLE text to find the meaning. As you get older, they make context clues harder to find. Often, the clues for the word are not in the same sentence, but in the surrounding paragraphs. ​

​Let's practice using context clues!

Multiple Choice

No matter where you go, the Internet is following you. Almost every portable device is being made with an Internet connection. Most new TVs and many other appliances come with Internet connections as well. The Internet is truly ubiquitous. If something is ubiquitous, __________.

• it is fuzzy and will bite you

• it is everywhere

• it costs too much money

• it causes rashes

Multiple Choice

No word must ever leak out about this military action! It has to be a clandestine operation in order to succeed. Which word is a synonym of "clandestine"?

• family

• useful

• dangerous

• secret

Multiple Choice

Based on context clues in the passage below, truncated means:

I was upset that the ebook file was truncated because I couldn't find out how the story ended.

• finished

• cut short

• too long

• boring

Multiple Choice

The farmers bought more fertilizer for their fields this year, but the harvest was meager due to an unexpected increase in pests.

• small

• plentiful

• green

• lucrative

Multiple Choice

The mayor praised the town, but the candidate deprecated it.

• burned

• criticized

• approved of

• loved

​What is an annotation?

Annotating is when you take notes or highlight as you read. ​Annotating is a way to increase your comprehension of a text. Often this looks like writing or highlighting on the text. ​

Things to stop and annotate:

• After paragraphs of a challenging text, paraphrase as an annotation

• Note things to do with themes in the text

• ​Annotate key ideas by underlining

• Annotate things that are important to you ​

• Asking questions as you read is another good way to keep yourself engaged. ​

​Review: making inferences, using textual evidence, using context clues, and annotating as you read are all ways to make yourself a better reader and comprehend the text more effectively.