College Countdown
College Countdown
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Reading...For Fun?
Good readers
read 144 times more than poor readers! Think how much easier it will be to
do your school reading, if you want to do it! It’s fun, but it’s hard work
to get there. Turn
off the TV! Read instead! Discover what’s important to you to read. Give
yourself a real reason to read and make it one of your goals we discussed in a
previous section of this chapter. Challenge yourself to question everything you
read. Really think about what the writing is trying to tell you either through a
story or with information. Become an active reader. Learn
to really listen well and to pay close attention to not only what people
have to say -- but how they say it. Then work on your conversation skills.
Believe it or not, it will help you improve your reading skills. Another
hint is to read about something, then turn around and teach someone the
same thing. First do it by talking, then do it in writing. It can be about
anything – how to fix a bike tire, installing a hard drive, cooking a recipe. (Click on the headings below for further information:) When Reading is Really Hard for You
Fiction
is writing that tells a story. A good writer can even teach through a story. A
story has a beginning, a middle and an end. In the story, you’ll have: * Setting (where the story is located?) * Characters (who is in the story?) * Point of View (who is telling the story?) * Plot (what are the actions of the story and how do
they move * Theme (What does the author want us to learn from the
story? * Conflict (what is the problem the story is trying to
solve? What’s
Tragedy – when the story ends sadly because
the hero made a large
Comedy – when the story ends happily
Escape – just pure fun
Nonfiction
is writing that explains or reports something – like an article in the
newspaper. There are several questions you can ask and then answer about every
piece of nonfiction:
Who?
What?
Where?
When?
Why?
How?
By
reading great writing, you become a better writer – not only in vocabulary,
but also in style and structure. Also, if you are well-read before you get to
college, chances are you will be assigned one of the books you read on your own.
Practice reading with a purpose! Remember,
reading a wide variety of works allows you to improve your vocabulary
painlessly. Vocabulary – it’s not just those lists of words for spelling
tests on Friday morning. Vocabulary is the entire body of words you know. The
larger the body, the better off you will be. How do you make that body larger?
Instead of going to the gym, go to your reading corner and get out a book. With
sticky notes or a highlighter, mark the words you don’t recognize. After
you’ve completed reading the piece, try and sound them out. Try and figure out
the meanings of words by the meaning of the rest of the sentence or paragraph.
(Learning definitions by context.) Make a guessing game out of it. That’s
right, it’s okay to guess. Follow it up with looking the word up in the
dictionary to see if you guessed right. Draw pictures or make notes so you
remember the word the next time you see it or hear it. Try
and do your vocabulary work either before or after reading so your reading
comprehension isn’t affected. If you do some of your vocabulary work before
reading, skim the piece for difficult words. Don’t be surprised if it takes
two to three readings to get full comprehension of the piece if the material has
a lot of new, difficult words.
 See Chapter 1 for more information and instructions. Click here for more information © 2003 [Wildwood Country Press]. All rights reserved.
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