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Reading comprehension skills

 

Reading comprehension passages are given to test understanding of the strategies given below.

  1. Main idea and supporting details

  2. Inference

  3. Drawing conclusions

  4. Compare and contrast

  5. Context clues

  6. Fact and opinion

  7. Author’s purpose

  8. Summarize

  9. Sequencing

  10. Prediction

 

Main idea and supporting details:

What is main idea?

The main idea of a lesson or a paragraph is what the author wants the reader to understand when they read. The supporting details tell the reader more information about the main idea.

 

This is a simple graphic organizer that a teacher can use to guide the students to understand clearly about main idea and supporting details. It will be easy to find out the main idea and supporting details in a small paragraph or a lesson. But to note down the main idea and supporting details in a long essay or a long story, the graphic organiser can be used.

 

The fish bone organiser can be used to identify the main idea and supporting details.

Image courtesy: Enchantedlearning.com

 

 

 

Examples:

Niagara Falls is one of the most beautiful sights in North America. It is on the Niagara River about halfway between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. Niagara Falls is on the American and Canadian border. The American Falls is 167 feet high. On the Canadian side, the Horseshoe Falls is 161 feet high.

 

  1. What is the main idea of the passage?

           Niagara Falls is one of the most beautiful sights in North America.

 

2. Choose two supporting details for the main idea.

         Niagara Falls in on the American and Canadian border.

         The Falls at the American side is 167 feet high.

 

The main idea in a paragraph is a general idea. But the supporting details are specific as they tell more about the main idea. 

 

How to identify the main idea?

  1. Locate the topic. It can be person, place, object or an idea.

  2. The main idea is the general statement about the topic.

  3. The topic sentence can occur in the beginning, middle or in the end.

 

How to identify supporting details?

The supporting details first name the topic. Clarifying sentences support the main idea. Completing sentences add specific details.

 

The following are the types of supporting details that talk about the main idea in a paragraph.

  1. Examples, Illustrations

  2. Reasons

  3. Facts and statistics

  4. Descriptive details

  5. Steps or procedures

  6. Comparison and contrast

 

What is the main topic in the following paragraph?

Nutrition is the process of taking in and using food for growth, repair, and maintenance of the body. The science of nutrition is the study of foods and how the body uses them. Many North Americans define nutrition as eating a healthy diet. But what is healthy diet? Our food choices may be influenced by advertisements, likings or our convenience. We may reflect on the meaning of nutrition while pushing a cart down in a supermarket or while making a selection from a restaurant menu.

 

Inference

 

What is Inference?

 Inference means making a guess or read between lines.

 Inference occurs with

 Word meanings, Meanings of text, Meanings of larger themes of texts

                               

Story Clues What I know    Inference
     
     

 

Authors don’t always tell you everything. Sometimes readers must use clues to make guesses as they read. This is called making an inference.

  1. Readers use story clues. They use details about what they have read to make an inference.

  2. Readers use their own personal knowledge. They make “text to self” connections.

  3. Readers use prior knowledge. They make “text to text” connections.

 

The combination of these strategies helps the readers to make inferences about characters and events.

 

Jake tries to catch a fish

Jake stood on the river bank. He cast his fishing pole into the deep water. He had been trying to catch a fish for many hours. Alex and Zach laughed as they watched Jake throw the line into the water one more time.

 

Questions:

  1. What kind of person is Jake?

Clues that helped to tell Jake is hard working and patient - He had been trying to catch a fish for many hours.  Jake throw the line into the water one more time.

2. How do you think Alex and Zach feel about Jake’s efforts to catch a fish?

Clues that helped to tell what Alex and Zach felt about Jake’s efforts to catch a fish – Alex and Zach laughed as they watched Jake

 

Types of Inferences:

Local Inferences: These create logical understanding of happenings at the local level of sentences and paragraphs.

Global Inferences: These create logical understanding of happenings that covers the whole text. The reader needs to infer ideas about the theme, main point, from the local pieces of information.

On-line Inferences: Inferences drawn automatically during reading.

Off-line Inferences: Inferences drawn after reading.

 

How can students improve inference skills?

  • Be an active reader

  • Improve your vocabulary

  • Improve your level of grasp

 

Examples:

Sam and Helen went on holiday to Spain. The journey took over two hours. Sam sat by the window. He looked down on the mountains as they passed overhead. When they arrived they got a taxi to their hotel, because they had so much of luggage. They could hardly carry their suitcases to the taxi rank.  The hotel was by the sea. Helen looked down on the beach from her hotel window. She could see lots of sun bathers and a man walking along selling them ice-creams and cold drinks.  Helen and Sam went to the beach everyday. One afternoon they took a trip along the coast. The sea looked calm from the beach, but the water was quite choppy further out. Sam went pale and felt quite sick, so they turned around and came back to shore. Apart from that, they both enjoyed their holiday.

 

Local inference:

Where was the man selling the ice-cream?
     Where did they carry their luggage?

Global inference:

How did Helen and Sam travel to Spain?
     How did they travel around the bay?

 

Quiz on Inference:

  1. If you see a fire engine on your street, you can infer that – someone has an emergency

  2. If you go to a birthday party, you can infer that – there will be cake

  3. If you go to a Mexican restaurant, you can infer that – they specialize in Mexican food

  4. If you see someone with a cast on their leg, you can infer that – he/she broke his/her leg

  5. If you forget to study for a test, you can infer that – you might not do well

  6. If you see someone fall off their bike, you can infer that – he lost his balance

  7. If a house says ‘For rent’ outside, you can infer that – the house needs new occupants

  8. If your best friend is not in school one day, you can infer that – she/he is sick or out of station

  9. If your teacher is out of school today, you can infer that – she/he is sick or out of town

  10. If your cat is standing by its food, you can infer that – the cat is hungry

 

Read the passage and answer the questions:

Grandfather and Ravi got up early. They ate a quick breakfast. They pulled on sweaters and grabbed two long poles. They dug some worms in the garden. Then they walked to the river.

 

Grandfather and Ravi are ____________________

  1. going swimming

  2. going for a ride

  3. going jogging

  4. going fishing

 

Which clue helped you to understand that Grandfather and Ravi are going for fishing.

  1. Grandfather and Ravi dug worms

  2. Grandfather and Ravi got up early

  3. Grandfather and Ravi wore sweaters

  4. Grandfather and Ravi ate breakfast

 

 

 

  • What are they doing?

  • Where do you think they are?

  • When do you think this is taking place? (time of year)

  • How do they feel?

  • Who are these people?

 

Fact and opinion

What is Fact?

 A fact is something that is true about a subject and can be tested or proven.

What is Opinion?

 An opinion is what someone thinks about that subject.

 Read the following sentences and mark it as fact or opinion:

  1. We need to eat food in order to survive.

  2. Fruits and vegetables are an important part of the human diet.

  3. Hot dogs taste better than hamburgers.

  4. Food items with fat in them are bad.

  5. A healthy diet is important for general health.

  6. Field trips are boring.

  7. Three plus four equals seven.

  8. Math is very interesting.

  9. Potato is my favorite vegetable.

  10. Antibiotics are drugs given by the doctor to kill bacteria in our body.

 

Read the following paragraph and mark the fact and opinion:

 

Yesterday, officials at the San Diego Zoo in California got their first close-up look at the zoo's 20-day old panda cub, and the news is bear-y good. "It's heart and lungs sound fine,'" says Zoo veterinarian Meg Sutherland-Smith. "It's a very robust little cub!" The newborn panda weighs in at a little over a pound and is about 11 inches long.

 

Giant panda Bai Yun gave birth to the cub on August 3. This was her fourth successful birth at the zoo since 1999. Hua Mei, Bai Yun's first cub was the first giant panda born in the United States to survive. Hua Mei has since been sent to China and has given birth to three sets of twins. In keeping with the Chinese tradition, the newborn cub will be named after it reaches 100 days old.

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 08.01.2020

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Reading Strategies

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