Reading skill-building tips

person reading book on brown wooden table taken at daytome
Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Below are the learning activities “extracted” from ETS inside the TOEFL reading section videos. From each video, the skill-building tips are taken and formulated as learning activities to be practiced.

Taking notes / JOTTING

When reading a text you will see the main entities, characters, actors. Those are the subjects of sentences, that repeat time after time in the text (in different forms). Write their names on a piece of paper. Such a list will help you remember the.

Skimming / Read quickly to identify major points.

Read the first (introductory) paragraph of the passage, then read the first sentence of each of the middle paragraphs, and then the concluding paragraph.

When reading, first skim the passage you have to read, then – read it.

Vocabulary for inference rhetorical purpose questions:

to illustrate
to exemplify
to explain
to contrast
to refute
to note
to support

Morphology & roots

Pay attention to the roots of the words, prefixes, and other parts.

“Guess the meaning” games (wht do words extra terrestrial, all terrain, terra nova mean?)
Morphology games.

Identify main ideas and separate them from secondary information.

Secondary information:

Examples, parenthesis, details (numbers, dates, etc.)

Know your pronouns

this/these
that/those
they/them
him/her
he/she/it
which

so that

Create outlines

Identify the main idea & supporting details/examples

The full workflow for a general understanding reading base content:

Read the first (introductory) paragraph of the passage, then read the first sentence of each of the middle paragraphs, and then the concluding paragraph.

Skim the passage

Read the first (introductory) paragraph of the passage, then read the first sentence of each of the middle paragraphs, and then the concluding paragraph.

After having skimmed the passage you must have a clear understanding of what the passage is about, its main idea, message.

What is it all about?

Maybe an MCQ

After having skimmed the passage you must have a clear understanding of what the passage is about, its main idea, message.

Having read the passage you will be able to not only articulate the main idea but also to specify the main idea of each paragraph. It will usually be stated in the first two sentences of each paragraph.

Read the passage.

Having read the passage you will be able to not only articulate the main idea but also to specify the main idea of each paragraph. It will usually be stated in the first two sentences of each paragraph.

After having read the text you’ll be ready to describe the development of the main idea by stating the main idea of each paragraph.

Statement development

Order the main ideas of the paragraphs, excluding false main ideas.

After having read the text you’ll be ready to describe the development of the main idea by stating the main idea of each paragraph.

Identify entities & stakeholders of the events described in the passage.

Who’s in?

Mark the words in the text.

e.g. “Mark all the words meaning the main character”, “mark all the words meaning the main object of the action”, etc.

Identify entities & stakeholders of the events described in the passage.

Articulate events like “Stakeholder 1 performed an action such towards object/stakeholders 2 because/to …”

What’s happened?

For each paragraph compose the phrase resuming it.

Articulate events like “Stakeholder 1 performed an action such towards object/stakeholders 2 because/to …”

As a result you should be ready to retell the passage in your own words. This reproduction may leave out minor details, but must include the main idea, the main stakeholders/entities and the main events in the right order and with the right logical connections.

Retell

As a result you should be ready to retell the passage in your own words. This reproduction may leave out minor details, but must include the main idea, the main stakeholders/entities and the main events in the right order and with the right logical connections.

Read the first (introductory) paragraph of the passage, then read the first sentence of each of the middle paragraphs, and then the concluding paragraph.

Skim the passage

Read the first (introductory) paragraph of the passage, then read the first sentence of each of the middle paragraphs, and then the concluding paragraph.

After having skimmed the passage you must have a clear understanding of what the passage is about, its main idea, message.

What is it all about?

Maybe an MCQ

After having skimmed the passage you must have a clear understanding of what the passage is about, its main idea, message.

Having read the passage you will be able to not only articulate the main idea but also to specify the main idea of each paragraph. It will usually be stated in the first two sentences of each paragraph.

Read the passage.

Having read the passage you will be able to not only articulate the main idea but also to specify the main idea of each paragraph. It will usually be stated in the first two sentences of each paragraph.

After having read the text you'll be ready to describe the development of the main idea by stating the main idea of each paragraph.

Statement development

Order the main ideas of the paragraphs, excluding false main ideas.

After having read the text you'll be ready to describe the development of the main idea by stating the main idea of each paragraph.

Identify entities & stakeholders of the events described in the passage.

Who's in?

Mark the words in the text.

e.g. "Mark all the words meaning the main character", "mark all the words meaning the main object of the action", etc.

Identify entities & stakeholders of the events described in the passage.

Articulate events like "Stakeholder 1 performed an action such towards object/stakeholders 2 because/to …"

What's happened?

For each paragraph compose the phrase resuming it.

Articulate events like "Stakeholder 1 performed an action such towards object/stakeholders 2 because/to …"

As a result you should be ready to retell the passage in your own words. This reproduction may leave out minor details, but must include the main idea, the main stakeholders/entities and the main events in the right order and with the right logical connections.

Retell

As a result you should be ready to retell the passage in your own words. This reproduction may leave out minor details, but must include the main idea, the main stakeholders/entities and the main events in the right order and with the right logical connections.