USING AIDS TO READING

LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the unit, students should be able to:
preview parts of a book
use and practice pre-reading warm-ups

INTRODUCTION
Before you begin to read a book or any other reading text, you can learn a lot by previewing. This provides
a general idea of a text before actually reading it. Exploring a topic will also assist you to understand better
when you read. This can be achieved by writing down pre-reading warm-ups such as listing, making a
word map, brainstorming, and free writing.

Learning Points

Previewing the Parts of a Book

here are times when you want to get an idea of the importance of a book without reading the

entire book. When previewing a book, you want to get an idea of what the author is going to tell
you. Previewing gives you a general idea about a book in advance and helps understand a little
about its content and special features.

Guidelines to Previewing a Book

Use the following tips to assist you preview a book:
Title of the book
The title can tell you a great deal about the book. Before you read, take the time to think about
what the books title
means.
Table of Contents
The table of contents appears at the front of the book. It provides a list of the names of chapters
and the pages. Some books also chapter subheadings. Study each chapter and subheadings
to get an idea of what each section of the book deals with and how the topics relate to one another.
Preface
Some books include a preface; a brief explanation in which the author gives reasons for writing the
book. Authors who write them are sending a personal message to the reader. Information included
are; the target readers, objectives of the book, topics in the book, and the best approaches to
understand those topics.
Introduction
The first chapter of a book is often the introduction. The introduction states the basic idea, issue,
or problem that the author addresses. It provides background information and may summarize
what other authors have said about the topic.
Index
An index appears at the end of the book. It is a list of the topics, subjects and names mentioned
in the book. A quick look at the index tells you what the main points of the book and where to
look them up.
Appendix
This is located at the end of the book and adds information to the book content. It may
include charts and graphs, related documents, and supplementary notes.
Bibliography
At the end of the book is the bibliography which lists in alphabetical order the resources that
the author used to write the book.

TASK 1

Look at the table of contents taken from a book called Classroom Literacy Assessment: Making Sense of
What Students Know and Do. Answer each question based on the content page.

CONTENTS
Part I

Foundations for Trustworthy Classroom Assessment of Children's Literacy Knowledge

Inquiry-Oriented Assessment

p. 3

A Pathway for Connecting Standards with Assessment: Backward Mapping of

Assessment Tasks

p. 21

Promoting and Assessing Effective Literacy Learning Classroom Environments

p. 33

Assessing Children's Motivation for Reading and Writing

p. 50

Part II

Assessing Word Knowledge and Reading Fluency

Language and Literacy Assessment in Preschool

p. 65

Assessing Word Recognition

p. 85

Effective Oral Reading Assessment (or Why Round Robin Reading Doesn't Cut It)

p. 101

Assessing Students' Spelling Knowledge: Relationships to Reading and Writing

p. 113

Part III

Assessing Comprehension and Composition

Assessing Vocabulary: Examining Knowledge about Words and about Word

Learning

p. 135

10

Assessing Literary Understandings through Book

p. 154

11

Assessing Strategic Reading

p. 177

12

Assessing Students' Understanding of Informational Text in Intermediate- and MiddleLevel Classrooms

p. 195

13

Assessing Student Writing

p. 210

Part IV Broadening the Context: Looking across Assessments, Classrooms, and Schools
14

A Classroom Portfolio System: Assessment Is Instruction

p. 227

15

Formative Uses of Assessment: Cases from the Primary Grades

p. 246

16

Authentic Assessment of Authentic Student Work in Urban

p. 262

17

Putting the CIA System to Work: Linking Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment to
Improve Student Achievement

p. 280

18

Developing an Individualized Education Plan: What Counts as Evidence

p. 294

19

Classroom Assessment and Standards-Based Change

p. 306

Index

p. 323

1. In which chapter would you look for information about assessing students essay writing?

2. In which part of the book would you expect information about reading fluency?

3. Which specific page would give you information about the use of portfolio in
classroom assessment?

4. What specific information would you expect to find in Chapter 4?

Using Pre -reading Warm Ups

Like previewing, pre-reading or warming up will assist you before you read. When you warm up,
you get ready to do something. As a reader, you can get a general idea of what a reading selection is about
from the title, the headings, the illustrations, and other features. Equally important is to warm up by trying to
think of what you already know about the selections topic before you start reading.
When you explore a topic by thinking about it before you read, you will understand it better when
you read. Many readers like to write down their pre-reading warm ups. It will not take up very much time
and do not worry about making mistakes in spelling or grammar. The main focus is to get your ideas down.
The following are some of the ways to write down your ideas:
Free writing
Making a list
Brainstorming

Free writing
The purpose of free writing is to write freely about the subject of the reading selection. You simply
write about the subject without worrying about the spelling, sentence structure, grammar, and logic. It may
be disorganized, but it is alright. It is just a way to put ideas into words that you can look at, expand on,
change or omit. Below is an example that a student prepared before reading a selection on Distance
Learning/ E-Learning.
E-Learning is becoming popular way to study. It provides new opportunities for people to
study. As in any form of learning, there are advantages and disadvantages. No need to
travel to campus and this saves time and money. The virtual classroom. Learn at your own
convenience and time. Learn anywhere at anytime! However, arent face-to-face
interactions important? Students may not understand something but cannot ask directly
to the teacher. Who do we ask when there is no teacher in front of us? What about
technical problems like slow Internet?

Do you see how this student put down whatever thoughts that came to her mind about the selection
before she read it? She was tapping her own experiences. When she reads, many points in the
selection will be familiar to her.

TASK 2

Write down your thoughts on a reading selection titled The Role of Family Values, a
chapter from a book about parenting. Write on the basis of what the title makes you think of.
The Role of Family Values

Making a list
In this pre-reading warm up, you simply write down in list form whatever comes to mind about the
topic of your reading. Below is an example that a student prepared before reading a
selection on Endangered Animals.
Why do animals become endahgered?
Are we responsible?
Examples: Asian elephant, blue whale, panda, tigers, rhinos
Can become extinct
Why?
Human destroy their homes-habitats-no food
Oil spills and pollution
Hunting for exotic food
How to safe
Plants and animals have medicinal, agricultural, ecological, and
aesthetic
Endangered species must be protected and saved so that future generations can
experience their presence and value

Just put down whatever comes to mind about the reading topic. There is no need to worry about
misspellings, grammar or sentence structure. The aim of this prereading warm up is to simply
record ideas, and making the list helps the student explore the topic before reading. If necessary,
you can organize the list later by clustering related information to make it clearer.

TASK 3

Here are the sub headings from a college textbook about Setting up a Small Business. Preview the sub
headings and make a list of everything you know about starting a small business.
Deciding what sort of business to start

marketing & selling

customer analysis

raising capital

business location/ premises

employing people

Brainstorming
One very popular kind of pre-reading task is Brainstorming. When you are given
a
particular topic or key concept regarding a reading task, write down words and concepts you
personally associate with the key words or words provided. This practice has many advantages,
since it allows you, as the reader the freedom to bring your own prior knowledge and opinions
to bear on a particular topic. This brainstorming practice can be completed as a class or
individually.

Just examine the title of the selection you are about to read and think about any information you
already know about the particular topic. These pieces of information are then used to further
recall, and in the process considerable knowledge will be activated. The results of this kind of
activity
resemble what has been called semantic mapping. Semantic mapping is a strategy
for reading instruction that enables students to activate their prior knowledge about a subject
before reading a text. Semantic mapping is also known as concept mapping or semantic/ word
webbing. Aside from pre-reading, semantic mapping can also be used during reading by
adding to your map new information you learned from the text. After reading, a semantic map
can serve as the basis for a writing assignment.
A semantic map is a device for organizing information graphically according to categories.
It can be used for:
concepts
vocabulary
topics
background
plot and character development
pre-writing activity
Brainstorming practice can be completed as:
As a class - you as the teacher or
Individually you as a eader

Below is an example that a reader prepared before reading a selection on The Internet.

Good Info.

Bad Info.

Informatio
n

The
Internet

Communicati
on

Academic Purposes

Personal

On-line

Anywhere

Anytime

Mapping can be presented in many ways but is generally introduced through the following steps
(Heimlich & Pittelman, 1986; Johnson & Pearson, 1984).
1. Introduce the concept, term, or topic to be mapped. Write the key word for it on the
whiteboard, overhead transparency or chart paper.
2. Brainstorm Ask readers to tell what other words come to mind when they think of the keyword.
3. Group certain words by category, reasoning (individually) or discussing (class) why certain
words go together. Try to come up with relevant categories.

4. Create the map.

5. Extend the map. As you read or as students discover, through further reading, additional
new words related to the topic or key word, add these to the existing map.

TASK 4
You are about to read an article titled Effective Study Techniques. Develop a semantic
map base on the topic given.

SUMMARY
The third unit focused on how one can make reading more effective. This unit presented various prereading warm-up practices that can help you before the reading process. These activities make you think
about what you are going to read as a way to prepare your thoughts and mind to accept new
information. This can be associated with schema activation process or the activation of background
knowledge. In doing so, you build on the meaning you bring to the learning situation.

SELF ASSESSMENT

Select one educational article about a topic that interests you. Explore the topic by using the pre reading warm-ups
presented in this chapter:

Free writing
Making a list
Brainstorming

Which of this pre reading warm-ups works best for you? Why?