Introduction
In this Webquest we are going to be teaching you ways to improve your Reading Comprehension, by implementing the tools of skimming and scanning. The level of reading comprehension refers to the type of mental representation that is made of the written text. The reader builds a mental model in which he can integrate explicit and implicit data from the text, experiences, and previous knowledge (Kucer, 2016; van den Broek et al., 2016). In essence, the use of scanning in research is to find particular facts, study fact-heavy topics, and t answer questions requiring factual support. Skimming can save you hours of laborious reading. However, it is not always the most appropriate way to read. In this research, we are going to explain with tasks the proper use of these techniques, skimming and scanning.
Task
Directions:
Skimming Exercise: Read the short paragraph and use the skimming technique to identify the main ideas.
Every second, one hectare of the world's rainforest is destroyed. That's equivalent to two football fields. An area the size of New York City is lost every day. In a year, that adds up to 31 million hectares -- more than the land area of Poland. This alarming rate of destruction has serious consequences for the environment; scientists estimate, for example, that 137 species of plants, insects, or animals become extinct every day due to logging. In British Columbia, where, since 1990, thirteen rainforest valleys have been clearcut, 142 species of salmon have already become extinct, and the habitats of grizzly bears, wolves, and many other creatures are threatened. Logging, however, provides jobs, profits, taxes for the government, and cheap products of all kinds for consumers, so the government is reluctant to restrict or control it.
The Main Idea of the paragraph is:
- Scientists are worried about New York City.
- Logging is destroying the rainforest.
- Governments make money from logging.
- Salmon are an endangered species. }
Scanning Exercise: Read the short paragraph and use the scanning technique to solve the question.
Much of Canada's forestry production goes towards making pulp and paper. According to the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association, Canada supplies 34% of the world's wood pulp and 49% of its newsprint paper. If these paper products could be produced in some other way, Canadian forests could be preserved. Recently, a possible alternative way of producing paper has been suggested by agriculturalists and environmentalists: a plant called hemp.
How much of the world's newsprint paper is supplied by Canada?
- 31%
- 49%
- 34%
- 19%
Process
Skimming
To skim, prepare yourself to move rapidly through the pages. You will not read every word; you will pay special attention to typographical cues-headings, boldface and italic type, indenting, bulleted, and numbered lists. You will be alert for keywords and phrases, the names of people and places, dates, nouns, and unfamiliar words. In general, follow these steps:
- Read the table of contents or chapter overview to learn the main divisions of ideas.
- Glance through the main headings in each chapter just to see a word or two. Read the headings of charts and tables.
- Read the entire introductory paragraph and then the first and last sentence only of each following paragraph. For each paragraph, read only the first few words of each sentence or to locate the main idea.
- Stop and quickly read the sentences containing keywords indicated in boldface or italics.
- When you think you have found something significant, stop to read the entire sentence to make sure. Then go on the same way. Resist the temptation to stop to read details you don't need.
- Read chapter summaries when provided.
Scanning
Scanning, too, uses keywords and organizational cues. But while the goal of skimming is a bird's-eye view of the material, the goal of scanning is to locate and swoop down on particular facts.
Facts may be buried within long text passages that have relatively little else to do with your topic or claim. Skim this material first to decide if it is likely to contain the facts you need. Don't forget to scan tables of contents, summaries, indexes, headings, and typographical cues. To make sense of lists and tables, skim them first to understand how they are organized: alphabetical, chronological, or most-to-least, for example. If after skimming you decide the material will be useful, go ahead and scan:
- Know what you're looking for. Decide on a few keywords or phrases–search terms, if you will. You will be a flesh-and-blood search engine.
- Look for only one keyword at a time. If you use multiple keywords, do multiple scans.
- Let your eyes float rapidly down the page until you find the word or phrase you want.
- When your eye catches one of your keywords, read the surrounding material carefully.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3F8pQLtY_Q
Evaluation
Students can be assessed on the completion of their activities and exercises, as well as their performance on their quizzes and exercises. Teachers can also assess students' understanding of the techniques of skimming and scanning in their reading comprehension classes, discussions, and written assignments.
Conclusion
Reading techniques are strategies of reading that you can use to improve your reading skills. These techniques assist you in reading faster, comprehending what you read more thoroughly, and remembering what you read more effectively. Skimming and scanning are two of the most popular reading techniques. To summarize, “The skimming technique is ideal for reading quickly and discovering specific information in a section. It takes less time because not all of the words in paragraphs or sections are read, but it still provides a broad sense and knowledge of the content.” Scanning is a reading technique to be used when you want to find specific information quickly. In scanning you have a question in your mind and you read a passage only to find the answer, ignoring unrelated information. I hope that I was able to guide you to a better use of the Reading Comprehension tools, skimming and scanning, in this Webquest.
Credits
Oasis. (n.d.). Pulp Friction: Timed Skimming Exercise. Continuing Studies at UVic. https://continuingstudies.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/570/pulp/hemp1/
Kucer S. B. (2016). Accuracy, miscues, and the comprehension of complex literary and scientific texts. Read. Psychol. 37, 1076–1095. 10.1080/02702711.2016.1159632 [CrossRef] [Google Scholar] [Ref list]
Skimming and Scanning - TIP Sheet - Butte College. (n.d.). Copyright Butte College, All Rights Reserved. https://www.butte.edu/departments/cas/tipsheets/readingstrategies/skimming_scanning.html#:~:text=Skimming%20and%20scanning%20are%20reading,order%20to%20find%20specific%20facts.
Oasis. (n.d.-a). Pulp Friction: Timed Scanning Exercise. Continuing Studies at UVic. https://continuingstudies.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/570/pulp/hemp2/