Master Reading Comprehension in One Simple Method

hello and welcome to our second lesson reading comprehension quick tips and warm-ups now I want to start out by saying that we are doing a very brief overview of basic reading and listening comprehension skills in these first two lessons successive lessons we are going to go much deeper and really apply a different strategy and a deeper strategy for each kind of genre so let's start out by just a basic reading comprehension plan that you can use on in any genre so overview real quick reading comprehension study tips reading the context which is incredibly important to reading comprehension and then we're going to do some practice so what is reading comprehension it is defined as the ability to understand the explicit and implicit meaning of a text this means that you've got to be able to not only understand what it says and what it is about but what are the implications of what the author is saying how does it apply to the real world how does it plug into the real world around us you cannot truly comprehend a text it is easy to read something and just basically throw up what it means what you just read what it just says but you need to be able to plug it into what you already know we're going to talk about that as we go on as well so reading and listening are both skills in any language that are the receiver skills because speaking and writing is where you produce the message and you send it out to be comprehended by someone else reading and listening you take in someone else's message and comprehend it for yourself but there are some very important differences between reading and listening for one reading is much more tangible than listening tangible in that in that you can either feel the page you see the letters on the screen however it is you can see what it is you are trying to understand whereas in listening yes you have videos that you can watch over and over or listen to music over and over it's not always possible to listen again as if you're speaking to somebody normally unless you really want to annoy them by saying hey can you say that again can you say that again so reading is much more tangible in terms of skill it is also easier to slow down and study because it is more tangible you can really slow down and read at your own pace study at your own pace unless you have a timer on you you are able to really slow down but listening is not always the case yes you can slow down the speed of a video or a song but you lose lose a lot of understanding when you do slow down and mess with the speed reading really only engages your reading skill whereas listening you can listen and read subtitles or you can listen and read the lyrics or the transcript you can listen and study the par language the body language that we practiced in the last lesson however reading you don't have par language there's nothing to look at you don't see the writer delivering what he's writing I mean if you did it would be super boring right so you've got to just read what's on the page whereas in listening par language is integral whenever you can watch the speaker you understand so much more because par language communicates 70% of meaning of the speaker last thing is that reading really caters to visual Learners whereas listening caters more to oural Learners so if you learn if you have a problem and you need to learn how to do something if you are a person who likes to look up a video or listen to the instructions on a podcast you are probably an AAL learner whereas if you are a visual learner you probably prefer to read a book look up a Blog find the instructions in a physical book everybody is given to different kinds of learning and different kinds of reading and honestly most of us are a blend of different types of learning but just know that if you enjoy reading you're really going to enjoy this section okay two things you need for reading comprehension also listening comprehension as well you need vocabulary knowledge and you need a big picture understanding of the topic and what I mean by that is that every piece of information you have is connected to other pieces of information so if you are reading a text or listening to a video on a topic that you are somewhat comfortable with then you probably will comprehend it much easier it will be easier for you to make multiple connections to that piece of information or whatever the author is trying to convey however if you have no idea maybe what if I give you a text on underwater basket weaving I don't know anything about underwater basket weaving so I know personally if I read a text on it I would have nothing to connect it to I don't know how to weave I don't know how I'm not a particular user of baskets I don't really use baskets that much I really have no connection to underwater basket weaving and so for me to understand I would have to work much harder to comprehend that text so if you need to understand something we talked about this in listening in terms of culture we talked about it in terms of par language I talked to you about how you can understand what the author or the speaker is meaning by their par Language by their facial expressions by what they're doing their body language by the culture that the piece comes from whatever that is in Reading it's the same idea we are going to read some text later on the course where it's from earlier in American history it's from a different time and a different era nowadays women have far more rights than they did back then and so we are going to read some texts from back then it's going to be so much more difficult to understand because we have not lived in that it's going to be more difficult to understand because we are not aware of what it's like to live in that time period or that culture of America back then so we're going to talk about ways and strategies to be able to comprehend those situations but for now know that these are the two main things for being able to comprehend something all right so how to improve your reading comprehension skills in the last lesson we talked about four basic steps to being able to understand any kind of listening well here are three basic steps to be able to comprehend any kind of listening these steps go for any genre okay non-fiction or fiction whether it's comedy whether it's romantic if whether it's non-fiction a recipe whatever these are ways for you to improve your reading comprehension skills regardless of genre and now we're going to get into different genres and how to approach them for reading comprehension practice or listening comprehension practice but this will work for anything so step one read and take notes step two read aloud and step three summarize when you read and take notes what I mean is that you need to slow down you need to Define vocabulary it is best if you can print off something a text to read and that you mark it up whether you take highlighters and you highlight words that you don't know and phrases you don't know or whether you Circle them whatever it is really when you're marking up a text and engaging a little bit of writing with it you're going to integrate again your reading and writing skills and practice more in the same time that you're allotting to reading so anytime that you can practice more than one skill at the same time the better so first Define vocabulary make sure you understand how that vocabulary fits what it means in the text and then second you need to identify the main idea what is the author writing about and why is the author writing this and later we're going to get into like the context surrounding it and how that's going to fit into that author's context at the time but for now for the most simple approach what are they writing about and why are they writing it third you need to point out support how does the author explain his or her perspective what evidence supports the main idea these are very important so let's let's practice this I'm going to give you a minute go ahead and pause your video read this paragraph This is a a text from a history book I want you to read this paragraph and highlight or write down words that you do not know and then I want you to identify the main idea go ahead and pause okay let's come back here and here are some words that I've highlighted that the average intermediate student will struggle to understand maybe they would have to look up if you had to look up more than this no problem that is the beauty of reading comprehension is you are able to slow down you are able to break down these words and list out more and really enrich your vocabulary and knowledge but if you really already knew these well done all right and here is the main idea of the paragraph the French Revolution was caused by a combination of economic political and philosophical causes notice that this is almost identical to the first sentence in the paragraph this does not always happen but occasionally it does where the main idea of a paragraph is the first sentence and the last sentence should be a basic summary of what you just read so or the implications of what you just read even we we'll break that down more as we go but this is integral so step two you need to be able to read out loud read your text out loud and when you do this I don't mean read like a robot I mean engage your voice slow down to pronounce words correctly actively think about where you are in a text enunciate appropriately for each part of the text I really want you to stress your syllables I want your voice to go up for questions I want you to be able to put emphasis around those words that have a comma or quotation marks or something like this I'm going to give you example by reading this paragraph out loud economic political and philosophical causes combined to bring about the French Revolution France was in a financial crisis because of War expenditures including loans to American revolutionaries and luxury loving kings and queens the middle class and peasants were taxed heavily while the clergy and Wealthy nobility paid nothing although the common people made up four fifths of the population they had only onethird of the vote in the French legislature therefore they had no political power to change the tax laws this satisfaction with the State of Affairs was fueled by philosophers throughout Europe who were promoting philosophical ideas such as government by majority rule and the inalienable rights of all human beings regardless of their social or economic status when efforts to reform the French government failed a fullscale Revolt began I want you to go ahead pause the video and give yourself a chance to read this out loud try to enunciate where you can the items in quotation marks therefore here in the very center of the paragraph you should pause if you see a transition word right there at the beginning you should pause therefore they had no political power to change the tax laws this is very important in speech this is very important in communication that you are able to pause when necessary for effect and to regain the listener's attention all right let's move forward here the third step is to summarize again and I said this several times in the listening but if you take notes if you take in information but you never do anything with it then you are missing the point you are missing the chance to in to really take in the information and do something with it you lack the most important step of understanding if you are not able to repeat what you just heard in your own words not verbatim not what the author said but your understanding of what was said in your own words then you have missed the point of comprehension so repeat what you just read in your own words do not look at your notes do not look at the text explain what the text is about as if you're talking to a child and you could write it out as well in fact writing it out is exactly what I did on the next Slide the French Revolution was brought about by a combination of economic political and philosophical causes that is the main idea of the entire paragraph and then I really boiled down the support throughout the rest of the paragraph the expenses of War and the monarchy were paid by heavy taxes on the lower classes these lower classes had little weight politically and thus were drawn to revolutionary philosophies of equality and majority rule such dissatisfaction caused the French Revolution you should really strive to keep your summaries one sentence if possible and in this paragraph the very first sentence of my summary is enough it suffices however I really wanted to show you an example of being able to put the support reping evidence within two or three sentences but overall any summary should be between three and five sentences perhaps 10 sentences or two paragraphs if it is a very long text okay you should be able to boil everything down think as if you're trying to explain yourself to a child if your son or daughter is like hey what are you reading you should be able to just boil it down you're not going to give them a whole long list because one they're not going to pay attention that long but two they're not going to really understand so boil it down as if you're talking to a young child and that is a summary okay so is that all there is to reading comprehension not at all we have a lot more to learn but these are the three basic steps and basically guys what we're doing is we're building a foundation we're solidifying something you should already know as intermediates but if you don't know well hey here you go here are the basics and then we're going to move forward in the future we're going to move forward in future lessons s to really dive down and really build up the skills right now we have the basics of a house we have the basic floor and walls but we're really going to put some meat into the house really going to put in the more important items to make it more livable to really build your skills in coming lessons so let's practice I've got three practices coming up for you one is a news article so let's go the world's happiest countries 2022 I want you to pause this video and work on this yourself first speak it out loud do whatever you need to do go through the three steps and then I'm going to read this out loud when you come back there you go okay I hope that was good practice for you but here we go benevolence is surging globally that's one of the key findings of the world happiness report a publication of the UN sustainable de velopment Solutions Network that draws on global survey data from people in around 150 countries marking its 10th anniversary the report looks at happiness around the world the happiest Nations those at the very bottom of the happiness scale and everything in between plus the factors that tend to lead to Greater happiness and with two years of covid-19 pandemic data on the books the report was has uncovered something unexpected the big surprise was that globally in an uncoordinated way there have been very large increases in all the three forms of benevolence that are asked about on the Gallup World Poll John helwell one of the reports three founding editors told CNN travel donating to charity helping a stranger and volunteering are all up especially to help strangers in 2021 relative to either before the pandemic or 2020 and by a very large amount in all regions of the world said helwell all right and I'll go ahead and read this out loud see if you can keep up with it for the fifth year in a row Finland is the world's happiest country according to World happiness report rankings based largely on life evaluations from the gallop World Poll the Nordic country and its neighbors Denmark Norway Sweden and Iceland all score very well on the measures the report uses to explain its findings healthy life expectancy GDP per capita social support in times of trouble low corruption and high social trust generosity in a community where people look after each other and freedom to make key life decisions there you go that's the end so quiz time comprehension quiz on what it is about one how many countries are included in the survey what are the three forms of benevolence asked about in the report which country is the happiest according to the poll and three factors the report uses to measure happiness if you took notes like you were supposed to do in Step One this should be fairly easy to answer so I'm going to go ahead and switch back here to the very first part you go ahead and pause to look for the questions you need to and then here's the second one go ahead and pause okay there's the quiz again and talking about the questions next so about 150 countries were included in the survey and the three forms of benevolent asked about in the report are donating helping a stranger and volunteering that was back here on the first page number three Finland for the fifth year in the row is considered the happiness the happiest country according to the poll that is on the second slide and then the three factors you can choose any of these three but this was also on the second slide there you go all right so the last step in our reading comprehension basic plan is to summarize how would you summarize what we just read in two to three sentences okay okay here is how I put it the article explains that Finland is the happiest country in the world for the fifth year in a row by the Gallup World polls research in 150 countries Finland scored amazingly well in action items like the likeliness to volunteer help a stranger or donate and in happiness measures like low corruption and high social trust so notice there I've got two pretty long sentences but the basic rundown is that this is the main idea okay Finland stood out in 150 countries in This World Poll for the fifth year in a row and then it how did it score well it scored well in things like this the three benevolence marks and then I put in two of the other options for things to measure happiness in a country so very interesting actually this this article was super interesting so you can look it up if you really want to read the rest of it okay our second piece that we're going to look at today is the how to article remember to take notes after I show it to you the first time this is the whole thing this time it's not on two slides so go ahead and pause here take your time read through and we'll see you on the other side okay I hope you've been through all three parts by now on your own because I'm going to read it out loud to give you some listening practice and then we are going to move forward to answer some questions and then talk about how to summarize it okay the best chocolate cake recipe ever and I personally use this same chocolate cake recipe it is very delicious Okay add flour sugar cocoa baking powder baking soda salt and espresso powder to a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer whisk through to combine or using your paddle attachment stir through the flour mixture until well combined add milk vegetable oil eggs and vanilla to the flour mixture and mix well on medium speed until well combined reduce speed and carefully Add boiling water to the cake batter until well combined distribute cake batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans bake for 30 to 35 minutes until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center of the chocolate cake comes out clean both the cake and the chocolate frosting can be made ahead allow the cakes to cool completely wrap them well in plastic wrap and place each layer into a gallon zip talk freezer bag freeze the cake layers for up to one month to frost the cake simply remove from the freezer and allow to thaw in the refrigerator with wrapping intact then Frost the cake once it has completely thawed store the cake at room temperature on the counter I like to store under a cake dome to keep the cake fresh okay so here's your quiz questions one this recipe uses butter true or false two this cake can last over a month in the freezer true or false three you can Frost the cake while it is frozen true or false four how does the riter advise to store the cake this recipe uses butter is false it does not and the cake cannot last over a month in the freezer it can only last up to a month in the freezer you can Frost the cake while it is frozen you better not because as it thaws your frosting would slop off to the side as well so don't do that either and number four the the author advises that you keep the cake on the counter at room temperature under a cake dome now a cake dome is like a big glass lid that fits over the cake and so it seals it from lots of air so it doesn't get hard or go stale it but it does sit there uh on the counter at room temperature okay so can instructions be summarized this was an interesting one to try to summarize because these are straightup instructions there's lots of imperative commands do this don't do this right it is difficult but yes you can you can summarize in a highly contextualized manner meaning you summarize based off of who's asking you for a summary so who are you explaining to if you're explaining to a kid you're going to say things a little bit different than you would to your friend which you would again say differently than you would to your parents how detailed do you need to be are they asking for the details or are they asking for oh what's it made of that's a little bit different too right and what exactly do they need to know or want to know what are they asking you up for specifically here's some examples of how I would summarize in different ways if a child is wanting to help me cook I would I would simplify these quite a bit and give them lots of detail and I would really slow down as well I might only tell them to do one ingredient at a time right one cup of flour make sure you put the knife across the top to make sure it's evenly measured okay put that in there gently and slowly so it doesn't explode all over the kitchen right this it would take me a very long time to summarize this and really what I mean by summarize in this instance is that I'm not reading the recipe because the kid is not going to listen to me read the recipe they're going to want me to tell them what it says without reading like a robot you know what I mean the second way is a friend wanting the recipe maybe I would say something along the lines of whisk together the dry ingredients in a bowl combine the wet ingredients and the mixer and mix until smooth then add dry ingredients slowly until it's Incorporated in the wet mixture then add your boiling water and mix it till it's smooth pour the batter into two pans evenly put it in the oven for this temperature for this long and I would say that as I'm like handing them the recipe that way I'm basically saying like this cake is super simple dry ingredients mix your wet ingredients put dry ingredients in there make it smooth Add boiling water that's significant because that's not normal to put a lot of boiling water in a cake and then put it into two pans evenly pop it in the oven so a friend I would explain very differently in summary form than I would to a kid and again if somebody's just asking about the process wow how did you get this cake to be so fluffy and Airy they're not really asking for the recipe in that instance they're asking what's different about this recipe than other chocolate cake recipes and you could say it's the same recipe but I use boiling water and vegetable oil to make it light and fluffy that's all you would have to say to summarize that so how to summarize how-to articles and instructions and recipes is highly contextualized it really depends on who you're talking to and what they are actually asking you for okay let's take a look at a blog post these are going to be much more casual they can be extremely informative but ideally they're not too uh they're not as strict as an instructional piece they're not as strict as a recipe they're not just full of commands right this excerpt was taken from how to write a blog post in 2022 from Ry rob.com this is him talking about what he's learned over the years and this section right here is Wards the end of the blog I would like you to go ahead and pause the video read this at your own pace and then I will come back on and read it aloud to help you with cadence and pronunciation see you in a minute okay if you have finished all three steps on your own well done if you are skipping ahead and cutting out some steps then perhaps this will be more difficult because this blog post here uses some more significant vocabulary like constitutes transformational uh stand the test of time there are some idioms in here so I'm going to read this out loud and take notes if you will on anything you hear that you did not pick up the first time through here we go while the competition for clicks increases each year and organic traffic from Google continues to shrink there are still incredible new opportunities to expand your reach and build an audience this year but that increased competition doesn't mean you need to throw in the towel on your blogging Ambitions the bar for what constitutes transformational content continues to be raised and this is your call to rise to the occasion as a blogger in order to write a blog post that can stand the test of time and rank high in the organic search results it'll require a growing time investment on your end now it's up to you to determine whether or not that work work is actually worth it if you ask me it definitely is okay notice how many idioms are in this phrase we have to raise the bar over here in the middle he's going to call to rise to the occasion you need to throw in the towel uh continues to shrink is a metaphor meaning getting smaller and smaller but traffic kind of gets smaller I guess but not as small as you would expect uh stand the test of time on your end all of these are idiomatic phrases and definitely worth adding to your repertoire for vocabulary and idioms and you will see them a lot in coming reading text so definitely write those down if you have not already all right let's move forward so quiz questions number one what two things make starting a blog difficult in 2022 number two what kind of blog post needs to be written to do well in 2022 and number three what does the author say a successful blog requires go ahead and pause you can take picture of this or you can write it down and then I'm going to go back to the slide so you can take a look okay go ahead and pause so you can answer these questions okay if you're back let's talk about these the two things that make starting a blog difficult in 22 and to to he suggested growing competition from other bloggers and shrinking organic traffic from Google this means that there's less and less traffic coming from the Google search engine number two what kind of blog post needs to be written to do well in 2022 Timeless and high ranking in search so Timeless meaning it's going to be relevant for a long time number three what does the author say a successful blog requires He suggests a growing time investment from you the writer it's going to take more and more and more time the bigger and bigger and bigger your blog gets that's the idea here okay so how to summarize this though blogging has lots of competition and less traffic from Google search it is still worth the time investment for those willing to work hard to produce Timeless relevant blog posts there you go that is the summary very easy succinct Al together in one sentence all right and here's a quote from Dr Seuss he's a famous children's book author and hopefully we'll be be able to go through some of his stuff later in the course the more that you read the more things you will know the more that you learn the more Places You'll Go I love Dr Seuss I grew up with listening to his books my parents grew up listening to him he was alive and writing when my grandparents were around and I currently read this to my own children it's a really fun really fun Books Okay so things you need to remember from this lesson today read and take notes learn the vocabulary identify the main idea not the context in which something is written and to which something is written read out loud practice your pronunciation intonation and stress even move your body around as you're doing if you're comfortable enough for that I know it is really difficult to focus on how you say something when you're just trying to get through reading it but if you slow down take your time practice that pronunciation intonation stress put emphasis on words that are surrounded with commas and quotations pause at periods these are really really important things to practice for your speaking practice and then summarize use your own words to recall the main point this is perhaps one of the most important skills for reading and listening comprehension is being able to summarize what you just took in in your own words all right the next lesson we're going to start working on how to identify the main idea in various types of genres both reading and listening genres there's going to be a lot to unpack here so I will see you in the next lesson thank you so much