EFFICIENT READING

PERVIE C. PEREZ

What happens when you read a book, a newspaper or magazine for information on a topic that interests you, or when you are reading as part of a course of study? If you are a good reader, you almost certainly don’t read every word carefully. You read with a purpose, and as your eye skims over the page you take from it whatever you need, predicting what is likely to come next and adjusting your predictions as you go along.

We want our students learn to read. We want them able to skim through pages of books identifying relevant information with speed and efficiency. We hope that one day many of them will read quickly and efficiently. More schools recognizing the importance of reading, as a means of studying other subjects more effectively. If we want to encourage the kind of reading, we need to provide a reason for reading.

First we need to provide a context. When we read we usually have some expectations about what we are going to read. We rarely set out to read something without knowing anything at all about the topic and without having any expectations about what we are going to read. So in the classroom we need to provide learners with a context. Before they begin to read they will have some idea what it will be about and what to expect from it. Secondly, we need to provide a reason for reading. Sometimes in our reading we are looking for very specific information. We may have certain beliefs which we want to confirm or perhaps to reconsider.

These things make up as the preparing stage of reading: getting learners ready for reading by providing a context, a purpose and necessary language input. It is important to note that even though this is a preparatory stage it will be off great help for pupils to learn more if they know how to read right.

— oOo—

The author is Teacher III at Fausto Gonzales Sioco Memorial School, Deped Apalit District