Reading Strategies For each article, students are asked to focus on one of these strategies.
What It Is
How to Analyze
Author’s Purpose/Point of View
Why the author wrote the article and any specific perspectives the author might have
Ask yourself: Is the text trying to persuade, inform, or entertain? Consider the following: • Does the text include facts only? • Does it give reasons to support a specific opinion? • Is it just trying to entertain? • Look for words and statements that give clues. Keep in mind that an author often has more than one purpose for writing. • Look for signal words and phrases that tell that a cause or effect is being described. Here are some examples of signal words and phrases: so , because , for this reason , as a result , and, of course, cause and effect . • When you’re finished reading, think about how the causes in the article resulted in the effect . Ask yourself: • What are you comparing—characters, events, or ideas? • In what way(s) are they different? • In what way(s) are they alike? • Are they mostly alike or mostly different? Ask yourself: What happens? And what causes that to happen? Here are a few more tips: Read carefully: • In the first or second paragraph, can you find a sentence that tells the key, or most important, idea? • Next, look for details that support, or give evidence for, the key idea. • Read the subheadings. They often point to details related to key ideas. • Check yourself: Do the details you identified support the key idea? Ask yourself what the author might be implying, or suggesting in a subtle way. • Use text evidence and your own experiences to come up with ideas and conclusions about what the author is communicating. • Use your inferences to better understand events in the article.
Cause and Effect
When a text explains how things work or how events occurred
Compare and Contrast
How two or more things are similar and how they are different
Key Ideas and Details/Evidence
The main idea of an article, as well as the ideas that prove, or provide evidence for, the main idea
Make Inferences
When the author implies something that he or she is not saying outright
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