1. Comprehension Skills For an HKA, comprehension skills are very important since the MiaMia service is expected to provide efficient and accurate information. It is imperative that every HKA knows their comprehension skills and in what level. The following slides will discuss the different skills to be enhanced and tips on locating information from MiaMia resources.
2. Comprehension Skills Summarizing – a strategy that requires an HKA to determine the degree of importance of the information included in the text – how an HKA takes larger selections of text and reduce them to their bare essentials: the gist, the key ideas, the main points that are worth noting and remembering – involves putting the main idea(s) of one or several writers into your own words, including only the main point(s)
3. Comprehension Skills Sequencing – involves putting ideas or events in proper order or sequence – the identification of the components of a story, such as the beginning, middle, and end, and also to the ability to rewrite the events within a given text in the order in which they occurred – HKA must look for signal words like first, next, last, before, after, and finally to help them figure out the sequence
4. Comprehension Skills Inferring – involves using clues from the text, own knowledge and experience to figure out what the author is trying to tell – reading between the lines or trying to see what isn't there – HKA must fully develop this skill because not all information needed from resources are explicitly stated
5. Comprehension Skills Drawing Conclusions – a higher order thinking skill where an HKA is able to connect the details in a text and make an inference regarding the author's intent – entails inferring the relationship between separate situations and events – leads to the development of overall reading comprehension skills
6. Comprehension Skills Comparing and Contrasting – involves examining two objects, ideas, or situations to discover similarities or differences – mental cue words when comparing: liken, assimilate, similarize, liken to, compare with; make or draw a comparison, analogize, relate; metaphorize; draw a parallel; match; examine side by side, view together; weigh or measure against – mental cue words when contrasting: oppose, set in opposition, set off against, set in contrast, counterpose, note similarities and differences
7. Comprehension Skills Self-Questioning The ability to ask oneself questions can elicit and promote self-regulated, reflective thinking. Self-questioning that is directed towards the use of process skills offers much potential in fostering critical thinking. As HKA, this process will play a very important role because this will determine your approach in searching information. At times you may find yourself bombarded with information that you become unsure in determining which is the most accurate one. You have to ask yourself questions in order to identify the correct answer. With this process, prior knowledge or familiarity with the information will be elicited that can help direct your Internet searching, thereby gathering accurate information.
8. Comprehension Skills Distinguishing Between Fact and Opinion – as HKA, you should ask yourself if the author is presenting an established fact or their personal opinion. – NOTE: Facts can be verified or checked for accuracy in other sites, while opinions cannot be verified for accuracy by some outside source. You should always give factual information. But, if the opinion is excellent according to your judgment, you can still provide info, but use Per www.abc.com.
9. Comprehension Skills Defining a Fact: - can be verified in reference books, official records, and so forth. - are expressed in concrete language or specific numbers - once verified, are generally agreed upon by people (check other sites that can prove that the info is a fact)
10. Comprehension Skills Determining an Opinion: - often expressed as comparisons (more, less, -er and -est comparisons); e.g. The painter Pablo Picasso was far more innovative than any of his contemporaries. - often expressed by adjectives (brilliant, vindictive, fair); e.g. Ronald Reagan was a convincing speaker when he read a prepared address but was not effective at press conferences. - often involves evaluation; e.g. The excellence of her science project was a model for other students. - often introduced by verbs or adverbs that suggest some doubt in the writer's mind like: > It appears she was confused. > She seems to have the qualifications for the position. > They probably used dirty tricks to win.
11. Comprehension Skills Notes on Opinion: Some opinions obviously deserve more attention than others. These are opinions by experts. An HKA should verify in other sites if the writer is, indeed, an expert on the matter. For example, John Galbraith or Paul Volcher can be trusted when they give opinions about the US economy since this is their expertise.
12. Comprehension Skills Finding the Main Idea, Important Facts, and Supporting Details – topic : broad, general theme or message of an article – main idea : key concept being expressed – details : may be major or minor that support the main idea by telling how, what, when, where, why, how much, how many Locating the topic, main idea and supporting details helps you understand the point(s) the writer is attempting to express. Identifying the relationship between these will increase your comprehension.
