The document discusses various aspects of reading comprehension including typical reading speeds, purposes for reading, techniques to improve comprehension skills, the importance of comprehension, and types of comprehension questions. It provides tips for performing well on reading comprehension passages including strategies like previewing the text, identifying key details, and re-reading difficult sections. It also outlines direct, inferential, rephrasing, and vocabulary question types.

1. Made by-
Vidushi Gupta
Assistant professor
English & Hss
Jiet Institute of Design & Technology

2. Reading speed
 Normal:
 200 to 220 words per minute.
 Average:
 250 to 350WPM
 A good:
 500 to 700 WPM
 Exceptional speed:
 1000 WPM

3. OBJECTIVES
1. Why do we need to read?
Information
Verify existing knowledge
Pleasure
Have access to literature
Interest
Enhance knowledge
exam
2. What do we read?
Books
Magazines
Articles
Notices
Correspondence
Forms, signs

4. Reading is making fun
 As a teacher we need to tell the
students that reading is thinking, and
how much we value that process.
 The direct teaching of comprehensive
strategies help students become active
reader who are engaged in
understanding written text. Opportunities
for children to practise using
comprehension strategies when it has
good rating grade for students.

5. Hard to believe but...
 Reading applies to every class and
everything you do on a regular basis.
 Maths
 Science
 English
 Hindi
 And yes computers too.
 Think about it.... Reading is all around
us.....
 Reading matters!!

6. Purposes for reading at
work
 Learning about the company
 Following instructions on forms
 Using references/database
 Responding to inquiries
 Other job duties

7.  According to the research that 40-50%
of the material we read is forgotten very
shortly in about 15 minutes.
 Over 40% of high school students fail to
graduate because many of them can’t
read enough to keep up.
 Over 50% of college students fail to
graduate because they are not prepared
for the amount of reading needed in the
college.

8. Techniques to improve
comprehension skills
 Survey
 Question
 Read
 Recite
 Relate
 review

9. How do you improve reading
skills
 Critical reading skills require three area
to work upon:
 Comprehension
 Vocabulary
 speed

10.  It is a complex cognitive process
involving the intentional interaction
between reader and text to extract
meaning.


What is comprehension?

11. What is reading comprehension skills
The ability to understand what we read
where words have context and texts
have meaning
Allows us to read proficiently, learn
effectively, problem-solve, strategise,
conceptualise

12. Why is comprehension
important
 Comprehension, just as reading is an
integral part of our life.
 Students need to realize that we need to
understand everything we read in order
to learn from the text we interact with.
 Because of the demands of high stakes
testing, students need to learn to extract
important information and transfer their
knowledge to read and respond to
different type of questions

13. What good readers do?
Good readers use a number of strategies:
Activating prior knowledge.
Monitoring comprehension.
Generating questions.
Answering questions
Drawing inferences
Creating mental images
Identifying the text structure the writer has
used.

14. . COMPREHENSION
 Understanding what you have read
 practice techniques can improve skill
 Focus
 Identify purpose
 Scan
 Summarize
 Sequence
 Draw a mental picture
 Check-up
 Reread

15. These skills can be divided into
three levels
 1. reading the lines or literal
comprehension.
 2. reading between the lines or
interpretative comprehension.
 3. reading beyond the lines or critical
comprehension.

16. IMPROVING READING
COMPREHENSION
 Focus
put aside anything else on your mind
when you begin to read.
 Identify purpose
Before you begin, ask “what do I want to
know when I have completed this reading?”
 Scan
Get an overview of the page, the chapter,
article, or book before you read carefully.

17. IMPROVING READING
COMPREHENSION contd.....
 Summarize
Mentally summarize as you move from one
paragraph to another, particularly if you are
reading to gain information for handing a
task.
 Sequence
After reading several paragraphs, try to think
of ideas in an appropriate order.
 Draw a mental picture
Attempt to imagine what it is that is being
discussed.

18. IMPROVING READING
COMPREHENSION
 Check-up
Determine, through a fast review of key
points, whether you have learned what
you expected to learn.
 Reread
Begin a new to read what you have just
read if you are not satisfied with your
check-up process.

19. How comprehension fits into
the reading process
 The early stages of reading
development include learning the
individual sounds of letters all the way to
word and sentence meanings.
 As student progress they need to begin
to use strategies that allow them to
monitor their own comprehension and
summarize what they read. That is the
reason that they have to focus on high
level of comprehension in 12th standard.

20. Tips to perform better in
reading comprehension
passage
 1.when you begin to read the passage,
follow these strategies
We read the paragraph for two purposes, first
to develop comprehension about the text. It
happens when we have command over the
words which are used in the paragraph.
Second for drawing inferential meaning for
the text.

21. Tips and techniques to perform
better in reading passage
comprehension
 Please follow the following strategies to
develop comprehension.
 Read the text thoroughly.
 Have a look on the title of the passage.
 (sometimes reflects the story.

22. Contd.
 Simple name/ characters
 Place mentioned in the text
 day and date mentioned in the text
 Simple question i.e. Who was the king?
When did it happen? how many characters
in the story etc.
 Reader should try to extract the meaning of
underlined, italicized, bold printed words
and phrases.
 Reader should re-read the difficult
paragraph.

23. Contd.
 Try to understand the meaning of text.
Do not stuck or worry if you do not know
the meaning of a word mentioned in the
text. Simple solution of this problem is to
re-read the previous sentence and the
next sentence. This will give you an
insight about the meaning of words.

24. Contd.
 Try to find out the answer of inferential
question which demands the reader to
look beyond the text.(why do you think
so? Given statement? Why or why not?)
to answer these types of questions
readers should look into the mentioned
text as well as co-relate it into real life
situations. Readers should give the
answer even beyond the text.

25. Contd.
 Read the questions and look out for the
answer from the text. Question itself
comprise of answer. So read the
questions properly.

26.  If you are facing difficulty to find out
answer of the complex questions then
passage demands you to re-read once
as an alert reader to increase
comprehension level of the text.
 Slowly and gradually you should
increase vocabulary power to
comprehend a written paragraph.

27. Contd...
 Passage comprehension demands you
to have sound knowledge of basic
grammar, word power and techniques to
write answer properly and accurately.
 Questions can also be related to
grammar because written passage may
focus single item of grammar in the
passage i.e. If the passage consists of
past indefinite then grammar question
will be related to past indefinite tense.

28. Contd.
 Generally questions answer can be
easily find from the passage but one or
two questions demands re-reading of
paragraph/ sentences for more than one
time. These types of difficulty are
generally found in vocabulary portion i.e.
Synonyms, antonyms, homophones etc.
It can be sorted out by regular practice
of comprehension passage.

29. Types of comprehension
questions
 Direct questions:
 Give direct answers
 Answers will be stated in the passage
plainly.
 Task: locate these answers after reading
carefully what the question is looking
for?

30. Examples of direct
questions
 What was the main reason...
 Give two examples...
 Quote a sentence...
 Explain how...
 Write one word for...

31. Inferential questions
 They require read between the lines
 Answers cannot be found directly
between the passage
 Make your deduction
 Infer the meaning of the answer through
given words or phrases from the
passage.
 Even from your own general knowledge.

32. Examples for inferential
questions
 Explain clearly/ explain contrast...
 Suggest how...
 What do you think....
 Why does the author suggest...
 What impression...

33. Rephrasing questions
 Rewrite in your own words but keep the
meaning
 Read the phrase or situation in its
context in the passage, so that your
explanation is appropriate to the
situation.
 Ex; explain the term/phrase/sentence....
 Explain in your own words.....

34. Vocabulary questions
 explain word or phrase meaning
 A certain word or phrase is chosen.
 You are required to give another.
 Word or phrase bearing the same
meaning as the word.

35. Examples of vocabulary
questions
 Ex:
 What does the word suggest about...
 What picture do these words suggest?
 What does the word even suggest
about?
 What does the phrase, ‘preserve the
market mean?

36. Interpreting text (thinking skills)
 Making an intelligent guess:
 Sometimes, the answer to the question
is not given directly in the passage.
 Instead, clues are given from which you
have to guess the answer.
 You are required to ‘read between the
lines and make inferences- intelligent
guesses. E.g. At last, the angry
passengers were called to board the
bus.

37. Contd.
 Two kinds of inference
 Logical inference: based on definition
 E.g. She cried as she stood beside the
grave.
 Ques. Where was she when she stood
beside the grave?
 Ans. A cemetary (because a cemetary is
a place where you find graves.

38. Second type of inference
 Empirical inference based on observation
 E.g. She cried as she stood beside the
grave.
 Ques. Why was she crying?
 Ans. Because someone she cared for had
died.
 If we found someone standing near the
grave, you would guess that this was the
case.

39. 2.Vocabulary
 Words you know and understand
 Determine meaning from context or by
considering word parts
 Check the meaning in a dictionary or other
reference.
 Satire- to mock or ridicule something in
order to communicate a message.
 Irony- deliberately say the opposite of what
you mean to say.
 Unintentional irony- inability to realise that
you are contradicting yourself.

40. 3.Speed
 Rate at which you read
 Improve reading rate with practice
 Focus on an entire paragraph
 Time your reading and set goals.
 Force yourself ahead as you read.