Page 68 - Foundations of Learning, 4th Edition (Revised)

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
• Identify and explore reading contexts
• Connect reading to prior knowledge
• Build vocabulary
• Identify a writer’s style
• Take notes on a reading and outline the main points
• Keep a Reading Log

Molly is a first-semester student who grew up on a dairy
farm an hour outside of the city where she now attends
college. She was very active in high school sports,
including soft ball and soccer. Molly even tried
wrestling for a season. She tends to get bored
easily and is happiest when she’s physically
active. Molly wants to be a nurse and work
with rural families. She knows from her
own experience that many farm families
are so busy taking care of their farms and
livestock that they don’t take very good
care of their own health. Molly would like
to change that, and introduce new ideas,
like nutrition and maybe even yoga!

READING

Improving your effectiveness as a reader requires that you read actively. This means your eyes are not
simply passing over words on a page but that you are thinking while processing the information you read.
In order to get the most benefit from your study and reading time, you must be critically engaged without
distractions. This applies to any reading where comprehension is important such as reading a textbook,
your own notes, research sources, or laboratory data.
Language development skills are the foundation from which a person’s reading process can be improved.
Table 3.1 lists the skills from the Classification of Learning Skills that are associated with language
development. The table includes general skills such as building vocabulary as well as specific skills like
defining.

62 Foundations of Learning