Painless Reading Comprehension - Darolyn “Lyn” Jones Ed.D. 2016

Skimming for information
Keeping what you read in your head

When you skim for information, you are just trying to quickly reconnect yourself with a section or a part of the reading. Readers skim when some time has passed between when they read the material and when they have to study or do an assignment. They may also skim if they were napping through a section instead of being alert when they read. For example, even though you read about Agnes Vogel’s life as a Holocaust survivor and are familiar with her story, you may have to know the date she was liberated. So you go back and skim for the answer.

When you skim, you are looking for certain information in a specific section. Readers don’t usually skim the entire selection!

Here are some strategies for skimming:

✵ If you are skimming for information in a novel, use the chapter titles as a guide.

✵ If you are skimming in a textbook, use the Table of Contents, boldfaced headings, or the section outline in the chapter. If the question refers to a particular section, then you only need to skim in that section.

✵ If you are skimming an article, use paragraph indentations as a guide to a new idea. The first two sentences are usually the topic sentences and will quickly tell you what the paragraph is about.

✵ If you are looking for numbers or dates, skim for numbers only.

✵ If you are skimming to find the meaning of a certain word or phrase, then skim for the word or phrase and then read the sentences immediately before and after the sentence the word or phrase is in to get the information you need. If you are reading something online or digitially, you can use the “Find” feature to find the word or phrase.

Sometimes you have to use two or more of these to get one answer.

Let’s Practice!

Let’s work through a discussion guide assignment for “Agnes Vogel: Survivor from Hungary” and the reading selection itself. You read about Mrs. Vogel’s experiences in Chapter Two, but it has been a while. Go back to Chapter Two, find the reading selection, and skim to find the answers to the following specific questions.

AGNES VOGEL DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Where is Agnes Vogel from? What was her life like prior to the war?

2. Which camp was Vogel in right before liberation? Compare her life in that camp with her life in the camp at Strasoff.

3. What year was Vogel liberated and by whom?

4. What did Vogel’s family find when they returned to their home?

5. What does Vogel mean when she says the Nazis were “liquidating the Ghetto?”

REFLECT ON WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED!

What skimming strategy did you use to answer question 1: Where is Agnes Vogel from? What was her life like prior to the war?

You should have looked under the boldfaced heading titled “Agnes’ Early and Happy Life” to find your answer.

What skimming strategy did you use for question 2: Which camp was Vogel in right before liberation? Compare her life in that camp with her life in the camp at Strasoff.

You had to use two steps. First, you should have found the section titled “Liberation” and looked at the section of reading prior to that, which was titled “The Death Camp: Bergen Belsen.” You know that was the camp she was in prior to liberation. Then, you had to find the section where you saw the word Strasoff. You probably guessed it might be in the section titled “The Concentration Camp.” And by reading the first topic sentence, your guess can be validated. After skimming those two sections, you could answer the question.

What skimming strategy did you use for question 3: What year was Vogel liberated and by whom?

You had to look under the section titled “Liberation” and then look for a date. After you found a date, you had to read the sentence before, the sentence the date was in, and the sentence after the date to make sure the date was referring to liberation.

What skimming strategy did you use for question 4: What did Vogel’s family find when they returned to their home?

To answer this question, you had to look for the section titled “Journey Home.”

What skimming strategy did you use for question 5: What does Vogel mean when she says the Nazis were “liquidating the Ghetto?”

This is again a two-step process. First, you had to look under the section titled “War, Persecution, and the Ghetto.” You infer that since this section has the word Ghetto in the title, it will probably have the information you need. Then, you skim for the phrase liquidating the Ghetto. Once you find that phrase, you read the sentence before the phrase, the sentence the phrase is in, and the sentence after the phrase to get the information you need.

Let’s Practice!

Go back to the reading selection on Chris Crutcher. Skim the passage to find the answers to the following questions.

1. Chris Crutcher states that his gift as a writer is being able to connect to what part of his books?

a. The plot

b. The characters

c. The message

2. What was Chris Crutcher’s life like growing up?

3. What was the only book Chris Crutcher read in high school?

4. How old was Chris Crutcher when he started writing?

5. True or False: Chris Crutcher was a therapist before becoming a writer.

REFLECT ON WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED!

What skimming strategy did you use to answer question 1?

What skimming strategy did you use to answer question 2?

What skimming strategy did you use to answer question 3?

What skimming strategy did you use to answer question 4?

What skimming strategy did you use to answer question 5?