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Basic Skills for Effective Reading
Fourth Edition
by Selma Wilf
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The fourth edition of Basic Skills for Effective Reading continues to address the needs of students with limited reading skills. Like the first three editions, it offers a step-by-step approach to reading skill development and application. The purpose of this textbook is to bring students closer to college level reading.
Basic Skills for Effective Reading has been designed to provide students with a hands-on approach to skill development. Each skill is explained and then learned through the use of Guided Practice exercises. Immediate feedback is provided upon completion of the Guided Practice exercises. Where appropriate, skills are subdivided into sections and learned in small units. Skill development is reinforced in Skill Practice exercises that follow each section within the chapter. Each of the eleven skills in Basic Skills for Effective Reading prepares students for those which follow.
The fourth edition of Basic Skills for Effective Reading is divided into four parts. Part One, Working with Words, develops word attack skills such as phonics and syllabication and teaches students to apply what they have learned to both real and nonsense words. Part Two, Building Vocabulary, develops skills related to the use of context clues, word parts, a dictionary, and a personal vocabulary system that can be adapted to the individual student's specific needs. Part Three, Improving Comprehension, stresses the formation of packages of related information through the identification of main ideas and details in paragraphs and longer selections. Paragraphs and selections are mapped to show these packages of related information. The fourth part, Extending Your Reading Skills, provides ten reading selections. The selections follow the eleven skill development chapters to allow instructors the flexibility of using them at any time rather than at the end of each chapter. These selections have been chosen because they have been found interesting to students and have an appropriate readability level. The Reading Selections are presented in a sequence of increasing level of readability. The ten questions, which follow each Reading Practice, are intended to enhance student comprehension of its content. Students are also asked to write their reactions to each selection.
There are changes in the fourth edition of Basic Skills for Effective Reading:
Additional graphic organizers in the form of informal maps have been included in chapters where concepts to be mastered are numerous. They will aid students to understand and retain these concepts.
Practice materials have been modified or replaced as suggested by users of this textbook.
Dictionary entries and the dictionary page in Chapter Six have been enlarged to enhance their clarity.
An eleventh skill has been added in a separate chapter. Once students have mastered main ideas and details in paragraphs and selections, a natural extension is to develop mapping skills to be applied to reading materials as needed. Students in reading classes at all levels have responded most positively to mapping. It has proven to be very helpful for students as they are required to understand and remember more difficult reading materials.
To involve students to a greater extent in the development of their reading skills, beginning with Chapter Three, Skill Practices include skill application from sources other than this textbook. Students are asked to apply what they have learned in the skill development chapters to reading materials of their choice.
Feedback from students and instructors who have used earlier editions of Basic Skills for Effective Reading has continued to be more positive. At Phoenix College, where the concept for this book was born and where it continues to be used for students with limited reading skills, Basic Skills for Effective Reading has been successful in preparing such student for more advanced reading courses and in coping with daily reading tasks. It is hoped that the changes presented in this fourth edition will help make it an even more valuable tool for the teaching and learning of basic reading skills.
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