How much can you understand of this?

•On Saturday, we drove down to Byron Bay for the day as we haven’t been there for ages. It was a beautiful day and we took the surfboards down. Unfortunately, there had been a traffic accident and we were delayed for an hour to get into Byron Bay. We still had a fantastic time though. The waves were awesome and we even saw some dolphins!

Reading quickly – predicting and making connections

•Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Reading Quickly & Efficiently

‘Speedreading’ involves:

•Skimming

•Scanning

•Developing eye movements

•Guessing

•Engaging actively with the text

Skimming the text

•Firstly, look at the text from a helicopter view before you focus on specifics. Gives you the overall organisation of the text.

•Look at the thesis statement of the text (usually the last sentence in the introduction)

•Look at the title, sub headings & any pictures

•Let your eyes run quickly over the text

•Look at the topic sentences of each paragraph to get the central idea.

•This will give you a ‘road map’ of the text, which helps you to predict the content.

Paragraph

Idea

Details Examples Supporting

Evidence

Skimming

•Skim the following text in 15 seconds. What is the text about?

The Greek Gods

The ancient Greeks believed that on the summit of Mt Olympus in north-eastern Greece lived the twelve greatest gods; the twelve Olympians. Three of the gods; Zeus, Apollo and Pallas Athene, were regarded by the Greeks as the most important of the twelve Olympians.

Mightiest of all was Zeus, the Lord of the Sky, the Rain god and Cloud Gatherer. His weapon was the terrible thunderbolt and his power was greater than that of all the other gods combined. When he wished to speak to men, he spoke through the rustling of the leaves of a particular grove of oak trees, where his priests listened and gave the message. The place where this happened was called the Oracle of Zeus, and the message was known as an oracle.

Next in importance was Apollo, the Sun God who was believed to aid men in their struggle against evil and darkness. Apollo was also the god of poetry, music, healing and prophecy. The oracle of Apollo at Delphi was the most frequently visited of all the oracles. Believing that Apollo, even more than Zeus, sought to help men and advise them wisely, Greeks from far and wide were constantly arriving at Delphi. Whenever a city-state was considering founding a new colony of attaching a neighbour, messengers were sent to the oracle of advice.

Pallas Athene was the daughter of Zeus and the goddess of wisdom and purity. She was also thought of by the Greeks as a warrior goddess, stern and flashing-eyed, clad in shining armour with spear in hand to protect their cities from the barbarians.

Edwards, P. 1992 Seven Keys to Successful Study

Scanning – finding specific information quickly•

Let your eyes move quickly through the text to find specific information

•Scan in a ‘Z’ direction

•Don’t read each word

•Focus on your specific question

•Ignore everything except for the specific information that you need

•Imagine you are ‘The Terminator’ and you are an efficient killing machine hunting the answers!

• For electronic texts, use the ‘find’ tool

Scanning – finding specific information

•Find the answers to as many of these questions as you can in 30 seconds.

1.What was the name of the Sun God?

2.Which were the three most important Olympians?

3.What kind of trees were at the Oracle of Zeus?

4.Where did the twelve Olympians live?

5.Where was the Oracle of Apollo?

6.Where is Mt Olympus?

7.What did Pallas Athene carry in her hand?