Skills 200: Reading

Welcome!

Here you will find selected links to online explanations, exercises, quizzes, tools, and resources that you can work on on your own.

If you are enrolled in a self-paced Skills course and would like to work on the course for credit, please visit the Self-Paced Skills Online Classroom.

Some of the follow-up assignments in the Online Classroom refer to web sites listed on this page.

If you are not enrolled in a Skills class but are interested in improving your skills, or if you are enrolled and would like to just explore on your own without receiving credit or feedback from a Skills intructor, click on any of the links below to see what might help you the most.

General Reading and Pre-Reading Strategies

• http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=ovbGuFSNOX8C&dq=miller+jeanne+improve+your+reading+improve+your+job&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=DPxtGQPbPW&sig=2El2Ir5pv0tVFoskNWaW0PgwGww#PPP9,M1
  Introductory Assignment
• http://www.execuread.com/speedtest.htm
  Test your reading speed and comprehension,
• http://academic.cuesta.edu/acasupp/AS/617.htm
  Cuesta College's "Clues to Finding Main Ideas" with links to many other reading strategies.
• http://academic.cuesta.edu/acasupp/AS/609.htm
  How to maximize comprehension by marking your texts.
• http://www.studygs.net/reading_essays.htm
  How to read an essay (or an article or chapter)
• http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/essays.html
  How to read a difficult book
• http://www.dmacc.edu/instructors/smwickham/spdrding.htm
  Course on speed reading with links for vocabulary and reading and study aids
• http://www.csupomona.edu/~lrc/crsp/techniques.html
  CSU Pomona's Techniques For Skillful Reading

Textbook Reading Strategies

• http://www.studygs.net/#Reading
  Great reading techniques, available in many languages.
• http://www.coun.uvic.ca/learn/program/hndouts/psq5r.html
  teaches the PSQ5R technique for reading efficiently.
• http://www.utexas.edu/student/utlc/lrnres/handouts.html
  University of Texas at Austin: Mark Your Books
• http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdyhlp.html
  Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University: Study Skills Self-help Information
• http://www.iss.stthomas.edu/studyguides
  University of St. Thomas: Study Guides and Strategies
• http://muskingum.edu/~cal/database/general/reading.html
  Reading Comprehension Strategies
• http://www.dartmouth.edu/~acskills/success/reading.html
  Dartmouth's Reading Your Textbooks Effectively

Chapters, Articles and Stories for Practice

You may want to print pages from these sites so you can take notes and mark as you

• http://www.literacynet.org/cnnsf/archives.html
• Click on a category, choose a story, then click on "story". Read the story, then choose vocabulary and comprehension activies.
• http://www.edict.com.hk/vlc/wnews/default.htm
• "ESL Current Affairs Corner" reading exercises are adapted from online news reports. Includes "active dictionary".
• http://www.edict.com.hk/vlc/comp/ReadComp.htm
• General interest reading comprehension texts with questions. Choose a story, then click on "practice" or "test". Good for beginning students.
• http://www.nytimes.com/learning/students/pop/index.html
• For more advanced students, this site has today's news summaries from the New York Times along with quizzes, crossword puzzles, a word of the day, and a quote of the day. Choose a story, then click "turn vocabulary on" for more to link to dictionary http://cwx.prenhall.com/bookbind/pubbooks/hancock/
• Online study guide to Reading Skills for College Students includes actual textbook chapters in many academic subjects with lots of associated activities.

Vocabulary

Knowlege and skills play a big part in reading comprehnsion. To work on your vocabulary, see the links in Vocabulary.