All About Readings

A fantasiy story

Referens of Reading Materials

Popular Reading Material

Our collection of popular reading materials is available on reserve at the Circulation Desk. Loans are for two weeks, with one renewal allowed.
Current Titles Available:
Bring up the Bodies:A Novel, by Hilary Mantel
The Casual Vacancy, by J.K. Rowling
Caveat Emptor:The Secret Life of an American Art Forger, by Ken Perenyi
Death Comes to Pemberley, by P.D. James
The End of Lawyers?:Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services, by Richard Susskind
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, by Stieg Larsson
The Girl Who Played with Fire, by Stieg Larsson
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson
Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn
The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, by David McCullough
The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
How to Be Black, by Baratunde Thurston
The Invention of Hugo Cabret:A Novel in Words and Pictures, by Brian Selznick
Joseph Anton:A Memoir, by Salman Rushdie
The Knockoff Economy:How Imitation Sparks Innovation, by Kal Raustiala and Christopher Sprigman
Lean In:Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, by Sheryl Sandberg
Life After Life: A Novel, by Kate Atkinson

The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection, by Alexander McCall Smith
The Litigators, by John Grisham
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, by Manning Marable
Me the People, or, One Man's Selfless Quest to Rewrite the Constitution of the United States of America, by Kevin Bleyer
Mortality, by Christopher Hitchens
My Beloved World, by Sonia Sotomayor
Out of Order: Stories from the History of the Supreme Court, by Sandra Day O'Connor

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain
The Shallows:What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, by Nicholas Carr
Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson
Tenth of December:Stories, by George Saunders
Too Big to Fail, by Andrew Ross Sorkin
Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now that the Facts Aren't the Facts, Experts are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room, by David Weinberger
Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots, by Deborah Feldman
Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen
Wolf Hall: A Novel, by Hilary Mantel
Wool Omnibus, by Hugh Howey
Zero Day, by David Baldacci

Cinderella Story

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful girl named Cinderella. She lived with her wicked stepmother and two stepsisters. They treated Cinderella very badly. One day, they were invited for a grand ball in the king’s palace. But Cinderella’s stepmother would not let her go. Cinderella was made to sew new party gowns for her stepmother and stepsisters, and curl their hair. They then went to the ball, leaving Cinderella alone at home.

Cinderella felt very sad and began to cry. Suddenly, a fairy godmother appeared and said, “Don’t cry, Cinderella! I will send you to the ball!” But Cinderella was sad. She said, “I don’t have a gown to wear for the ball!” The fairy godmother waved her magic wand and changed Cinderella’s old clothes into a beautiful new gown! The fairy godmother then touched Cinderella’s feet with the magic wand. And lo! She had beautiful glass slippers! “How will I go to the grand ball?” asked Cinderella. The fairy godmother found six mice playing near a pumpkin, in the kitchen. She touched them with her magic wand and the mice became four shiny black horses and two coachmen and the pumpkin turned into a golden coach. Cinderella was overjoyed and set off for the ball in the coach drawn by the six black horses. Before leaving. the fairy godmother said, “Cinderella, this magic will only last until midnight! You must reach home by then!”

When Cinderella entered the palace, everybody was struck by her beauty. Nobody, not even Cinderella’s stepmother or stepsisters, knew who she really was in her pretty clothes and shoes. The handsome prince also saw her and fell in love with Cinderella. He went to her and asked, “Do you want to dance?” And Cinderella said, “Yes!” The prince danced with her all night and nobody recognized the beautiful dancer. Cinderella was so happy dancing with the prince that she almost forgot what the fairy godmother had said. At the last moment, Cinderella remembered her fairy godmother’s words and she rushed to go home. “Oh! I must go!” she cried and ran out of the palace. One of her glass slippers came off but Cinderella did not turn back for it. She reached home just as the clock struck twelve. Her coach turned back into a pumpkin, the horses into mice and her fine ball gown into rags. Her stepmother and stepsisters reached home shortly after that. They were talking about the beautiful lady who had been dancing with the prince.

The prince had fallen in love with Cinderella and wanted to find out who the beautiful girl was, but he did not even know her name. He found the glass slipper that had come off Cinderella’s foot as she ran home. The prince said, “I will find her. The lady whose foot fits this slipper will be the one I marry!” The next day, the prince and his servants took the glass slipper and went to all the houses in the kingdom. They wanted to find the lady whose feet would fit in the slipper. All the women in the kingdom tried the slipper but it would not fit any of them. Cinderella’s stepsisters also tried on the little glass slipper. They tried to squeeze their feet and push hard into the slipper, but the servant was afraid the slipper would break. Cinderella’s stepmother would not let her try the slipper on, but the prince saw her and said, “Let her also try on the slipper!” The slipper fit her perfectly. The prince recognized her from the ball. He married Cinderella and together they lived happily ever after.

12 Steps for Effective Studying

Studying effectively is a process, not an event. The process leads to success.

1. Plan a definite time for studying every day. This will discourage procrastination and prevent a pile-up of work. Studying every day, even for a short period of time, keeps you from falling behind. Prioritize your list and begin completing the most difficult material first.
2. Know the purpose of and understand each assignment before leaving class. If you understand what to do and how to do it, your study time will be shortened. Keep a record of all assignments in a special section of your notebook or on a separate calendar.

3. Predicting the amount of time you need for each assignment causes you to work smarter as well as harder and more productively. By keeping track of the actual amount of time you spend on your assignments, you are more likely to concentrate and less likely to become bored.

3. come bored. 
4. Time yourself to see how long it takes you to read five pages of your textbook. This will help you determine the amount of time needed to complete a reading assignment. Because a textbook is loaded with information, you may have to read some sections more than once. Even instructors have to reread material. Allow time for reflecting and thinking about what you have read.
5. Reading assignments are usually completed and due prior to the instructor lecturing on the material. Take a little time before class to review the material so you are ready to participate in class discussions and are prepared for any quizzes.
6. Adopt a textbook reading strategy, (like SQ4R), or whatever works for you. Pay attention to charts, diagrams, and special "boxed text" areas. They are definite aids to understanding the material.
7. Every time you study, spend at least ten minutes reviewing the material from your previous study session. These "refresher shots" are part of the secret for long-term memory retention. This habit of frequent review also results in less time needed for studying prior to a major exam.

Know the percentages! We retain:

• 10% of what we read
• 20% of what you hear
• 30% of what we see
• 50% of what we see and hear
• 70% of what we talk about with others
• 80% of what we experience personally
• 95% of what we teach to others

8. Study during the day. You are probably less efficient at night.
9. Study for 30 to 40 minutes and then take a 5-minute break, or if your concentration and discipline will allow, study for 50 minutes and take a 10-minute break. Get up walk around, stretch, drink some water, or eat a light snack. Taking regular breaks refreshes your mind so you can concentrate better, finish faster, and retain more.
10. If you do study at night set a "stopping time" for yourself. This "time frame" will encourage hard work in anticipation of the clock going off. You may even set a goal for yourself to complete an assignment before the time limit. This increased impetus may help you to concentrate.
11. Do not cram the night before a test. Distribute your review in half-hour segments over a period of days. If you do not adopt a structured study schedule, you will not master required course material and you will set yourself up to fail.
12. Learning is accumulative. New ideas must be incorporated with previous material from lectures, readings, and any other assignments such as labs. You have to continuously make the connection in your mind from new material to previously learned material and/or experiences. Putting it all together is easier if you schedule time daily to read, to think, to write, to reflect, and to review.

Pre-reading Strategies

What you bring to the printed page

will affect how you understand what you read,
and may be what is most important in understanding what you read

Organize yourself before you read

Strategies to activate your prior knowledge:

Brainstorming:
Examine the title of the selection you are about to read
List all the information that comes to mind about this title
Use these pieces of information to recall and understand the material
Use this knowledge to reframe or reorder what you know, or to note what you disagree with, for further research
Group discussions:

Group discussions in and out of class will help you to discover what you bring to your reading, what your fellow students bring, as well as shared experiences

If you find they have new background information, ask for more information from them

Concept or mind mapping:

This is a type of brainstorming where you place the title/subject as the main idea,
then develop a "mind map" around it. It can be effective either in a group or by yourself
Pre-questions:
Often chapters in texts provide organizing questions.
You can also write out a series of questions you expect to be answered when reading:
Examples:

Definition:
What is....? Where does ... fit? What group does ... belong to?
Characteristics:
How would I describe...? What does ... look like? What are its parts?
Examples
What is a good example of ...?
What are similar examples that share attributes but differ in some way?
Experience
What experience have I had with ....? What can I imagine about ...?

Visual Aids:Pictures and other visual material can activate your prior knowledge.
Use the Internet to search for pictures related to your title/topic to give you visual images of what you are about to read.

Advance Organizers:
Relate new reading material to something you already know, to your background or experiences. Ask your teacher for assistance in developing these.

Additional Pre-reading Strategies:

Overviews:
Discussing information about the selection or assignment prior to reading must take place.

This may take the form of class discussions, printed previews, photographs, outlines, or films. Spend enough time before the students begin the assignment to ensure understanding of it.

Vocabulary Previews: Unfamiliar key words need to be taught to students before reading so that new words, background information, and comprehension can improve together.

List all words in the assignment that may be important for students to understand. Arrange words to show the relationships to the learning task. Add words students probably already understand to connect relationships between what is known and the unknown. Share information with students. Verbally quiz them on the information before assigned reading begins.

Structural Organizers: Before reading an assignment, basic frameworks which are included in the text should be pointed out such as cause-effect or problem-solution. It can be beneficial to call attention to specific plans of paragraph or text organization such as signal words, main idea sentences, highlighted phrases, headings and subtitles. A review of skimming techniques might also be appropriate as these various areas are covered.

A Purpose for Reading: When students have a purpose for reading a selection, they find that purpose not only directs their reading towards a goal, but helps to focus their attention. Purposes may come from teacher directed questions, questions from class discussions or brainstorming, or from the individual student. Along with the question, it is a good idea to pose predictions of the outcome and problems which need to be solved. These may be generated by the student or the teacher, but the teacher should use these to guide students in the needed direction for the assigned selection.

Author Consideration: Depending upon the content area, a discussion of the author of the particular work can be helpful to the understanding of it. What is the author trying to say? What is his point of view and his reason for writing the particular work?

KWL: This strategy consists of three steps for students to use with expository text:

What do I Know? What do I Want to learn? What did I Learn?

A good strategy for group discussions.

Develop a three column poster with each question in a column and list out responses.

See also: K - W - L

Reading and research series

Reading critically | Pre-reading strategies | SQ3R reading method |
KWL reading method | Marking & underlining | Reading difficult material | Interpretive reading | Reading essays | Reading fiction | Narrator/character types |
Speed and comprehension | Researching on the Internet | Evaluating websites |
Organizing research: computers | Organizing research: note cards

Adapted from Porter, Karla, M.Ed., Pre-reading strategies, funded by the State Board of Education from Federal Funds, Weber State University.

 

Seven Strategies to Teach Students Text Comprehension

By: C.R. Adler

1. Monitoring comprehension

Students who are good at monitoring their comprehension know when they understand what they read and when they do not. They have strategies to "fix" problems in their understanding as the problems arise. Research shows that instruction, even in the early grades, can help students become better at monitoring their comprehension.

Comprehension monitoring instruction teaches students to:

• Be aware of what they do understand
• Identify what they do not understand
• Use appropriate strategies to resolve problems in comprehension

2. Metacognition

Metacognition can be defined as "thinking about thinking." Good readers use metacognitive strategies to think about and have control over their reading. Before reading, they might clarify their purpose for reading and preview the text. During reading, they might monitor their understanding, adjusting their reading speed to fit the difficulty of the text and "fixing" any comprehension problems they have. After reading, they check their understanding of what they read.

Students may use several comprehension monitoring strategies:

• Identify where the difficulty occurs"I don't understand the second paragraph on page 76."
  
• Identify what the difficulty is"I don't get what the author means when she says, 'Arriving in America was a milestone in my grandmother's life.'"
• Restate the difficult sentence or passage in their own words"Oh, so the author means that coming to America was a very important event in her grandmother's life."
• Look back through the text"The author talked about Mr. McBride in Chapter 2, but I don't remember much about him. Maybe if I reread that chapter, I can figure out why he's acting this way now."
• Look forward in the text for information that might help them to resolve the difficulty "The text says, 'The groundwater may form a stream or pond or create a wetland. People can also bring groundwater to the surface.' Hmm, I don't understand how people can do that… Oh, the next section is called 'Wells.' I'll read this section to see if it tells how they do it."

3. Graphic and semantic organizers

Graphic organizers illustrate concepts and relationships between concepts in a text or using diagrams. Graphic organizers are known by different names, such as maps, webs, graphs, charts, frames, or clusters.
Regardless of the label, graphic organizers can help readers focus on concepts and how they are related to other concepts. Graphic organizers help students read and understand textbooks and picture books.

Graphic organizers can:

• Help students focus on text structure "differences between fiction and nonfiction" as they read
• Provide students with tools they can use to examine and show relationships in a text
• Help students write well-organized summaries of a text

4. Answering questions

Questions can be effective because they:

• Give students a purpose for reading
• Focus students' attention on what they are to learn
• Help students to think actively as they read
• Encourage students to monitor their comprehension
• Help students to review content and relate what they have learned to what they already know

The Question-Answer Relationship strategy (QAR) encourages students to learn how to answer questions better. Students are asked to indicate whether the information they used to answer questions about the text was textually explicit information (information that was directly stated in the text), textually implicit information (information that was implied in the text), or information entirely from the student's own background knowledge.

There are four different types of questions:

• "Right There"Questions found right in the text that ask students to find the one right answer located in one place as a word or a sentence in the passage.
  Example: Who is Frog's friend? Answer: Toad
• "Think and Search"Questions based on the recall of facts that can be found directly in the text. Answers are typically found in more than one place, thus requiring students to "think" and "search" through the passage to find the answer.
  Example: Why was Frog sad? Answer: His friend was leaving.
• "Author and You"Questions require students to use what they already know, with what they have learned from reading the text. Student's must understand the text and relate it to their prior knowledge before answering the question.
  Example: How do think Frog felt when he found Toad? Answer: I think that Frog felt happy because he had not seen Toad in a long time. I feel happy when I get to see my friend who lives far away.
• "On Your Own"Questions are answered based on a students prior knowledge and experiences. Reading the text may not be helpful to them when answering this type of question.
  Example: How would you feel if your best friend moved away? Answer: I would feel very sad if my best friend moved away because I would miss her.

5. Generating questions

By generating questions, students become aware of whether they can answer the questions and if they understand what they are reading. Students learn to ask themselves questions that require them to combine information from different segments of text. For example, students can be taught to ask main idea questions that relate to important information in a text.

6. Recognizing story structure

In story structure instruction, students learn to identify the categories of content (characters, setting, events, problem, resolution). Often, students learn to recognize story structure through the use of story maps. Instruction in story structure improves students' comprehension.

7. Summarizing

Summarizing requires students to determine what is important in what they are reading and to put it into their own words. Instruction in summarizing helps students:

• Identify or generate main ideas
• Connect the main or central ideas
• Eliminate unnecessary information
• Remember what they read

STORY TELLING

The Little Match Girl

By Hans Christian Andersen

---

 

Most terribly cold it was; it snowed, and was nearly quite dark, and evening-- the last evening of the year. In this cold and darkness there went along the street a poor little girl, bareheaded, and with naked feet. When she left home she had slippers on, it is true; but what was the good of that? They were very large slippers, which her mother had hitherto worn; so large were they; and the poor little thing lost them as she scuffled away across the street, because of two carriages that rolled by dreadfully fast.

One slipper was nowhere to be found; the other had been laid hold of by an urchin, and off he ran with it; he thought it would do capitally for a cradle when he some day or other should have children himself. So the little maiden walked on with her tiny naked feet, that were quite red and blue from cold. She carried a quantity of matches in an old apron, and she held a bundle of them in her hand. Nobody had bought anything of her the whole livelong day; no one had given her a single farthing. She crept along trembling with cold and hunger--a very picture of sorrow, the poor little thing!

The flakes of snow covered her long fair hair, which fell in beautiful curls around her neck; but of that, of course, she never once now thought. From all the windows the candles were gleaming, and it smelt so deliciously of roast goose, for you know it was New Year's Eve; yes, of that she thought.

In a corner formed by two houses, of which one advanced more than the other, she seated herself down and cowered together. Her little feet she had drawn close up to her, but she grew colder and colder, and to go home she did not venture, for she had not sold any matches and could not bring a farthing of money: from her father she would certainly get blows, and at home it was cold too, for above her she had only the roof, through which the wind whistled, even though the largest cracks were stopped up with straw and rags.

Her little hands were almost numbed with cold. Oh! a match might afford her a world of comfort, if she only dared take a single one out of the bundle, draw it against the wall, and warm her fingers by it. She drew one out. "Rischt!" how it blazed, how it burnt! It was a warm, bright flame, like a candle, as she held her hands over it: it was a wonderful light. It seemed really to the little maiden as though she were sitting before a large iron stove, with burnished brass feet and a brass ornament at top. The fire burned with such blessed influence; it warmed so delightfully. The little girl had already stretched out her feet to warm them too; but--the small flame went out, the stove vanished: she had only the remains of the burnt-out match in her hand.

She rubbed another against the wall: it burned brightly, and where the light fell on the wall, there the wall became transparent like a veil, so that she could see into the room. On the table was spread a snow-white tablecloth; upon it was a splendid porcelain service, and the roast goose was steaming famously with its stuffing of apple and dried plums. And what was still more capital to behold was, the goose hopped down from the dish, reeled about on the floor with knife and fork in its breast, till it came up to the poor little girl; when--the match went out and nothing but the thick, cold, damp wall was left behind. She lighted another match. Now there she was sitting under the most magnificent Christmas tree: it was still larger, and more decorated than the one which she had seen through the glass door in the rich merchant's house.

Thousands of lights were burning on the green branches, and gaily-colored pictures, such as she had seen in the shop-windows, looked down upon her. The little maiden stretched out her hands towards them when--the match went out. The lights of the Christmas tree rose higher and higher, she saw them now as stars in heaven; one fell down and formed a long trail of fire.

"Someone is just dead!" said the little girl; for her old grandmother, the only person who had loved her, and who was now no more, had told her, that when a star falls, a soul ascends to God.

She drew another match against the wall: it was again light, and in the lustre there stood the old grandmother, so bright and radiant, so mild, and with such an expression of love.

"Grandmother!" cried the little one. "Oh, take me with you! You go away when the match burns out; you vanish like the warm stove, like the delicious roast goose, and like the magnificent Christmas tree!" And she rubbed the whole bundle of matches quickly against the wall, for she wanted to be quite sure of keeping her grandmother near her. And the matches gave such a brilliant light that it was brighter than at noon-day: never formerly had the grandmother been so beautiful and so tall. She took the little maiden, on her arm, and both flew in brightness and in joy so high, so very high, and then above was neither cold, nor hunger, nor anxiety--they were with God.

But in the corner, at the cold hour of dawn, sat the poor girl, with rosy cheeks and with a smiling mouth, leaning against the wall--frozen to death on the last evening of the old year. Stiff and stark sat the child there with her matches, of which one bundle had been burnt. "She wanted to warm herself," people said. No one had the slightest suspicion of what beautiful things she had seen; no one even dreamed of the splendor in which, with her grandmother she had entered on the joys of a new year.