Skkn some experience in helping grade 12 students at le loi upper secondary school to improve their grades in english reading comprehension parts in the national high school graduation exam

CONTENTS

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A. INTRODUCTION

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I. Reasons for choosing the research

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II. Aims of the research

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III. Scope, objective and method of the research

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B. CONTENT

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I. Theoretical background

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1. Definitions of reading comprehension

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2. Main types of reading comprehension questions in an English’s test

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II. Practical background
1. The structure of the English test suggested by the Ministry of

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Education and Training
2. The teacher’s and students’ attitudes towards the solving the reading
comprehension questions in the English test
3. The investigation of the students' skills at answering the reading
comprehension questions
III. The solutions

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1. Guiding students to recognize and deal with each type of reading
comprehension questions with useful strategies
2. Applying the appropriate procedure of guiding students to practice
reading effectively
3. Providing students with useful tips to help them practice reading
more actively and effectively

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IV. The discussion

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1. Results after applying the research in teaching

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2. The colleagues' comment

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C- CONCLUSION

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I. Conclusion

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II. Suggestions

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D. REFERENCE BOOKS

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E. ADDENDUM

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A. INTRODUCTION
I. THE REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE THEME
English, one of the international languages used by most of people in the
world, has become the second foreign language which is obligatorily taught from
primary school up to university in Vietnam. English is also one of the
compulsory subjects to pass the National Examination. In learning English, there
are four skills to be mastered, they are listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Listening and reading are receptive skills. On the other hand, speaking and
writing are productive skills.
It is true that reading is a very important skill in teaching and learning
English especially reading comprehension. Evidently, since 2017 GCSE
English's test, students have to answer from 12 to 15 reading comprehension
questions. This is not a small challenge for most students in general and for the
students at Le Loi high school in particular. In fact, they have difficulty in
recognizing types of questions; they also lack reading strategies and they are

afraid of meeting with a wide range of new words. As a result, poor students and
students of medium level hardly gain any grades whereas good students have
difficulty getting the maximum one.
Understanding these problems, I decided to choose " Some experience in
helping grade 12 students at Le Loi upper-secondary school to improve their
grades in English reading comprehension parts in the national high school
graduation exam " as the topic of my experience initiatives with the hope that I
can help my students to be more confident in reading skills and practically, they
will succeed in their final exam.
II. THE OBJECTIVES OF THE PAPER.
The study is aimed to serve some main objectives as listed following.
- To give teachers an experience in teaching how to recognize and deal
with each type of reading comprehension questions.
- To help students in grade 12th of all levels use some effective strategies
to boost their grades in this part of the test.
- To equip students with the system of reading exercises so that they will
have chance to practice reading skills.
As a result, they will have high motivation to read and they will also know
how to improve their grades in reading comprehension part in the GCSE
English's test effectively.
III. THE SCOPE OF THE PAPER.
Based on the background and identification of the theme, the paper is
limited on teaching reading skill to the students in grade 12th by using some
effective techniques. The research was conducted at my workplace- at Le Loi
high school, Tho Xuan district, Thanh Hoa province. The subject consists of 70
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students who come from class 12A10, 12A4, school year 2021-2022. All of
them are at the age of eighteenth to nineteenth years old. They have to take every
skill in each period; learning time is 3 periods per week.
IV. THE METHODS OF THE PAPER.
The writer did some steps to do this research, they are as follows;
- surveying the literature relating to do the problem;
- defining the problem;
- constructing an experimental plan by writing the research design;
- design the research instrument;
- doing the instrument try-out;
- giving the test to the students;
- practicing teaching
- collecting the data through the posttest;
- analyzing the data;
- drawing conclusions;
- proposing suggestions;
- writing the report as subject.
- Exchanging experience with colleagues

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B. CONTENT
I. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1. Definitions of reading comprehension.
What exactly is reading comprehension?
Simply put, reading comprehension is the act of understanding what you are
reading. While the definition can be simply stated the act is not simple to teach,

learn or practice. Reading comprehension is an intentional, active, interactive
process that occurs before, during and after a person reads a particular piece of
writing.
Reading comprehension is one of the pillars of the act of reading. When a person
reads a text he engages in a complex array of cognitive processes. He is
simultaneously using his awareness and understanding of phonemes (individual
sound “pieces” in language), phonics (connection between letters and sounds and
the relationship between sounds, letters and words) and ability to comprehend or
construct meaning from the text. This last component of the act of reading is
reading comprehension. It cannot occur independently of the other two elements
of the process. At the same time, it is the most difficult and most important of the
three.
There are two elements that make up the process of reading
comprehension: vocabulary knowledge and text comprehension. In order to
understand a text the reader must be able to comprehend the vocabulary used in
the piece of writing. If the individual words don’t make the sense then the
overall story will not either. Children can draw on their prior knowledge of
vocabulary, but they also need to continually be taught new words. The best
vocabulary instruction occurs at the point of need. Parents and teachers should
pre-teach new words that a child will encounter in a text or aid her in
understanding unfamiliar words as she comes upon them in the writing. In
addition to being able to understand each distinct word in a text, the child also
has to be able to put them together to develop an overall conception of what it is
trying to say. This is text comprehension. Text comprehension is much more
complex and varied that vocabulary knowledge. Readers use many different text
comprehension strategies to develop reading comprehension. These include
monitoring for understanding, answering and generating questions, summarizing
and being aware of and using a text’s structure to aid comprehension.
How does reading comprehension develop?
As you can see, reading comprehension is incredibly complex and multifaceted.

Because of this, readers do not develop the ability to comprehend texts quickly,
easily or independently. Reading comprehension strategies must be taught over
an extended period of time by parents and teachers who have knowledge and
experience using them. It might seem that once a child learns to read in the
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elementary grades he is able to tackle any future text that comes his way. This is
not true. Reading comprehension strategies must be refined, practiced and
reinforced continually throughout life. Even in the middle grades and high
school, parents and teachers need to continue to help their children develop
reading comprehension strategies. As their reading materials become more
diverse and challenging, children need to learn new tools for comprehending
these texts. Content area materials such as textbooks and newspaper, magazine
and journal articles pose different reading comprehension challenges for young
people and thus require different comprehension strategies. The development of
reading comprehension is a lifelong process that changes based on the depth and
breadth of texts the person is reading.
Why is reading comprehension so important?
Without comprehension, reading is nothing more than tracking symbols on a
page with your eyes and sounding them out. Imagine being handed a story
written in Egyptian hieroglyphics with no understanding of their meaning. You
may appreciate the words aesthetically and even be able to draw some small bits
of meaning from the page, but you are not truly reading the story. The words on
the page have no meaning. They are simply symbols. People read for many
reasons but understanding is always a part of their purpose. Reading
comprehension is important because without it reading doesn’t provide the
reader with any information.

Beyond this, reading comprehension is essential to life. Much has been written
about the importance of functional literacy. In order to survive and thrive in
today’s world individuals must be able to comprehend basic texts such as bills,
housing agreements (leases, purchase contracts), directions on packaging and
transportation documents (bus and train schedules, maps, travel directions).
Reading comprehension is a critical component of functional literacy. Think of
the potentially dire effects of not being able to comprehend dosage directions on
a bottle of medicine or warnings on a container of dangerous chemicals. With the
ability to comprehend what they read, people are able not only to live safely and
productively, but also to continue to develop socially, emotionally and
intellectually
The Reading Comprehension section contains reading passages and questions
about the passages. The questions are about information that is stated or implied
in the passage and about some of the specific words in the passages. Because
many English words have more than one meaning, it is important to remember
that these questions concern the meaning of a word or phrase within the context
of the passage.
2. Main types of comprehension questions

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There are a handful of reading comprehension question types that
constitute the bulk of questions you will face in this section. The ability to
recognize these question types quickly and understand the aim of the question
and the common traits of correct and incorrect answers is extremely important.
Depending upon how specific one is in classifying questions, there are about
nine question types:

- Main idea
- Factual Questions
- Negative factual Questions 
- Vocabulary Questions
- Reference Questions 
- Inference Questions 
- Questions on author’s purpose 
- Questions on author’s attitude 
- The origin of the passage
In addition, those types of questions often focus on these following popular
topics in reading texts.
- Education and languages
- Social issues 
- Health 
- Food 
- people and places 
- Science, technology and inventions 
- Tourism, festivals and entertainment
- Nature and environment 

II. PRACTICAL BACKGROUND
1. The new structure English test designed by the Ministry of Education and
Training.
As we all know the national high school English test consists of 50 multiple
choice questions and 60 minutes to complete 50 sentences.
The 2022 high school English exam consists of:
- Phonetics (tress + pronunciation): 4 questions
- Error correction: 3 questions
- Sentence Completion: 15 questions
- Functional question: 2 questions

- Closest >< opposite meaning: 4 questions
- Same meaning: 5 questions
- Cloze test: 5 questions
- Reading 1: (reading comprehension questions) 5questions
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- Reading 2: (reading comprehension questions) 7 questions
It can be seen clearly that reading comprehension part is always the hardest part
of the test because it requires students to use all the skills. [Remember
(meaning / usage of the word, data in the article), Understanding (meaning of
words / sentences / paragraphs. Use (word/phrase/sentence structure) and
knowledge (vocabulary / grammar) to improve and get maximum score. This
section fully and accurately assesses the ability of the candidate should always
have high weight in a test. In addition to mastering all of the above topics,
students also have to practice quick, effective exercises for a limited time.
2. The teacher’s and students’ attitudes towards the solving the reading
comprehension questions in the English test.
It is a matter of fact that getting high or full grades in reading
comprehension parts in the GCSE English's test is not easy. We all are
habituated to solve simple and direct passages in our school days, but when it
comes to competitive exams, the task becomes difficult.  Unable to understand
the vocabulary (meaning of words) and concept of the passage, many students
become dull and uninterested in this section. Gradually, many students are afraid
of reading. Consequently, most of the teachers and the students think the
students’ reading comprehension competence is not good.
2.1. Students’ difficulties in solving the reading comprehension questions in
the English test.

It is clear that the students in my school have to face many difficulties.
These difficulties are from two causes: (1) from the students themselves, and (2)
from the teachers’ lectures.
In terms of the first cause, the majority of the students have trouble with reading
because of their low level of English proficiency. Their vocabulary and sentence
structures are poor. Grammar mistakes and spelling are also a common fear for
many of them. Besides, their low background knowledge also makes them feel
stressed when reading. In contrast to good readers, most poor readers do not read
strategically. Nor do they have sufficient cognitive awareness to develop, select,
and apply strategies that can enhance their comprehension of text. Typical poor
readers rarely prepare before reading. They often begin to read without setting
goals. They seldom consider how best to read a particular type of text. During
reading, poor readers may have difficulty decoding, and so have difficulty
reading the words of their texts accurately. In addition, some poor readers read
too slowly, or lack fluency. As a result of their slow, labored reading, they often
do not comprehend much of what they read, and the attention they have to give
to figuring out the words keeps them from understanding the text's message.

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All too often poor readers lack sufficient background knowledge about the topic
of a text. They may have trouble connecting the ideas of a text. They often are
not familiar with the vocabulary they encounter, and have trouble determining
word meanings. Further, even when poor readers possess relevant background
knowledge, they frequently are not able to activate it to help them understand
what they read. Some poor readers also are unaware of text organization. They
do not know enough about the organizational structure of narratives or the

various organizational structures of expository texts to help them read and
understand. After reading, poor readers typically do not think about or reflect
upon what they have read. They almost never seek out additional information
about a topic. The cumulative effect of these difficulties is that poor readers
often lose confidence in their ability to read. Because reading is difficult for
them, poor readers cannot and do not read widely. As a result, they are exposed
to much less text than are good readers and so receive much less practice
reading. Further, the practice they do receive is often frustrating, because many
of the texts they are asked to read are too difficult for them.
In terms of the second cause, the students do not highly asses their teachers’
assistance. They find their teachers’ feedbacks are not comprehensive and their
teachers’ instructions are not adequate.
2.2. Teachers’ difficulties in improve students’ grades in reading
comprehension part in the GCSE English's test for grade 12 students.
Not only the students but also the teachers cope with numerous problems
when encouraging students to practice reading.
The first difficulty I and my colleague are coping with is the low English
level of the students. Our students often lack vocabulary and have difficulties in
recognizing the types of questions with useful tips. The students’ low motivation
and low background knowledge are also other problems encountered by the
teachers.
The second difficulty is the problem of large and multilevel classes. In
multilevel classes, we face difficulties in shortening a big gap between our
students. In the same class, some students who are good at English are active
while many others are de- motivated. In addition, English classes at Le Loi high
school are very large. There are at least 34 students in a class. Hence, it is
difficult for the teachers to give each of the students individual attention and
make sure who is on task and who is off task.
For the next difficulty, with the help of the Internet, students do not actually
practice reading, they find the keys or translate the reading passages just to finish

off the tasks.
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3. The investigation of the students’ paragraph writing skills
In the process of teaching, I have been given the duty to teach the grade
12. With the awareness of researching and studying the situation of students’
learning the subject and learning from experience, right since the beginning of
the school year, I outlined a specific plan and method to actively investigate the
situation of students’ learning in my classes by giving them the questionnaire
first then do the reading tasks in 25 minutes. (both The questionnaire and The
reading tasks are found in the addendum)
And the tables below show the result of the investigation.
Table 1
Class Total
Question 1
Question 1
number A
B
C
D
A
B
C
D
of
students
12A4 36

10
15
10
1
10
15
11
0
12A10 34
4
17
10
3
4
17
12
1
Total 70
14
32
20
4
14
32
23
1
(20%)

(45.7%)

(28.6%)

(5.7%)

(20%)

(45.7%)

(32.9%)

(1.4%)

Table 2
Class

Total
Good
Fair
Average
weak
Poor
number
of
No %
No %
No
%
No
%
No %

students
12A4
36
1
2.8 10 15.9 10
15.9 10
15.9 5
13.9
12A10 34
4
11.8 12 35.3 11
32.3 5
14.7 2
5.9
Total
70
5
7.1 22 31.4 21
30.0 15
21.4 7
10.0
From the above tables, it is clear that the number of students not having
good attitude towards doing reading tasks is alarming (65.7%). They are
uninterested in reading, even afraid of it. Most of them have difficult in classify
the questions, using different tips for different types of questions. Some of them
even don’t know what to do with the reading tasks. As a result, their results of
doing the given tests were not good (62.4%). Sadly, there were 7 students (10%)
not knowing how to complete the tasks and let the paper blank. Very few of
them are fond of reading and consequently, the number of students getting good
grades is limited (7.1%)

These findings would serve as the foundations for further suggestions that
I would like to make in the next part.
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III. THE SOLUTIONS
Basing on the process of reading, I wish to share some experiences
including guiding students to recognize and deal with each type of reading
comprehension questions, providing students with useful strategies to help them
improve their grades in reading comprehension questions, applying the procedure
of guiding students to practice reading effectively and providing students with
useful tips to help them practice reading more actively and effectively.
1. Guiding students to recognize and deal with each type of reading
comprehension questions with useful strategies.
Depending upon how specific one is in classifying questions, there are
about nine question types that come up frequently in most tests.
1.1. Main idea
Main idea questions ask you to identify the "primary purpose" or "main
point" of the passage. In order to answer these questions correctly, you must be
able to identify the thesis of the passage and those ideas that support this thesis.
The test-writers attempt to confuse you with a few answer choices that are
supporting ideas.
Common Question Stems
- Which of the following most accurately states the main idea of the passage?
- The primary purpose of the passage is to
- The passage is primarily concerned with which of the following?
- The author of this passage is primarily concerned with
- The main point made by the passage is that

- What is the topic of this passage?
- What is the subject of the article?
- What is the main idea expressed in this passage?
- What is the main idea shown in the article?
- Which title best reflects the main idea of the passage?
-What is the most appropriate title for the main idea of the article?
Strategies
Main point questions ask you to identify the crux of the author's point.
You must identify which ideas in the passage play a supporting role and which
idea is being supported. In many ways, this is similar to identifying the premises
and conclusion to a critical reasoning argument. The correct answer to a main
point question is often a paraphrase of the conclusion or thesis statement of the
passage. Common incorrect answer choices are those that feature supporting
ideas. These answer choices are appealing to many test-takers because the
material presented in them is true and based upon the passage.

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To answer questions about the main idea of the article, let's look at the title
of the article if there is one. Focus on the main idea in the opening or ending
paragraph, as this is usually the introduction and summary of the main point of
the whole article. The main thing is to show the content of the whole article, not
the paragraph one. This is also a trap that you need to avoid. The options if too
lax, we can also let this sentence to the last and then do, because after handling
the other questions of the post, readers necessarily read the text again or several
times more, so they will understand the internal content of the text more
accurately.

1.2. Factual information questions
Factual information questions are often prefaced by "according to the
passage" or "the passage states that". Most of the questions that fit into this
category could be called "find the fact" as they rely on your ability to find a
specific piece of information, often contained in two or three sentences.
These questions tend to be more difficult than main idea questions because they
require a more detailed recollection of the test. If necessary, you can return to the
text and quickly re-read a few sentences.
Unlike main idea questions which are more generic in their question stem, these
questions tend to incorporate an idea specific to the passage in the question stem.
Common Question Stems
- According to the passage, a questionable assumption about x is that
- The passage states that x occurs because
- According to the passage, which of the following is true of x
- The passage mentions each of the following EXCEPT
- According to the passage, if x occurs then
- According to the passage, why / what / how …?
- According to the passage, why? What? What? …
- According to the information in paragraph 1, what …?
- According to the information in paragraph 1, what …?
Strategies
Asking for detailed information, it is necessary to stick to the specific
content of the article to find the answer. In these types of questions, finding the
key word for both the question and the answer is extremely important, taking the
keyword from the clue to find the answer in the reading. Notice the keywords in
the question are the main verbs, the main nouns, the main adjectives, the word in
capital letters, the time, the place … The difficulty in this form is that sometimes
they use synonyms rather than the primary. The keyword in question is given. To
solve this problem need to constantly accumulate vocabulary for rich, varied.
1.3. Negative factual questions.

Common Question Stems
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Carefully read the question and pay attention to the following negative words:
- EXCEPT …
- (NOT) – NOT mention …
- LEAST likely … (less likely …)
Strategies
These questions are often not addressed in the article or the wrong information
will be the selected answer. Be calm about the psychology to read the standard
questions and the types of alternatives that appear in the article to find the correct
answer.
1.4. Vocabulary Questions
Common Question Stems
- The expression “____” in line “____” could best be replaced by ….
- The word “____” in the line “____” can be replaced by / closest to the word?
Strategies
This question asks for knowledge of the vocabulary and the ability to understand
the meaning of the word or phrase. It will be great if you know the meaning of
the word in bold and the alternatives. But often the test will ask a difficult word
or new words of the unknown, calm, do not worry or give up. Use sentences and
contexts containing words to ask meaning, use logic to judge its meaning and
then choose. Or you can completely replace the choice of words to find meaning,
see what the most reasonable. Note that there is a case where the word is asked if
the individual is clearly synonymous or close to a given one; But pay attention
because if it is put into its context, the correct answer may be another alternative
that fits the context of the text.

1.5. Reference Questions
Common Question Stems
- “It” / “They”, “Them”, “Those” …. In line “____” refers to_____
- “It” / “They”, “Them”, “Those” …. On the line … to refer to …
Strategies
This is a relatively simple sentence, because the correct answer to be replaced by
the above words should only lie very close to these words, read the sentence or
sentences with Related to find the correct answer.
1.6. Inference Questions
Inference questions are often prefaced by "the passage implies" or "the
author implies", where "suggests" is sometimes substituted.
In some ways, inference and supporting idea questions are similar. They both
require you to stick closely to the text and rely on specific facts. However,
inference questions tend to go a tad further and ask you to make a very small
logical conclusion that is strongly implied based upon information in the
passage. Answer choices that require significant assumptions or inferences will
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NEVER be correct. In inference questions, the answer lies directly in the text
and requires a very small logical step (e.g., if the text says that "all the cups in
the room are red", an inference would be that "there are no green cups in the
room").
In other ways, inference and application questions are similar. They both require
you to draw a conclusion, albeit a very small one, based upon what the passage
states explicitly. However, the inference question type asks for an answer that is
often a near paraphrase of a fact in the passage or a fact that the information in
the passage rules out (e.g., if a species of an animal has existed for 1 million

years, you can infer that the animal is not new to the earth). On the contrary,
the application question type asks you to use the information in the passage as
premises and draw a conclusion that is not directly addressed in the passage. In
other words, the answer to inference questions is a conclusion made in the
passage while the answer to application questions is a conclusion that is applied
outside of the passage to an idea or action.
Common Question Stems
- The passage implies that which of the following was true of x
- It can be inferred from the passage that
- The passage suggests which of the following about x
- The author implies that x occurred because
- The author implies that all of the following statements about x are true
EXCEPT
- It could be … It can be inferred from the passage … In paragraph 2, the
implicit hypothetical author Just / hint that …
Strategies
The correct answer to these questions is usually an obvious logical
consequence of a sentence in the text. The logical consequence will be extremely
clear. The difficulty in these questions resides in finding the specific sentence in
the passage that provides the premise for the conclusion in the correct answer.
Stay away from answer choices that do not directly and closely follow from a
statement in the passage, even if this statement seems plausible based upon the
general idea of the passage or commonly accepted knowledge.
This form of sentence is relatively difficult because the correct answer
may not appear directly in the article, so you need to know the text well enough
to give the correct answer to the inference question. Note the logic of the post
and clues, serial properties …
1.7. Questions on author’s purpose
Common Question Stems
- Why does the author mention______?

- The author’s main purpose in paragraph 2 is to …...... ..
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- Why do the authors mention …?
- The main purpose of the author in paragraph 2 is to …
Strategies
Question asked about the purpose when the author wrote about a problem or
write a paragraph, maybe the answer after the “to” (or …) We have to argue the
answer ourselves.
1.8. Questions on author’s attitude
Tone questions or questions on author’s attitude ask you to identify the attitude
or mood of a specific part of the passage or of the entire passage. A common
characteristic of this question type is answer choices that are marked by one to
three word phrases containing adjectives. Tone questions test your ability to
recognize an attitude or disposition of the author, which is signaled by the use of
a handful of trigger words. Never base your guess about the author's tone on a
single word--this is not enough to define the tone of the entire passage.
Tone questions tend to be among the more infrequent question types.
Common Question Stems
- The attitude of the author of the passage toward x is best described as one of…
- The tone of the author is best described as…
- What is the author’s opinion / attitude of _____?
- Which of the following most reflectively reflects the author’s opinion?
- What is the opinion / attitude of the author shown in the article? Which of the
following best describes the author’s opinions / attitudes?
(Some words may appear in choices: Positive: Negative Neutral: Neutral
Supportive: Support/ admire) Skeptical: Doubt …

Strategies
To answer this question should rely on statements that express personal views.
The author of praise, criticism, support, suspicion …
1.9. The origin of the passage (source of the article)
Common Question Stems
- Where is this passage most likely seen / found?
- Where can the article be seen / found?
Strategies
Based on the content of the mentions, choose the right solution, which can be
found in scientific journals, fashion magazines, newspaper ads, medical journals,
automotive magazines.
Although there is by no means a hard-and-fast rule about the difficulty of the
questions that fall into each category, questions in the main idea category tend to
be easier while questions in the inference and application categories tend to be
more difficult. Questions about the author’s tone tend to appear less frequently
than other questions, although there is no definitive and widely-public rule that
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the authors have bound themselves by concerning the number of questions from
each category.
Logical Reasoning
Logical reasoning questions ask you to take information outside the passage and
reason about how it will influence a point or sentence in the passage. The most
common questions in this genre are those that ask which pieces of information
will strengthen or weaken a point in the passage.
In some ways, these questions are similar to application questions in that both
require you to understand the thesis of the passage (if one exists) and the

relationship between ideas in the passage. However, logical reasoning questions
ask you to take outside information and apply it to the ideas in the passage
(commonly to strengthen or weaken a point in the passage).
However, application questions ask you to take the information in the passage
and apply it to an argument or action outside the passage.
In other ways, these questions are similar to passage structure questions in that
both require you to understand the relationship between different parts of the
passage and both require you to identify the thesis (if one exists).
However, passage structure questions simply ask you to identify the roles
different sentences play in the overall passage while logical reasoning questions
ask you to take outside information and apply it to the ideas in the passage while
maintaining an awareness of what these outside ideas will do to the structure and
thesis of the passage.
Common Question Stems
Which of the following, if true, would best support x [where x is an idea or
argument described in the passage]
The author's conclusion concerning x would be most seriously undermined if
Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the explanation
of x provided in the passage
2. Applying the appropriate procedure of guiding students to practice
reading effectively.
To correspond with a typical reading lesson, comprehension strategy instruction
can be organized into a three-part framework, with specific activities
used before, during, and after reading.
Providing instruction such as the following example allows students to see,
learn, and use a variety of comprehension strategies as they read. Note, however,
that the framework is a general one and represents an array of strategies. All of
the strategies in this framework do not have to be used with every text or in
every reading situation.
2.1. Before Reading

Before reading, the teacher may:
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Motivate students through activities that may increase their interest (book talks,
dramatic readings, or displays of art related to the text), making the text relevant
to students in some way.
Activate students' background knowledge important to the content of the text by
discussing what students will read and what they already know about its topic
and about the text organization.
Students, with some help from the teacher, may:
Establish a purpose for reading.
Identify and discuss difficult words, phrases, and concepts in the text.
Preview the text (by surveying the title, illustrations, and unusual text structures)
to make predictions about its content.
Think, talk, and write about the topic of the text.
2.2. During Reading
During reading, the teacher may:
Remind students to use comprehension strategies as they read and to monitor
their understanding.
Ask questions that keep students on track and focus their attention on main ideas
and important points in the text.
Focus attention on parts in a text that require students to make inferences.
Call on students to summarize key sections or events.
Encourage students to return to any predictions they have made before reading to
see if they are confirmed by the text.
Students, with some help from the teacher, may:
Determine and summarize important ideas and supportive details.

Make connections between and among important ideas in the text.
Integrate new ideas with existing background knowledge.
Ask themselves questions about the text.
Sequence events and ideas in the text.
Offer interpretations of and responses to the text.
Check understanding by paraphrasing or restating important and/or difficult
sentences and paragraphs.
Visualize characters, settings, or events in a text.
2.3. After Reading
After reading, the teacher may:
Guide discussion of the reading.
Ask students to recall and tell in their own words important parts of the text.
Offer students opportunities to respond to the reading in various ways, including
through writing, dramatic play, music, readers' theatre, videos, debate, or
pantomime.
Students, with some help from the teacher, may:
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Evaluate and discuss the ideas encountered in the text.
Apply and extend these ideas to other texts and real life situations.
Summarize what was read by retelling the main ideas.
Discuss ideas for further reading.
3. Providing students with useful tips to help them practice reading more
actively and effectively.
3.1. Eliminate the words or phrases. A complaint which I hear often is that,
the students are unable to understand the given reading comprehension.  If
you belong to this category, you need to understand that you don’t need to

understand each and every word of the comprehension. At the same time, you
should find the gist (summary) of it. Both these points above may appear
contradictory But the crucial thing is, you need to eliminate the words, phrases,
sentences from the Reading Comprehension that are not useful and need to focus
on keywords.
3.2. Find your strengths first.
To improve reading comprehension, first you need to find your strengths
first. The conservative approach to solving a passage is, to read the passage first,
and then go to the questions and solve them. But some students do not feel
comfortable with this method. Probably they do not know which keywords to
remember while going through the comprehension. Or, they may have to read
the comprehension again, after reading the questions. This lead to the problem of
time management.
Solution: You can choose the “bottom up” approach. That means, read the
questions first, so that you have an idea what to look for, in the
comprehension. But ultimately you are the better judge of which approach is the
best. So, practice several reading comprehensions in two different approaches
and find out which method suits you.
 3.3. Improve Your Vocabulary:
Why you need to improve your vocabulary? Vocabulary means knowledge of
words (meaning of words). If you do not have a good vocabulary, you have to
stop at every new word in the reading comprehension, and be puzzled what does
it mean? So, when you don’t know the meaning of a word, it becomes very
difficult to understand the gist of the Comprehension. Having a good vocabulary,
makes you understand the reading comprehension much easier.
How to improve your vocabulary?
Start reading in English, anything…….  Newspapers, stories, comics, text
books….anything, that keeps you immersed in English. New words gradually
sink into your subconscious mind and become familiar.
Keep a notebook, Note down the new words you learned today and revise them

periodically.
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Keep a target and a schedule to learn a certain number of new words every day.
You are the better person to decide the number,… I am not. Do not deviate from
the schedule at any cost.
3. 4. Use a pen while reading:
Do not read the Reading Comprehension like a movie novel. While going
through the passage, your three body organs should act in collaboration
including Eyes, Hand and Brain.
    Make a habit of finding valuable keywords quickly and underline those
keywords with a pen (If the rules permit)
So, if at all you have to read the Comprehension again you can go only through
keywords, and not through all the junk. 
3.5. Do a mental math quickly:
Often students feel they are not efficient in solving Reading Comprehension,
because of these three factors: Vocabulary in the comprehension, difficulty in
understanding the meaning of the questions, time factor.
 So, if there are 12 questions in the English part, do not try to attempt all the
questions (If there is negative marking).
 Just try to think how many marks you need in English, by calculating how many
you are getting in other sections of the exam (Arithmetic, Reasoning Etc.). Based
on that you can choose how many questions you have to solve in English.
This doesn’t take much time if you make a quick mental math
3.6. Most Reading Comprehensions are complex:
Usually, Reading Comprehensions are taken from scientific essays or well
known fiction. Often the sentences are complex to understand. If you are not

aware of this fact, you might be puzzled by those questions.
Solution:
Improve your Vocabulary
Read and solve comprehensions, as many as possible
Solve passages from different fields of knowledge, like Science, Arts, Literature,
Politics, Economics, etc.
3.7. Focus:
It is not unusual for any person to wander somewhere while reading something
uninteresting.
So, when you find the Comprehension dull, difficult and uninteresting, your eyes
run through the sentences, but your mind wanders somewhere else.
The result….you complete reading, but you grasp nothing.
Solution:
Focus on the content. Don’t let your mind go away from there.
If it starts daydreaming….bring it back into reality. Tell yourself that you have
plenty of time to dream after the exam.
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3.8. Improve reading Speed:
Do not move your lips while reading, it slows you down.
You can refer the videos provided in your e-classes login id. I highly recommend
those techniques for improving your reading speed very quickly.
3.9. While solving Reading Comprehension at home, don’t try to find the
meaning of each and every word you find there, with the dictionary.
 Of course, Looking for meanings in a dictionary and taking notes is a good
habit, but for each and every word……No...
Sometimes you need to make a wild guess about a new word, taking into account

of the context (situation). By this, you will be able to understand the meaning of
new words. If you feel necessary, you may check the meaning after reading the
Comprehension.
3.10. Solve previous papers
By solving the previous papers you can understand and identify what kind of
questions are appearing in the examination, so that you will be mentally prepared
for those kinds of questions.
Some questions are Simple
Some Draw Inferences
Some of the RC questions will ask you about a specific word from a paragraph
Some are Parallel Reasoning Question 
3.11. Don’t draw on outside knowledge
Don’t make conclusions which are not in the comprehension. Though you are
well aware of the topic mentioned in the Passage, You should not bring your
own knowledge into the answers. Just stick to the Information given in the
comprehension.
3.12. Overcome panic
While focusing on the passage, if you stare at the letters for a long time, your
eyes feel uncomfortable. So, often close your eyes for a while, take a deep
breath and start again.
Don’t get panicked by the difficulty of the questions. Be prepared for them.
3.13. Never lose confidence
By looking at the Comprehension, don’t let any thought of discouragement enter
into your mind. Don’t feel depressed.
        Always follow some tactics to motivate yourself
3.14. Learn what works best for you
Whatever strategies mentioned here are not hard and fast rules. They are flexible.
If you feel they don’t work for you, then you can alter them to suit your needs.
You are the judge.
3.15. All the best: Following the above mentioned Reading Comprehension tips

certainly brings you good marks in your academic tests.
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