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Reading Tutorial

Find your reading level
Check your speed
Understand what you read
Work a plan to improve your reading
Learn to write from your reading
 

Find your reading level
These are samples of words at the three reading levels at MATC. Level one is 1 - 6th grades, Level II is 7 - 9th grades and Level III is 10 - 12th grades. (Put the mouse arrow over the the definition is here to see the definition.) 

See which words you know. 

If you know 8 out of 10 at a level,
go to the next level.

 
Reading level 1 (grades 2-5)

 

 future time to come
modelgood example
gravitya force between objects
digestionbreak down food in the body
pricehow much it costs
 		 productitem made
disasteran event causing great harm
predicttell a future event
catchto take hold
throughfrom one side to the other
Reading level 2 (grades 6-8) strategy general plan of action
radiatessends out
surplusextra amount
reluctantunwilling to do something
solarrelated to the sun
 		 utilizeuse
revisedchanged, improved
abundancea great amount
accumulategather together
humiliatedshamed, disgraced
Reading level 3 (grades 9-12) inept incapable, clumsy
relegateto send away
abstrusehard to understand
gregarioussocial
rancorhatred built over time
 		 succinctconcise
etherealheavenly, light
tenuousbarely
sanguineoptimistic, cheerful
paucityscarcity
Top For a test of your reading level, go to a community college, such as MATC and ask a counselor where in the college you can be tested. At MATC, you can take the Test of Adult Basic Education, or TABE.
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At a public library you can find out more about your reading level.

One way is to look up a list of classic literature that a student ready for college should be able to read and check yourself by trying to read a few.

When you can generally understand the books from such a list, you are ready to read in college.

An example of a reading list.

Another way is to decide what subjects you are interested in. Then go to that section of the library and find books that you can understand.

When you can understand many popular books (written for the general public) in your interest area, then you are ready to take college courses in that subject.
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News magazines have a variety of articles. To read in college, you should be able to understand these articles.

As you work on your reading, check yourself by reading articles in news magazines.

News magazines can be found at the library or on the Internet.

Time

Newsweek

U.S. News and World Report
 

Check your speed
Top Check your reading speed:

If you are a fairly good reader, check your speed here.
 

Understand what you read
Top Understanding the vocabulary and meaning of what you read depends on using resource materials.

Practice using the following resources to assist in learning as you read.

1. Dictionaries

2. Encyclopedias

3. The Internet

  A college reader knows how to prepare before reading an article or book.

Some ways to review are:

1.  Go over the Table of Contents in the front of the text - if it's a book.

2.  Read the Introduction or Preface.

3.  Look at the headings and read a few sample paragraphs to see if you want to spend time on this reading and if you have the background to understand it.

4.  Think about the SQ4R Method (click here to learn more)

5.  Talk to a teacher, a friend, or a librarian about the reading.
 
Top Use reviews. A review is someone else's ideas about a book or article. Sometimes it helps to read a review about what you are planning to read.

To find a review, one of the easiest ways is to type the name of the reading into a search engine like Google.

For examples of  book reviews, look at the site Book Page.com
 


Work a plan to improve your reading
Top You can find a reading text to use on your own. MATC uses the Townsend College Reading Series and the companion vocabulary books. You might consider using books from this series for your independent reading.

Pace yourself. Don't try to do the whole text in a couple of days or even weeks and don't get bogged down doing every exercise.

Practice what you learn. Try reading a variety of books, articles, poems and plays at a level you can understand. You should know at least 80% of the words to understand what you are reading.
 
Top The Internet provides many sites for helping you improve your reading.

Here are some samples:

1. On-line dictionaries

2. On-line courses about reading or other topics that keep you reading.  Be careful if they ask for tuition.

3. ESL sites for those whose first language is not English.

4. Newspapers or magazines on-line.

5. Interesting information on-line.

 
  Reading courses are offered by MATC through the Alternative Learning Division. Registration requires an appointment. Call (608) 258-2440 to make an appointment to register.
  Search other colleges in Wisconsin for reading courses
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Learn to write from your reading
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Learn to write a paper using one or more readings. 
Writing is a very important way to help improve your reading.
Here are the basic steps to writing a paper.

1.  Decide what you want to write about.

2.  Take brief notes from one or more articles, books or web pages. Remember to identify the article and page where the note is from. (If you write a paper for school or to give to someone else, you must identify your sources.)

3.  Write an outline from your notes.

4.  Write a rough draft from your outline. Be sure to get your ideas down, you can fix the organization and edit the paper later.

5.  Review what you have written to reorganize it and then write a final draft for editing.

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