Advance Your Reading Power

by Nancy Beattie

Chapter Highlights

  • Chapter 1 explains the two elements of reading: comprehending and decoding. Students learn that reading is not just saying the words on the page. They learn comprehension, often the more difficult of the two, plays a crucial role in reading.
  • Chapter 2, which could be called the "I read it but don't get it" chapter, details five common reasons why we read text and sometimes end up confused.
  • Chapter 3 demonstrates how all text is not created equal. It shows how two elements (the words and the sentences) determine if text will be easy or more difficult to read.
  • Chapter 4 describes our three reading levels. Students will learn the level where we learn new ideas and vocabulary (instructional), the level easy to read (independent), and the level that will prove unsuccessful for learning to take place (frustration).
  • Chapter 5 is all about strategies. Students are shown how to interact with the text, how to think and stay focused. Five essential strategies are exampled.
  • Chapters 6 and 7 are about building vocabulary to increase reading levels. These chapters describe numerous opportunities students have each day to learn new words. Roots, prefixes, suffixes, and context clues are discussed. The section "Stop skipping over unknown words" teaches the importance of turning unknown words into sight words.
  • Chapter 8 explains how a large vocabulary does more than just help us comprehend what is read. A large vocabulary also helps us in our writing and communication skills.
  • Chapter 9 talks about why lifelong learners (all of us) need to continuously read and learn.
  • Chapter 10 is a five-sectioned reference: Good Reading Habits, How to Read Punctuation, Tricky Vowels, Chapter Highlights, and a list of 100 roots/prefixes and their meanings.

    • Advance Your Reading Power (along with the worksheets) is a reading program that teaches students:

  • how to become skillful readers
  • ways to build a bigger vocabulary
  • strategies to help in comprehension
  • steps to take when repairing comprehension is needed
  • the importance of reading well and becoming lifelong learners

    • Be sure to view our sample workbook pages.