Active Reading and Active Paragraphs

As a recap of today's work, here are some notes on our two main topics: 1) ACTIVE READING and 2) PARAGRAPHS. 

Active reading is when you participate in the reading instead of just letting all the information wash over you (in other words, by using active reading strategies, you'll become more aware of what you are reading, and you'll, in turn, become a more comfortable reader).  To read actively, we ANNOTATE, which means we take notes before, during and after reading. 

Before: take notes on what kind of text you are reading, who wrote it, what the title it, what your purpose it in reading. 
         Answer 2 questions: 1)what do I think this is going to be about?
                                        2)what do I think my reaction will be?

During: highlight unfamiliar words, mark confusing passages, ask questions and make connections to personalize the text

After: look up the definitions to the words you highlighted while reading and write them out
                     Answer 1 question: 1)what did I think about this? 

We can use this style of active reading to help us prepare for class discussion, to study for tests and to develop ideas on what we can write essays about later on. 

Paragraphs:  a group of sentences that develops one main idea.  A paragraph may stand alone as a complete piece of writing or it may be a part of a larger work, like an essay. 

          Paragraphs have a very distinct look:

     Today was the first day of my summer English class.  At first, I was really nervous to meet all the new people who would be in class with me.  I'm a natually shy person, so meeting that many people all at the same time was a little overwhelming.  But everyone seems nice so far.  I met a girl who has a cat, just like me.  I think that knowing we have something in common aside from just being in class together will make it easier for me to talk to her later on in the summer when I have a question about something in class.  I hope that by the end of the class, I can become comfortable with everyone who is in the class with me. 

Notice that this paragraph begins with INDENTION (see how that first line juts in?), which will help the reader focus on the one main idea (meeting new people in English class is overwhelming).  The rest of the paragraph develops this main idea. 

For some more information on paragraphs, check out the OWL website
   **More information about paragraphs will be covered tomorrow!**