Test your understanding of domain-specific reading strategies
The chapter states, "The GED breaks reading into two categories: Reading for Literature and Reading for Information." Reading for Literature includes fiction and poetry, while Reading for Information covers non-fiction texts.
Reading for Information is "anything non-fiction. This includes articles, magazines, the news, speeches, essays, and textbooks. This is also the type of reading you'll encounter on the GED Science and Social Studies tests."
The chapter explains that "Reading for Information is often domain-specific, which means that the reading is relevant to a specific field of study." This requires specialized strategies and vocabulary knowledge.
The chapter lists various domain-specific reading strategies including building on prior knowledge, learning specialized vocabulary, using text structures, mapping graphic representations, and evaluating claims. Memorizing every word is not mentioned as a strategy.
The chapter states, "We can use this to our advantage because these formats are designed to make things more clear" and "Learning these patterns in structure will help us to break down this type of writing quickly. It also helps us to find specific elements when we need to."
The chapter lists headlines, topic sentences, intro/body/conclusion format, nut graphs, patterns for support paragraphs, and headings and tags as text structure elements. Rhyme schemes are related to poetry, not informational text structure.
The chapter outlines three strategies: "First, we'll practice vocabulary from the domains that matter most: science and social studies. Next, we'll practice some strategies for figuring out what these terms mean from the context. We'll also practice how to decode new words from their Greek and Latin roots."
The chapter defines visualized data as the ability "to interpret and analyze information from graphs, charts, maps, and other visual means." This is a major part of the science and social studies GED tests.
The chapter lists three key skills: "We'll dig into how to determine whether a claim is a fact or an opinion. We'll study the difference between primary and secondary sources. And, we'll learn how to determine credibility and bias in a text."
The chapter emphasizes that building on prior knowledge is "important, because the GED assumes that you are already working with this prior knowledge." The unit will provide a refresher on important concepts in science and social studies to build this foundation.