¡GED Ahora! | Maria’s GED Blog Site

Here’s something you need to know for GED reading… One thing that’s on the GED test and that confuses people when they’re reading (me, at least!) is what’s called a metaphor. Do you remember learning about them in high school? Metaphors are used in literature all the time. That’s when you say one thing, but you really mean another thing. Read the rest of this entry »

The GED means a lot of reading! You need to read passages about science and social science, plus the reading section. So it helps to be able to get the information you need fast. That’s where “skimming” and “scanning” come in. They’re both ways to get information when you’re reading. Read the rest of this entry »

Hola. I said I’d get back to you on how I used the SQ4R reading strategy to look at this article about the dust bowl: http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/timeline/depwwii/dustbowl/dustbowl.html

Here’s what I did…. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the quote from one of the James Bond books that I started reading (Thunderball by Ian Fleming): Read the rest of this entry »

One of the things that seems real hard for me on the GED is that they always have long words that I don’t know. Since I grew up speaking Spanish, maybe my English vocabulary isn’t that good. That’s okay. I needed to figure out ways to deal with a strange word. If you’re just reading at home, you can have a dictionary, right? But not on the GED test. So what can you do? Read the rest of this entry »

Since I’ve been looking into reading, I’ve found lots of kinds of reading strategies to help you understand and remember. Good reading strategies don’t just help you read on the GED test… they also help you study! Here’s a great reading strategy for GED preparation, called SQ4R. Read the rest of this entry »

You know, sometimes I struggle with reading things… that makes it hard to do a lot of the GED test readings! I try to understand each word I don’t know, and then I get lost in the little details. Then the questions on the GED test ask what the main idea was, and what the main point was. And I can’t answer! How do I get the main idea, while I’m trying to figure out hard words and things? Read the rest of this entry »

I used to think that, to read something, you’d just read it. But I found out that to remember something you read, you have to do something to fix it in your mind, so you don’t forget. I figured this out after studying and studying and then not remembering anything I’d read.

Also, sometimes I’d read something and not really understand it. I would read the whole thing, but because the words weren’t really words I knew, I’d just be reading words and not getting meaning. Do you know what I mean?

Anyway, here are two strategies to remember what you read and to make sure you understood it.

• Restating means that you say something again in your own words. This is good to help you understand and remember something that’s pretty short. So, you can restate a sentence or a paragraph that you read.
• Summarizing means that you give the most important information about what you read. It’s like you’re writing down the main ideas of what you read. Maybe you write a paragraph saying what the main points of a whole article are. This is good for big readings and to help you figure out what the main ideas are.

The difference between restating and summarizing is that in restating, you don’t leave anything out. You just say it again in your own words. In summarizing, you only give the most important points, in your own words.

I started reading this news story about Vincente Fox: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/mexico_fox_dc;_ylt=AqEpWa18_E8yeU4JvB1Mk_Qdl.0A

I think I’ll try to use summarization to understand it and remember what I read. I’ll let you know my summary in the next post. Meanwhile, try it yourself, and let me know how it works for you!

Well, I looked at that blackberry cobbler recipe at http://thepioneerwomancooks.com/2007/08/the_great_cobbl-2.html. I think it helped a lot to use the KWL reading strategy… that is, first think about what I Know, then think about what I Want to know, and then after reading, think about what I Learned. Did you look at that article? The recipe is really good.

When I looked at the article, here’s sort of how I did it:

KNOW I know some things about baking, because I’ve baked stuff before. Maybe baking blackberry cobbler is like baking biscuits? Or kind of like a pie. I know it’s got blackberries, kind of like pie filling, and a topping that looks kind of like biscuits. I also know that recipes have ingredients, measurements, and different steps, so I’ll be looking out for all that.

WANT TO KNOW I want to know the recipe for blackberry cobbler. What are the ingredients? How much of everything do I need? How do you put it all together? What do I need for pans and bowls and stuff? How long will it take to make?

LEARNED I learned that I was right about it being kind of like pie filling with biscuits on top. She uses the word “biscuity” to describe the topping! I also learned the recipe, which I’m going to try after I go shopping. I wrote down the answers to all my questions, so I’d have it all clear. I also learned something I didn’t expect… that’s how helpful pictures are in reading something! I didn’t know how to “zest” a lemon, but she’s got a good picture showing how to do it and what she uses. And so I learned the word “zest,” which is the outside of the lemon.

This recipe was pretty easy to read, but I bet I can use KWL to read harder stuff, too. What are you reading? Let me know!

I guess the hardest thing on the GED for me is reading, cuz English isn’t my first language. And reading’s not just on the reading section. The whole science and social studies parts make you do a lot of reading. So studying reading is like a 3-for-1 deal to get a higher GED score.

I pay a lot of attention to what my son Roberto does in his school, and I’m trying to bring home ideas to help me study for my GED. I know, he’s still pretty young, but I figure that now’s the time he’s learning to read, right? I can get better at reading by using some of the things they teach about in his school.

Here’s something they have him do… when you need to read something, you go through three steps. You can remember them by remembering KWL. I think of it like the Dwayne reading strategy… you know, “KEWL!”

KNOW…Ask Yourself, What Do I Already Know?

The first thing to do is look at the topic you’re studying. What do you already know about it? What can you tell just by looking at what you’re reading? Are there pictures? What’s the title? What’s the subject? Write down what you already know.

WANT TO KNOW…Ask Yourself, What Do I Want to Know?

The second thing to do is think about what you want to know from reading. What do you think you’ll learn? What would be interesting to know? The thing about the GED is, when you read a passage, there’s always something you want to know… it’s the answer to the question! So, if it’s on the GED, I look at the question and think about what I want to know to answer it. Write down what you want to know.

LEARN…After Reading, Ask Yourself, What Did I Learn?

It helps you remember things to think about them after reading them. So, after reading, what did you find out? Did you find the answers to your questions? Did you learn anything else, anything new? Write down what you learned.

I’m going to try reading this article to figure out how to make a blackberry cobbler: http://thepioneerwomancooks.com/2007/08/the_great_cobbl-2.html

Elizabeth tells me it’s really good, so I’ll see what I can do. I’ll use the KWL method to read… and I’ll let you know how it works out. You try it with something you want to read, too!