Skimming and Scanning : Strategies for Speed Reading

    Skimming and scanning are two different speed reading techniques. Skimming helps children to quickly gain information about a text, from the focus of the content to its genre and form. Scanning helps them find useful information in a text, such as dates, facts, and figures.

A. What is skimming and scanning?

Skimming and scanning are both speed reading techniques used when a reader wants to get information from a text as quickly as possible. However, you’ll want to keep in mind that skimming and scanning are different processes, which are used to obtain different kinds of information.

> Skimming - to use this technique pupils need to run through a text, identifying keywords and phrases for an overall understanding of the text’s content. They don’t need to read every line when skimming a text.

> Scanning - with scanning pupils do need to read every single line. However, they’ll read each line quickly, picking out keywords and phrases to identify relevant facts and information.

B. When to use skimming and scanning

Skimming and scanning isn’t just used in English, it’s a handy transferable skill that children can put to good use in subjects across the national curriculum. Skimming and scanning is especially useful in subject areas or school projects that are research focussed.

1. History - scanning comes in useful for research-based activities, such as creating fact files about historical figures. Maybe they need to find out the names of Henry VIII’s six wives or Mary Seacole’s date of birth. Here, children need to scan texts to pick out relevant information to put in their fact files.

2. History - skimming also comes in handy in this subject. By skimming, children will quickly be able to get a feel for what type of text they are looking at. Whether, for example, it’s a diary entry written by a child who lived through the fire of London or a historian’s account of this historic event. They will then be able to quickly identify whether it is a primary or secondary source, without having to read through the entire text. Imagine just how much longer it would take children to find out the same information if they read these texts word for word, instead of using their skimming and scanning skills.

C. Ways to introduce and develop skimming and scanning skills

You can help children master skimming and scanning by challenging them to put these reading techniques into practice. We have a variety of different resources, from PowerPoints to worksheets, which can be used to inspire your lesson planning. You might like to check out our Space Facts Skimming and Scanning Activity to help children develop their literacy skills whilst expanding their science knowledge.

Classroom displays are useful tools to show children what we value in our learning communities. If you value ways to empower children to find answers and information themselves, then this superhero-themed Skimming and Scanning Resource poster is a strong choice for your classroom.

D. Skimming and scanning for note-taking

Note-taking is a crucial study skill that will benefit children throughout their school journey and into adulthood. As well as being a useful revision tool, there are many additional benefits of note-taking, such as:

1. promoting active learning - with note-taking, pupils have to immerse themselves in the process of deciding what information is worth jotting down

2. Improving organisational skills - notes are only any good as a revision tool if they're clearly organised, so that pupils can go back to them later and understand the information they’ve recorded

3. boosting comprehension - note-taking also helps pupils to better understand the content

There are also a wide variety of strategies for effective note-taking. Some of the most popular methods, which you might like to introduce to your pupils, are the outlining method and the mapping method. There is no such thing as the best way to take notes, it’s all about what works best for each individual child. So, it’s a good idea to encourage pupils to try out more than one method, to help them find the one that suits them best.

     However your pupils choose to take notes when reading texts, having strong skimming and scanning skills will help them to find the information they’re looking for, saving them valuable time. To help pupils understand the role of skimming and scanning in note taking, you might like to make use of our Taking Notes from a Book Presentation. This engaging, teacher-made PowerPoint gently guides pupils through the note taking process, suggesting a variety helpful ways to break note taking into manageable chunks. Best of all, it features handy slides that explain exactly how to scan for keywords and skim to find the right section to focus on.

E. Top tips for effecting skimming and scanning

1. When skimming and scanning are used most effectively they can be a really useful tool for both research and revision. Here are some tips to help your pupils get the most out of this reading technique.

2. When skimming and scanning, ensure pupils take note of the headings, subheadings, lists, images, and any bolded text.

3. When skimming, pay close attention to the first and last paragraphs. For many texts, this will let pupils know what the text will be about and what conclusions it has drawn.

4. Before scanning, it can help pupils to have a list of exactly what they are looking for. This will help them stay focused and not get distracted by interesting, but totally irrelevant, information.