Once upon a time there was a group of friends at the University

Gerardo Barrios: Alex, Sara and Daniel. They all had a great passion for learning, but sometimes felt frustrated when reading long books or understanding difficult texts. One day, their teacher gave them a special mission: discover the secret to becoming reading masters.

The teacher told them about eight magical reading techniques that would help them better understand any text. To learn them, the friends had to embark on an adventure and overcome different challenges.

Skimming - The Test Speed

The friends arrived at the Lightning Library, where the librarian told them:

"If you want to discover the first technique, you must read this scroll in less than a minute and tell me what it is about."

Challenge: Alex took the scroll and instead of reading every word, he looked at the titles, subtitles, and first sentences. In seconds, he understood that the text was talking about the importance of speed reading.

Congratulations! They had discovered Skimming, a technique to get the general idea of a text without reading it completely.

Scanning - The Search for Treasure

Then, they arrived at the Cave of Enigmas, where an old woman gave them a book and said:

"Find in this text the date on which the first library in the world was founded."

Challenge: Sara knew she didn't need to read the entire book, so she searched for numbers and key words until she found the correct date: 2600 B.C.

They had mastered Scanning, a technique for finding specific information quickly!

Getting the Gist - The Challenge Sage

Their next stop was the Temple of Knowledge, where a wise man gave them a scroll and asked:

"What is the main idea of this text?"

Challenge: Daniel carefully read and summarized the message of the text in a single sentence.

This is how they learned Getting the Gist, a technique for understanding the main idea of a text without focusing on the details.

Predicting - The Mysterious Map

Later, they found an ancient map with only a fragment of information. A guardian told them:

"They must predict where this map leads based on what they see."

Challenge: Analyzing the visual clues and words on the map, they deduced that it led to a secret cave in the mountain.

They had learned Predicting, a technique that allowed them to guess the content of a text before reading it completely.

Meaning from Context - The Lost Dictionary

In the secret cave, they found a book with unknown words, but no dictionary.

Challenge: Instead of looking up each word, they used context to deduce its meaning.

This is how they mastered Meaning from Context, a technique to understand new words without translating them.