Teaching the Skill of FAST READING - skimming and scanning sorted!
- Jo Hayes
- 6 hours ago
- 4 min read
English teachers are usually the fastest readers in the room. We move through texts quickly, pick up meaning as we go, and adjust our pace without really thinking about it. And if we’re honest, we don’t read every single word.
Students often assume the opposite. They think good readers take in everything, carefully and completely. If they skip something or lose track, they feel like they’re doing it wrong.
That’s where things start to unravel. Reading becomes slow, heavy, and a bit stressful. So, it’s worth being clear about this:
Strong readers don't read every word. They read for meaning.
What Strong Readers Are Actually Doing
When experienced readers move through a text, they’re not decoding every word in order. They’re taking in chunks of meaning, predicting what’s coming next, and moving quickly through anything that feels familiar or less important.
They’re grouping ideas, anticipating patterns, and letting the text carry them forward. Then something shifts.
A line stands out, the tone shifts, or a key idea lands. That’s the moment they slow down, reread, and pay closer attention.
It’s not random. It’s constant adjustment. Speeding up, easing off, zooming in when it matters.
This isn’t skimming or scanning. It’s just how experienced readers read a text.
Why Students Get Stuck
A lot of students treat reading like a test of stamina. They try to read everything carefully, and when that becomes tiring or confusing, they assume the problem is them. But often, they’re just using the wrong approach.
Less confident readers often read every word because they have to.
More confident readers read selectively because they can.
Once you point that out, it gives students a way forward. Reading starts to feel like something they can control, rather than something they just have to survive.
Making This Visible to Students
You don’t need to redesign your lessons or come up with a new unit. You just need to make your thinking visible.
Show students that reading shifts depending on what’s happening in the text. Sometimes you’re getting a quick sense of things, sometimes you’re reading for flow, sometimes you slow down because something feels important or unclear, and sometimes you zoom in on a short section to really analyse it.
We move between these modes all the time. Students just don’t realise it yet.
It helps to model this out loud. Even quick comments can shift how students think about reading:
“I’m not focusing too much on this bit, it’s just setting the scene.”
“This line stands out. I’m going to slow down here.”
“I can see where this is heading already.”
And then there’s the key:
You don't need to read every word. You need to read the right words. Your job is to notice when to slow down.
How to Teach Skimming and Scanning
If you want students to actually do this kind of reading, skimming and scanning are useful tools. The problem is that they’re often taught in a way that turns into rushed, surface-level reading. Used properly, they support selective reading.
Skimming is about getting the shape of a text quickly.
Scanning is about finding something specific.
Neither of these requires reading every word. That’s the point.
A simple way to teach both is to run them as part of the same sequence.
Start with a short extract and give students a tight time limit. Ask them to read quickly and tell you what’s going on overall. Keep the focus on the big picture, not the details.
Then shift the task. Give them one clear thing to find, such as a moment where something changes or a line that shows tension building. This is where scanning comes in. They’re no longer reading everything. They’re searching with a purpose.
Finally, ask them to choose one line that’s worth slowing down for and take a closer look at it.
What matters here is the order. They move from getting the gist, to finding something specific, to reading closely. That mirrors how strong readers actually work their way through a text. You can build this habit quite quickly with a simple routine.
A Simple Activity - Where Would You Slow Down?
Once students understand the process, this is a simple way to get them doing it independently.
Read a short extract once without stopping, just get the gist.
On a second read, they mark a few places where they naturally slow down.
Pick one and explain why they slowed down there.
When you bring it back together as a class, a pattern usually appears. Students won’t pick the exact same lines, but they’ll slow down for similar reasons. They’re starting to read more like experienced readers.
Why This Matters for Novels
This becomes much more important once you move into longer texts.
Students often treat novels as something they need to read every word from start to finish. That’s where they get stuck. They slow down in long descriptions, lose track of what matters, and start to disengage. Strong readers don’t work that way.
They move quickly through sections that build setting or background, and slow down when something important is happening. Dialogue, shifts in character, and moments of tension. Those are the parts that deserve more attention.
They’re not ignoring the rest of the text. They’re just adjusting their focus. That’s what helps them keep track of the story, follow characters, and stay engaged over time.
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