Improving Reading Skills

Getting More from What You Read!

A good reader does as many of the following as possible:

• Seizes the main ideas
• Thinks about what the author is saying
• Is active not passive
• Concentrates on what is being read
• Remembers as much as possible
• Applies what is being read to personal experience

Think about the subject you are going to read about.

• What do you know about this subject?
• What do you want to learn about this subject?
• After you read, what have you learned about this subject?

Skim the section you are going to read.

• Do you see anything familiar?
• Do you see anything new?
• What is your overall impression?

Read for comprehension - Make a note of important parts.

• Use a post-it note or an index card and write down important main ideas and vocabulary. This will help you review what you have read.
• Stop and re-read ideas that you are not sure you understand.
• Think of where else you might find more information about he same topic. "I bet there would be something in my history book about this, too."
• Recall to yourself what you have just read.
• Stop occasionally as you are reading and put into your own words what you have just read.
• At the end of a chapter, recall what the main points were.
• Discuss what you have read with another student or with your teacher. This will help you clarify your thinking.

Textbooks - More Details

• Read the Title and Author of the text.
• When was it published?
• Read the Table of Contents.
  • How many chapters are there?
  • How many pages are in the whole book?
  • What chapter or chapters look the most interesting?
• Thumb through the book.
  • Are there pictures, graphs, maps, charts and illustrations?
• What impression do you have about the text?
• After you have done all the above, go back and do it again in a more detailed way.

Print this page and refer to it often!