If you’re looking to get rid of reading or learning difficulty, stop forgetting what you just read, and avoid missing some important points, then you’re in the right place.
Whether you’re reading to get good grades, to solve some problem, or improve your situation, or even to be the best at what you do, this is for you.
I’m about to reveal some easy ways to get the most out of your reading. With the same reading material, you can learn more, understand more, remember more, relate more, and put more knowledge or info to better use; all without spending too much effort thinking, too much time reading, or too much money on those extra courses and expensive vitamins.
I understand that learning difficulty can be very frustrating, and spending a lot of time reading without actually getting the most benefit feels like a waste of time. Sometimes it feels like a loser deep down inside. The clock is ticking and the deadline is near.
But don’t worry. Because today I’m going to share with you 23 active reading strategies that can make you smarter. You’re probably familiar with one or two of these strategies. Now, let’s look at all 23. Just pick the right strategy that fits your current reading purpose. Or you can use two, three, or even all of these strategies if you’re up to something big.
-
Recall your background knowledge
Next time you encounter some new material, recall the info, knowledge, or experience you already have on that particular topic. Do this before you start reading. This allows you to understand the topic better and at a deeper level.
-
Ask yourself some relevant questions
Once you’ve recalled your background knowledge, and looking back at the material’s title or headline, ask yourself some relevant questions.
What are you curious about this topic?
What do you expect to learn from this material?
This is the way you engage with a text. Seek the answers to clarify and extend your thinking before, during, and after reading. Doing this helps you clarify meanings, build comprehension, and increase understanding.
-
Predict what you’re about to learn
Make predictions or give your best guesses about what you’ll find next. Can you guess the answers you will find in this material? This is a form of brain exercise and increases your brain’s capacity to think, absorb, and create. Predictions are made based on your background knowledge and experience on that topic.
-
Preview the reading material quickly
Look over the reading material to become familiar with the topic in the organization. Notice any sub-headlines, images, or diagrams in the materials before actually reading it. This helps make the reading an easier, faster, and more effective learning experience.
-
Skim the material
This is where you go just a little beyond previewing. Without reading the whole text, go through the material quickly to gain an overall understanding. This time, try to find the main ideas, the thesis statement, the topic sentences, and the conclusion.
See what you can find at the end of the intro paragraph and at the beginning of the other paragraphs. In most cases, the main ideas are there.
-
Scan the material
This one is a little bit like skimming. But instead of looking for the main ideas, you look for some specific info without reading the whole text.
This is normally useful in a comprehension test or exam, where you read the questions first on the latter pages before reading the given text on the earlier pages.
It can also be used outside the exam hall or when reading for non-academic purpose. For this, use the relevant questions you’ve already come up with before the reading.
-
Read on
Now, this is the actual reading. In this strategy, you quickly read the whole thing and skip the unfamiliar words or phrases to get enough context for understanding those words or phrases. Later you may revisit those new words if needed, depending on your reading purpose.
But before that, read the whole thing quickly to get the context. After you finish reading on, make some educated guess on the meaning of those new words based on your newly found contextual clues.
In some cases, you’d want to stop there, because that alone already serve your purpose. In some cases, you’d want to confirm the meaning by consulting a reference, because, that alone doesn’t serve your purpose just yet. More on that later.
-
Adjust your reading rate
Readers often use a constant rate for most materials they read. But in some cases you might want to slow down or speed up, depending on your tasks and your reading purpose.
For instance, you can slow down to understand new information. You can speed up when skimming or scanning. Whatever it is, adjust your reading rate based on your needs.
-
Do some annotation
Mark and highlight the text when reading to stay engaged with the material. This can make you understand at a deeper level. Use pens, pencils, highlighters, even sticky notes when annotating. What you mark or highlight really depends on what you’re looking for in the text.
Maybe underline some new words, or circle some words you don’t know how to pronounce. Highlight the main points in yellow (skimming). Highlight the specific info in pink (scanning). Write down your response or comments on the sticky notes and paste them on the page for later reference.
The possibility is endless. It’s up to you to use whatever system, as long as you understand the meaning behind it.
-
Consult a reference
Use a dictionary, thesaurus, reference chart, or glossary to find the meanings, pronunciations, or background info.
In the olden days, you need all those physical books, like that big physical dictionary and that thesaurus by your side. But today you’re just one google away to find anything.
You can even use the dictionary and the thesaurus apps directly, not to mention Translate by Google. Of course there’s no stopping you if you still want to have the physical references at home or the office.
-
Connect the dots
As you connect your background knowledge to new info. Make connections between text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world.
By text-to-self, I mean relating the current material with what you already know or experience. You might read an article and go, “hey, this article reminds me of what happened at the mall last week.”
By text-to-text I mean connecting the current material to other materials. You might read a novel and go, “hey, this protagonist has the same problem i read in the sorcerer’s stone last year.”
By text-to-world, I mean connecting the current material with how the world works or what’s happening in this world now, or what happened before. You might read a self-help book and go, “hey, this is exactly what’s happening in Malaysia right now.” Connect the dots, because you only remember what matters, and you only learn what you remember.
-
Re-read the material
Simply put, re-read the material again, and perhaps again. You’ll have a deeper understanding, a clearer picture, better fluency, better identification and sometimes a new angle.
-
Visualize what you read
Create mental images in your mind that reflect or represent the ideas in the text. These images may include any of the five senses and serve to enhance understanding of the text. This helps your understanding and memorization.
-
Monitor your comprehension
Surely you recognize when you don’t understand parts of a text. So, take the necessary steps to truly get the meaning. Monitoring your comprehension includes asking clarifying questions if something still seems unclear, re-reading if you think there’s some confusion, finding the answers to your curiosity, and adjust your reading strategy to understand more.
-
Chunk the ideas in the material
Break down the info and the material into smaller parts. Not only does this helps you understand more. This helps you memorize easier because it enables you to keep the info longer in your short-term memory. Moreover, this helps you retain the info faster as you revisit the material during your revision.
-
Create a mind map or graphic organizer
Once you have validated your comprehension, organize the ideas you just learned in a visual or graphical manner. It helps you visualize how the ideas fit together and identify the strengths and weaknesses of the thought process.
Depending on the info you just received, you can do a t chart, sequence chart, idea web, concept map, Venn diagram and so many more. This can easily become your original theoretical or conceptual framework.
-
Paraphrase what you just learned
Rewrite or restate in your own words. This will capture the main focus of the reading. It forces you to pay close attention to the author’s ideas and helps improve the reader’s level of understanding.
-
Summarize what you just learned
Reduce the larger text into a shorter one that only includes the main points or key elements. Leave out the unimportant details. Condense important info in your own words. This helps you understand more and solidify meaning.
-
Prioritize the info you just received
Distinguish between what’s important, what’s not, what’s interesting but not really necessary for your purpose. This doesn’t necessarily just highlighting the main ideas. This has got something to do with your goal or objective. Knowing your purpose is key here.
-
Make some inference
You make inferences when you think or use clues from the material and your own experience to figure out what you just read,
You probably practice inference every day. For example, if you see someone eating a new food and he or she makes a face, then you infer he does not like it. Or if someone slams a door, you can infer that she is upset about something.
In reading, you can infer the author’s feeling about this topic or her feeling while writing, interestingly, by studying the tone or choice of words used when the author explains or describes the ideas. By doing this, you draw an additional conclusion, or create a new meaning that’s not stated in the reading.
-
Synthesize what you just learned
Combine the info and knowledge of how life works and the way you see it along with the info you just gathered from the text. Piece them together.
It’s like the other strategy mentioned earlier, connecting the dots. But this time you synthesize assimilate. It’s not only connecting as you read along, but connecting after you know the full story. This shapes your own perspective and gives you original insight, which hopefully can ascend into wisdom.
-
Evaluate the material
Form an opinion and judgment about the writing. Are the content, language, and organization appropriate? Is it engaging to the audience? Is the author biased in any way and how this may have affected the writing?
If there’s a fact, figure, or info in the text, is it true? Is it supported by proof? Or is there any reference given for people to check the proof?
If there’s an argument in the text, ask yourself. Is the argument well or poorly structured? How concrete is the evidence or justification given?
By asking these questions, you’re actually doing a critical response, which in turn sharpens your critical thinking skills, and protecting yourself from misinformation and manipulation.
-
Be aware of the author’s purpose
This allows you to understand the reason and intention of the writing. Different purposes, such as those written to entertain, inform, or advertise, have particular characteristics.
Why is this important? Because understanding not only the why the author wrote the story, but the how the author wrote the story, tunes us into what we should know by the end of the text. Essentially, understanding the reason behind the writing will help with the understanding of the writing. It gets your mind focused on what you’ll be reading.
So there you have it, guys…
…23 active reading strategies that can make you smarter.
If you’re interested in learning more about learning, then be sure to check out the rest of the videos on this channel.
Subscribe and turn on notifications, so you don’t miss more videos helping you become a better learner, a better earner, a better giver, and a better receiver.
I’ll see you in the next post.
Take care.
