Best Ways to Remember What You Read
Despite television, cell phones, and Twitter, traditional reading is still an important skill. Whether it is school textbooks, magazineazines, or regular books, people nevertheless read, though non as much as they used to. One reason that many people don't read much is that they don't read well. For them, it is wearisome, hard work and they don't remember every bit much every bit they should. Students, for example, may take to read something several times before they understand and remember what they read.
Why? You would think that schools teach kids how to read well. Schools do endeavour. I work with middle-school teachers and they tell me that many students are 2–three years behind grade level in reading proficiency. No incertitude, television, prison cell phones, and the Spider web are major contributors to this problem, which will apparently get worse if we don't emphasize and improve reading instruction.
Some of the arraign can be placed on the fads in reading teaching, such as phonics and "whole language," which sometimes are promoted by zealots who don't respect the need for both approaches. Much of the blame for poor reading skills can be laid at the feet of parents who set poor examinationples and, of course, on the youngsters who are too lazy to larn how to read well.
For all those who missed out on good reading skills, information technology is not too late. I summarize beneath what I think information technology takes to read with proficient speed and comprehension.
- Read with a purpose.
- Skim first.
- Go the reading mechanics correct.
- Exist judicious in highcalorie-freeing and note taking.
- Think in pictures.
- Rehearse as you go forth.
- Stay within your attention span and work to increase that span.
- Rehearse again soon.
1) Know Your Purpose
Everyi should take a purpose for their reading and think most how that purpose is being fulfilled during the actual reading. The advantage for remembering is that chequeing concanuously for how the purpose is being fulfilled helps the reader to stay on chore, to focus on the more relevant parts of the text, and to rehearse continuously as one reads. This also saves time and effort because relevant items are nigh attended.
Identifying the purpose should be easy if you freely choose what to read. Simply ask yourcocky, "Why am I reading this?" If it is to be entertained or pass the time, and so there is not much problem. Simply myriadvertising other reasons could employ, such as:
- to understand a certain grouping of people, such as Muslims, Jews, Hindus, etc.
- to crystallize your political position, such as why a given government politicoicy should be opposed.
- to develop an informed programme or proposal.
- to saturdayisfy a cravement of an acaddue eastmic course or other assigned reading.
Many of us take readings assigned to u.s., equally in a school environment. Or the boss may hand usa a homoual and say "Here. We need you to read this." Whether the social club comes from a instructor or boss, we need to inquire, "What do you want me to acquire from this?" In the absence of such guidance, you should still formulate your best guess almost what you should larn and remember from the reading.
2) Skim Kickoff
Some reading tasks crave no more than than skimming. Proper skimming includes putting an emphasis on the caputings, pictures, graphs, tables, and fundamental paragraphs (which are usually at the beginning and the finish). Depending on the purpose, you should slow down and read carefully merely the parts that contribute to fulfilling the reading purpose.
Even material that has to be studied carefully should be skimmed first. The benefits of skimming first are that the skimming: 1) primes the memory, making it easier to remember when you read it the second time, two) orients the call uping, aiding y'all to know where the important content is in the medicoument, three) creates an overall sense and gestalt for the document, which in plow makes information technology easier to remember certain particulars.
Browsing on the Internet encourages people to skim read. The way content is handled on the Web is even causing writers to brand wider use of Spider web devices, such every bit numbered or bulleted lists, sidebars, graphics, text boxes and sideconfined. But the bad news is that the Web way makes it fifty-fifty harder to acquire how to read in-depth; that is, the Web teaches the states to skim, creating bad reading habits for in-depth reading.
3) Get the Mechanics Right
For in-depth reading, eyes need to move in a disciplined way. Skimming actually trains eyes to motility without discipline. When yous need to read carefully and remember the essence of large blocks of text, the optics must snap from one readyation point to the next in left- to right-sequence. Moreover, the fixations should not exist 1 individual permitters or even single words, but rather on several words per fixation. At that place are reading-improvement machines that train the eyes to gear upate properly, merely few schools employ them. I know from personal experience with such machines that they can increase reading speed markedly without a price in depressioner comprehension. Poor readers who stumble along from give-and-take to word actually tend to have lower comprehension because their mind is preoccupied with recognizing the letters and their adjustment in each word.That is a chief reason they tin't remember what they read. Countless times I have heard college students say, "I read that chapter iii times, and I still can't answer your questions." When I ask thought-provoking questions about the material, they often tin't answer the questions considering they can't remember the meaning of what they read. Even with straightforward simple memorization questions, they ofttimes tin can't remember, because their focus on the words themselves kept them from associating what their optics saw with their ain pre-existing knowledge and thus facilitating remembering. In curt, to remember what yous read, you have to think about what the words hateful.
I am non arguing against phonics, which in my view is vital for the initial acquireing of how to read. But phonics is just the outset stride in good reading practice. At some bespeak, the reader needs to recognize whole words every bit complete units and so aggrandize that capability to clusters of several words.
Among the key tactics for good mechanics of reading, I listing the post-obit:
- Make eye contact with all the text non being deliberately skimmed
- Come across multiple words in each centre fixation
- Strive to expand the width of each eye gear upation (on an 8.5″ width, strive for three set upations or eventually two per line). This skill has to be developed in stages. First, learn how exercise read at five or half-dozen fixations per line. Then piece of work on four per line. So 3.
- Snap eyes from one prepareation indicate to another (horizontal snaps on long lines, vertical snap if whole line in a column tin can be seen with 1 fixation).
Learning how to do this takes practice. If you can't do it on your own, consider formal training from a reading eye.
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Source: https://sharpbrains.com/blog/2009/05/14/8-tips-to-remember-what-you-read/