Using Active Reading Strategies to Understand Content
Using Active Reading Strategies to Understand Content
We go through so much text on a daily basis; the newspaper, email, advertising, junk mail, serious correspondence, Facebook profiles etc that if we were to evaluate at the end of the day how much we have absorbed, we might find the results discouraging.
What do you remember form today's newspaper? Is sit the main headline picture and the big caption or the details about the story? Chances are that the former is more eminently etched in your mind than the actual words. Pictures do speak louder than words and while writers may find that hard to swallow, it is true.
Summarize and Write
The purpose of active reading strategies is to understand what you are reading, not how you read it. It is especially important for students of any age or field of study to be able to comprehend what they are reading especially when preparing for an exam. Active reading strategy experts suggest that in order to make the most use of active reading strategies try not to underline or highlight text. Instead use margin space or a separate note book to write down the point you want to remember. Once you have actually written it, you are more likely to remember it.
It is just like once you have driven to a particular place yourself you are more likely to remember how to get there than sitting in the passenger seat passively and going there several times.
Ask yourself questions as an active reading strategy exercise. Try to answer those questions in the textbook space provided. Use mechanical pencils, not only is the point so fine you can cram in more, you don't need to waste time looking for sharpeners.
Drawing Helps
Use visual cues like flow charts, acronyms and the like to remember important stuff like historical dates, names and other concepts. Draw when possible; make lines, trees, bubbles whatever gets you to understand. Write down the main word of each bullet point and form an acronym. SMART goals are easy to remember because we all know what they stand for. Summarize each paragraph or section in one sentence or less. That way if you have to revise the text, you will be reading around ten words instead of ten chunks of lines.
The oldest yet most effective active reading strategy is to teach what you have read to someone else. By reiterating what you just tried to absorb and by explaining it in your own words to another person, you have cemented your conceptualization of the matter.