Access a universe of knowledge with active reading

Just going through the motions in doing Zion-Benton Township High School’s summer reading assignment is not going to get your mind right in preparing for the 2009-10 school year. To get out of the blocks right off the bat, students need to use active reading techniques to keep brain synapses popping at peak efficiency.

Active reading is the key, which is why as part of the assignment’s directives, students should highlight, underline or take notes when they come across key passages in the book. Active reading is becoming actively involved with the book you are reading. Drawing out the important and interesting points in a book is the essence of reading comprehension and the key in accessing the portal to a universe of knowledge.

The first step in preparing for active reading is to have a dictionary at hand to define unfamiliar terms. You must know what the words you’re reading mean to enter the portal. When you begin reading, summarize the text, ask questions, give assent and even protest vehemently on an ongoing basis. Active reading is engaging in a mind dialogue with the author. Read each sentence carefully and then determine “what it says” and “what it does.” Describe the main idea of each paragraph in your own words.

Tips for active reading

Underline or highlight sentences, paragraphs and passages. Look for key information or passages that you like reading that “speak” to you. Don’t concern yourself with what other readers would and wouldn’t highlight. Read for yourself, and you’ll think for yourself. Pick out what you think are the most important parts of what you are reading.

Take notes – highlighting is good, but taking notes, actually writing down the words of selected passages, both improves memory and clarifies the themes of the book.

Note key words, headlines and sections. Record the main headings as you read. Use one or two keywords for each point. When you don’t want to mark the text, keep a folder of notes you make while reading. Performing active reading by making notes will maintain your concentration and enhance your understanding by making these stories come alive in your mind, transporting you to another dimension of acquired knowledge.

Ask questions and make connections. In preparing to read note questions you want the author to answer. While you’re reading, note questions which the author raises. Ask yourself questions about things that confuse you. Find common ground with you and your life. Does what you are reading remind you of something? Something that once happened to you? Of someone you know?  

A pause refreshes your vision

Pause occasionally and guess what might happen next. Predicting is a skill. To develop a skill you have to practice. Good readers stop often and check their predictions as they read.

Pause  once in a while to determine what you know, what you think you know and what has changed about what you thought you knew. Make inferences – take something you know; connect it with something you already know.

Pause every so often to evaluate, make judgments and think critically about what you’re reading. Take notes as you read to have the facts support your evaluations. Compare and contrast characters, setting, events, themes and ideas. 

Pause for the cause of drawing conclusions. Put information together to figure themes out. When you make conclusions, you fuse all the information together to decide what the story means.  You take all the facts you have read and make conclusions.

Let the writing flow from the book to your mind. Think of your mind as a sponge, soaking in the themes and emotions of the book. As you read, you gather information. As you gather information your brain is busy evaluating, making connections, checking predictions and adjusting predictions if needed.