Essay About How I Was Taught to Read
Reading is a skill many people take for granted, just the deed of reading and properly comprehending a text is a complex and interactive procedure. Information technology requires several different brain functions to work together and most frequently requires one to puzzle through multiple layers of context and meaning. Because reading comprehension is and then complicated, we tin can often notice ourselves agreement the virtually basic interpretation of a text, but missing the emotional core or the "big picture." Or nosotros might just notice our brains spinning with no clue at all as to what a text is attempting to convey. But luckily for everyone who struggles in English classes, on standardized tests, or in daily life, reading comprehension can be improved upon (and it'due south never as well late to start!). In this guide, I explain step-by-step how to meliorate reading comprehension over time and offer tips for boosting your understanding as you read. Reading comprehension is the understanding of what a particular text means and the ideas the author is attempting to convey, both textual and subtextual. In order to read any text, your brain must process not only the literal words of the piece, only likewise their relationship with one some other, the context backside the words, how subtle language and vocabulary usage tin can touch on emotion and meaning behind the text, and how the text comes together every bit a larger, coherent whole. For instance, allow's wait at the first line from Jane Austen'southward novel, Pride and Prejudice: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a man in possession of a expert fortune, must be in want of a wife." At present, a completely literal estimation of the text, just based on word-significant, would have usa believe that 'all rich men want wives.' But the context, word choice, and phrasing of the text actually belie that interpretation. By using the phrases "universally acknowledged" and "must exist in want of" (accent ours), the text is conveying a subtle sarcasm to the words. Instead of it being an actual truth that 'rich men desire wives,' this one judgement instantly tells usa that we're reading well-nigh a gild preoccupied with marriage, while besides implying that the opening statement is something people in that lodge may believe, but that isn't necessarily true. In just a few short words, Austen conveys several ideas to the reader about one of the main themes of the story, the setting, and what the culture and people are similar. And she does so all the while seeming to contradict the literal words of the piece. Without practice in reading comprehension, nuances like these can become lost. And and so information technology can happen that someone may find themselves reading, but not truly comprehending the full significant of a text. As you can see, reading comprehension involves many processes happening in your brain at once, and thus it can be easy for some aspects of a text to go lost in the muddle. But the skilful news for anyone who struggles is that reading comprehension is a skill merely like any other. It must exist learned through do, focus, and diligence, but it absolutely Tin be learned. Does your school study your GPA as weighted or unweighted? What would your GPA be, considered on a iv.0, five.0, or vi.0 scale? Use our tool to calculate your unweighted and weighted GPA to figure out how you stack upwards confronting other higher applicants. You'll also go our proprietary higher cadre GPA adding and advice on where to better to exist a better college applicant. Proper reading comprehension tin can be difficult, so why bother? Fifty-fifty though learning how to properly read and cover texts is a complicated process, it is a necessary skill to primary, both for work and for pleasure. You volition need to know how to read and interpret all kinds of different texts—both on the basic, literal level and on a more in-depth level—throughout your schooling, in college, and in the working world (as well as in your recreation time!). If we think nigh "reading" just as a literal or surface understanding of a piece and "reading comprehension" every bit the complete understanding, a person can only get by in the world on pure "reading" for so long. Reading comprehension is essential for many meaning aspects of daily life, such as: Just like with any goal or skill, we tin can master reading comprehension 1 stride at a time. Because reading comprehension is a skill that improves like any other, you can better your understanding with exercise and a game plan. Dedicate yourself to engaging in a combination of both "guided" and "relaxed" reading practise for at least two to three hours a week. Guided exercise will involve construction and focused attending, like learning new vocabulary words and testing yourself on them, while relaxed practice will involve merely letting yourself read and enjoy reading without force per unit area for at least one to two hours a week. (Note: if y'all already read for pleasance, add at least 1 more hour of pleasure-reading per week.) Past combining reading-for-studying and reading-for-pleasure, you'll be able to ameliorate your reading skill without relegating reading time to the realm of "piece of work" lonely. Reading is a huge office of our daily lives, and improving your comprehension should never come up at the price of depriving yourself of the pleasance of the action. And then what are some of the get-go steps for improving your reading comprehension level? Before you lot can improve your reading comprehension, you must first understand how y'all're currently reading and what your limitations are. Get-go by selecting excerpts from different texts with which yous are unfamiliar—text books, essays, novels, news reports, or any kind of text yous feel you particularly struggle to sympathise—and read them as you would commonly. Equally you read, run across if you tin can notice when your attention, energy, or comprehension of the cloth begins to flag. If your comprehension or concentration tends to lag after a period of time, start to slowly build upwards your stamina. For instance, if you continually lose focus at the xx minute mark every time you read, acknowledge this and push yourself to slowly increase that time, rather than trying to sit and concentrate on reading for an 60 minutes or two at a stretch. Begin by reading for your maximum corporeality of focused time (in this instance, twenty minutes), then give yourself a break. Next fourth dimension, try for 22 minutes. Once you've mastered that, effort for 25 and see if you can still maintain focus. If y'all can, then try for thirty. If y'all discover that your concentration or comprehension starts to lag again, take a step back on your timing before pushing yourself for more. Improvement comes with time, and it'll only cause frustration if you try to blitz it all at once. Alternatively, yous may find that your problems with reading comprehension accept less to exercise with the time spent reading than with the source material itself. Mayhap you struggle to comprehend the essential elements of a text, the context of a piece, character arcs or motivation, books or textbooks with densely packed information, or material that is heavily symbolic. If this is the case, then be sure to follow the tips below to better these areas of reading comprehension weakness. Improving your reading comprehension level takes time and do, just understanding where your strengths and weaknesses stand up now is the first footstep towards progress. Reading and comprehension rely on a combination of vocabulary, context, and the interaction of words. So you must be able to sympathise each moving slice before you can understand the text as a whole. If you struggle to empathize specific vocabulary, information technology'south sometimes possible to choice up meaning through context clues (how the words are used in the sentence or in the passage), simply it'due south ever a good idea to await up the definitions of words with which you aren't familiar. Equally you read, make sure to proceed a running listing of words yous don't readily recognize and make yourself a set of flashcards with the words and their definitions. Dedicate 15 minutes two or iii times a week to and quizzing yourself on your vocab flashcards. To get started, you'll need some blank index cards and a system to continue them organized. These basic cards are an affordable option that are also available in fun colors. You lot tin keep them organized with plastic baggies or safe bands, or you can get an organizer. Alternatively, effort these easy-flip flashcards that include binder clips. Though we strongly recommend making your own flashcards, you can also buy pre-made ones —the best choice is Barron'due south 1100 Words You Demand to Know, a series of exercises to master key words and idioms. In order to retain your vocabulary knowledge, you must apply a combination of skillful memorization (like studying your flashcards) and make a point of using these new words in your verbal and written communication. Guided vocabulary practice similar this will give y'all access to new words and their meanings too as allow y'all to properly retain them. The best fashion to improve your reading comprehension level is through practice. And the best way to practice is to have fun with it! Make reading a fun activeness, at to the lowest degree on occasion, rather than a constant job. This will motivate you to appoint with the text and encompass the activity as part of your daily life (rather than just your study/piece of work life). Equally you practice and truly engage with your reading material, comeback will come up naturally. Begin by reading texts that are slightly below your age and grade level (especially if reading is frustrating or difficult for yous). This will take pressure off of you and allow you to relax and enjoy the story. Here are some fun, easy reads that nosotros recommend to go y'all started: Once you feel more than comfortable reading and practicing your comprehension strategies (tips in the adjacent section), go ahead and allow yourself to read at whatever reading or age level you feel like. Fifty-fifty if you feel that you lot don't sympathize some of the text right now—or even a large portion of it!—if yous enjoy yourself and give information technology your all-time shot, you lot'll notice that your reading comprehension levels will ameliorate over time. Ultimately, reading should be a fun and functional activity. And so endeavor to keep your reading exercises balanced between work and pleasance. Improving your vocabulary and increasing the corporeality of time you spend reading overall will help you to improve your reading comprehension over time, merely what exercise you exercise to help y'all to cover a particular piece of text? Here, I'll walk you through the steps to take as you're reading so that you lot tin can empathize the text and improve how you're reading, when you're reading. As you read, let yourself stop whenever you lose focus or feel dislocated. Just stop. Now, without re-reading, summarize aloud or in your caput what you've comprehended so far (earlier the place where yous became dislocated). Skim back through the text and compare how you lot've summarized it with what'southward written on the page. Practice you feel you've captured the salient points? Exercise yous feel a little more focused on what'due south going on at present that you lot've put the textile into your ain words? Continue reading with your summation in heed and permit yourself end and repeat the process whenever the piece becomes confusing to you. The more you're able to re-contextualize the work in your own words, the better you lot'll be able to empathize it and lock the information in your listen as yous keep reading. Sometimes, we tin class a sort of "mental block" that can halt our reading progress for whatever reason (peradventure the sentence looks complex or awkward, peradventure yous're tired, maybe you feel intimidated by the word choice, or are simply bored). Reading these problematic passages aloud can oftentimes help circumvent that block and assist you to form a visual of what the text is trying to convey. For the about part, reading is a personal activity that happens entirely in your head. So don't feel you take to read just like anyone else if "typical" methods don't work for you. Sometimes it can brand the virtually sense to read (or re-read) a text out of society. It is oftentimes helpful to glance backwards through a slice of text (or even re-read large sections) to remind yourself of whatever information you need and have forgotten—what happened previously, what a particular discussion ways, who a person was...the list is endless. Previous sentences, sections, or even whole capacity can provide helpful context clues. Re-reading these passages will help to refresh your retentiveness so that y'all can better sympathise and interpret later on sections of the text. Want to write the perfect higher application essay? Get professional assistance from PrepScholar. Your dedicated PrepScholar Admissions counselor will craft your perfect higher essay, from the basis up. We'll learn your background and interests, brainstorm essay topics, and walk you through the essay drafting process, step-by-step. At the finish, you lot'll have a unique essay that you'll proudly submit to your superlative choice colleges. Don't leave your higher application to risk. Find out more than about PrepScholar Admissions now: Just like with the previous step, don't feel that the but way to read and understand a text is to work through information technology completely linearly. Allow yourself the liberty to take apart the text and put it back together again in whichever fashion makes the most sense to you. Sometimes a current confusion in a work will exist explained later on in the text, and it tin help you to know that explanations are upcoming or even just to read them ahead of time. Then skip frontwards or backwards, re-read or read ahead every bit you need to, have the piece in whatever society you need to in order to brand sense of the text. Not everyone thinks linearly, and not anybody all-time understands texts linearly either. Sometimes discussing what you know so far about a text can help clear up any confusion. If y'all accept a friend who hasn't read the text in question, then explain it to them in your own words, and discuss where you feel your comprehension is defective. You'll detect that you've probably understood more than than you think once yous've been forced to explain information technology to someone who's completely unfamiliar with the piece. Even if no i else is in the room, trying to teach or hash out what a passage says or means with "someone else" can exist extremely beneficial. In fact, software engineers call this technique "rubber duck debugging," wherein they explain a coding problem to a rubber duck. This forces them to piece of work through a problem aloud, which has proven time and time again to help people solve problems. Then if a slice of text has your head spinning from trying to work through it by yourself, outset chatting with your nearest friend/pet/safe duck. You'll be surprised with how much easier information technology is to understand a text once you've talked it through with someone. Even if that someone is a duck. Quack. Improving reading comprehension takes time and endeavour, but it tin exist done. Be patient with yourself, work through your reading comprehension steps, and effort not to become frustrated with yourself if yous feel your progress is slow or if y'all feel you're "falling behind." Y'all will apply your reading skills throughout your life, and then go at a pace that works for you, and take intendance to maintain that balance betwixt reading for pure pleasure and reading for dedicated comeback. Equally you begin to incorporate more and more reading into your daily life, y'all'll observe that comprehension volition become easier, and reading volition get more fun. In every piece of text, there are worlds of meaning to explore, and learning how to uncover them tin be the ultimate rewarding journeying. Tin can't go enough reading? Whether equally part of your reading practice or just for fun, check out our picks for the 31 best books to read in high schoolhouse. Problems with procrastination? Whether you're studying for the Saturday's or studying your reading comprehension vocabulary bank check out how to beat procrastination and get your studies dorsum on rails. Desire to earn better grades? Our guide volition help you get that 4.0 you're striving for. Desire to improve your Sabbatum score past 160 points or your Act score by 4 points? Nosotros've written a guide for each examination about the top 5 strategies you must be using to accept a shot at improving your score. Download information technology for free now: These recommendations are based solely on our knowledge and experience. If y'all purchase an detail through one of our links PrepScholar may receive a commission. 
What Is Reading Comprehension?
Why Reading Comprehension Is Important
How to Improve Reading Comprehension: three Steps
Step 1: Understand and Reevaluate How Y'all're Currently Reading
Step 2: Better Your Vocabulary
Step 3: Read for Pleasure
5 Reading Comprehension Tips
Tip i: Stop When You Get Confused and Effort to Summarize What Y'all Just Read
Tip ii: If You're Struggling, Effort Reading Aloud
Tip 3: Re-read (or Skim) Previous Sections of the Text
Tip 4: Skim or Read Upcoming Sections of the Text
Tip 5: Discuss the Text With a Friend (Even an Imaginary Friend)
The Take-Aways
What'south Next?
Courtney scored in the 99th percentile on the Sabbatum in loftier schoolhouse and went on to graduate from Stanford University with a caste in Cultural and Social Anthropology. She is passionate about bringing pedagogy and the tools to succeed to students from all backgrounds and walks of life, equally she believes open teaching is one of the dandy societal equalizers. She has years of tutoring experience and writes creative works in her gratuitous time.
Source: https://blog.prepscholar.com/how-to-improve-reading-comprehension
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