Getting More Out of Your Reading:

By: Jonathan Roach

What is Reading?

• Reading is learning to pronounce words

• Reading is learning to identify words and know their meaning

• Reading is learning to bring meaning to a text in order to discover meaning from it (Weaver, Reading Process and Practice)

History of Reading:

• People haven’t always read in the same manner

• The first historically recorded silent reader was St. Ambrose

• St. Augustine wrote, “when he read his eyes scanned the page and his heart sought out meaning, but his voice was silent and his tongue was still.”

From: Businessinsider.com

Some Statistics:

• 82% of people who read e-books live in urban cities

• Women are 50% more likely to finish reading a book than men

• 30% of people who begin reading a book will stop by page 50

• 48 pages per hour is the average reading rate for a person under the age of 40

• Average reading session length is 12 minutes

• (The Lure of a Good Book, mashable.com)

Average Undergraduate College Student:• An average college freshman, has around 200

pages of reading assigned per week and the average adult reader reads 250 wpm

• If you are average, then you will need 5.3 hours of reading time a week

• How fast do you read?– Go to http://mindbluff.com/askread.htm – Follow the directions

Symptoms: • Do you:

– Hear every word in your head even when reading silently?

– Read everything in the same way? At the same rate?

– Avoid classes that have lots of textbooks?

– Don’t remember the beginning of the book when you reach the end?

– Do everything else before reading? (Penn State Reading Skills).

Your Self:

• View yourself as a reader

• Approach reading with a confident and relaxed mind set

• Empower yourself to succeed

• Approach reading with a positive attitude

Reading and Comprehension:

• Most students are able to increase their reading rate without lowering their comprehension

• You are attempting to develop the fastest possible reading rate with the highest possible understanding of the materials

Reading Rates:

• Reading for memorization 100 wpm

• Reading for deep learning 100-200 wpm

• Reading for comprehension 200-400 wpm

• Reading/Skimming for overview 400-700 wpm

• Reading/Scanning for review or preview 700+ wpm

Factors of Poor Reading:

• Limited visual span

• Slow perceptual reaction time

• Vocalization

• Regression

• Lack of practice reading

• Fear of poor comprehension

• Dislike of what you are doing

Basic Conditions to Increase Your Reading Rate:• Get your eyesight

checked• Don’t say words or

move your lips• Don’t read one word

at a time• Enjoy what you are

doing

Schedule Your Reading:

• Know Yourself– When

• What time of day do you do your best work?• Different learners need different conditions.

– Where• Where can you control interruptions the best?• Home, office, library, cell phone, and people….

– How• Position, lighting, refreshments, with or without

paper, with or without highlighter, and …..

Reading Environment:

• Lighting– 600 to 800 lx

• Interruptions– What can you control?– What can’t you

control?

• Seating

Key Idea:

• Know what information you need from the material before you begin

• Purpose

-- Why are you reading this?

Prioritize:

• Rank your required, recommended, and suggested reading

• Which material is the most important for your goals?

• If two books cover the same topic, could you read one carefully and then skim the other?

Comprehension:

• Comprehension means constructing meaning

• Most adult readers understand and remember about 65% of what they have read

Reader + Written Word = Meaning

Comprehension Improvement:

• Once your start, don’t stop!!!!!

• Use pre, during, and post-reading techniques

• The more you read the better reader you will become

Eyes:

• Relax your eye muscles; don’t tense• Let your eyes “float” on the page• Don’t fix on single items• 99% of reading is done in the brain

Fixation Time:

• Fixation refers to the amount of time that the eye gazes in at a point

• Reduce your fixation time by keeping your eye moving on the text

• Poor readers may have 10 or more fixations per line while good readers will only have 3 to 5 fixations per line

Visual Span:

• Visual span is the space in which the eye has enough sharp vision to read text

• Eyes span app. 120 degrees

• But reading span is app 6 degrees of this arch

Visual Span:

• To improve your reading speed improve your visual span– Visual span is the amount of text that your eyes view

at one time– Children are taught to view one letter at a time but

some students never move beyond this– Good readers take in several words or a whole line in

one view– Cut a view box in a note card and attempt to read

more than one word at a time

Set Your Reading Rate:

• Not all reading materials should be read the same way– How will you be using

these materials?• Novel• Newspaper • Textbook• Journal Article

Different Types of Reading:

• Scanning– Use to find particular words – Useful for quickly reviewing text for an item for which you are

searching – Similar to using a telephone book to find a name

• Skimming– Use to gain main points– Useful for getting the “big picture” of concept

• Active– Use for detailed reading of material on which you will be tested – Highlight or take notes while reading

Reduce Back-Pedaling

• Attempt to reduce the number of times that your eyes jump back in the text

• Train your eyes to move in the correct direction

Chunking:

• Don’t (pause) read (pause) one (pause) word (pause) at a (pause) time (pause)

• Read an entire line at one time

Self-Pacing Methods:

• Professional Speed- Reading classes teach methods that help the reader focus his/her attention better– Starting position– Train your eyes to

move from left to right and down

Meta Guiding:

• Meta Guiding is the use of a visual object to train your eyes to move along a passage of text (Wikipedia)

Self-Pacing Methods:• Hand

– Place your dominant hand on the page

– Move it slowly downward– Try to have your eyes

follow the movement– Start slowly and over days

and weeks speed up• Card

– Similar to hand but use a card

– Good method to break the bad habit of reading and rereading

Self-Pacing Methods:

• Sweep– Slightly cup your

dominant hand– With a light smooth

motion sweep your hand from left to right

• Hop– Similar to the Sweep

but hop about three lines at a time

Breathing:

• Breathing is important even during reading

• Try to have deep breaths

• Calm, even, and slow

Subvocalazations: • Subvocalizing will only

decrease the reading rate if accompanied by visible movements of the mouth, jaw, and/or throat (Wikipedia– Speed Reading)

• If there is visible movement during silent reading, then vocalization may be effecting reading rate.

• Attempt humming or singing along to music to stop this habit

Before You Read:• If you are driving a strange car in a strange city, you are more likely

to get lost.• Collect everything that you need for a successful reading

experience.• If you can’t focus, take time for deep breathing and silent prayer• If you still can’t focus, do something else and come back to your

reading later.• Before you read:

– Preview• Who is the author?• What is the subject?• How will you use this material?• What is this chapter about?• What are titles, subsections, and major topics?• Review any graphics in the text.

Making Connections:

• Good readers make connections between themselves and the texts– This causes higher

thinking – Which improves

comprehension

Connections:

• Three types of relationships:

– Text to Self

– Text to Text

– Text to World

Text to Self:

• Connections between the reader, the text, and the reader’s past experiences and/or background knowledge

Text to Text:

• Connections between the reader, the text, and any other written communication

Text to World:

• Connections between the reader, the text, and society, culture, and/or history

Strategies to Make Connections:

• Set the content in your context

• Ask questions

• Visualize

• Determine important content

• Synthesize information

Context:

• How does my life fit into this picture?

• How does my experience fit into this picture?

• How do I fit into this picture?

• How does this fit into my prior reading, education, or work experience?

Questioning:

• Questioning keeps your mind engaged1. Ask about the text’s purpose2. Ask about the author’s motivation3. Go beyond the text….

• Why?• Is this true?• Argue with the text• Challenge the text

Visualizing:

• Long after the exact words, ideas, or even the author’s name have left our minds

• We remember the stories that we can picture in our minds

Visualization:

• Good authors don’t tell you about love

• They show you love

Importance:

• A key to high comprehension is the ability to distill importance– Place the topic in the larger picture– Start drilling the people, places, and events– Seek out the opposing opinions– Understand the idea and the supporting ideas– Place the text within the historical framework

Assessing Yourself:

• Set goals for yourself– Be realistic– Baby steps– Practice– Keep trying– Keep trying– Keep trying

After You Read:

• Go back and highlight:– Important names– Events– Places– Key sentences

• Too much highlighting is a bad thing. You will not remember what to focus on while reviewing

After You Read:

• Make a list of words that you don’t know and look them up

• Attempt to write out the major ideas in your own words

Pictorially or Diagrammatically:

• Capture your understanding of the material in a visual form– Timelines to show chronology – Diagrams to show relationships– Word webs to show complex relationships– Charts to compare and contrast– Pictures or photographs

PSQ5R:

• Purpose• Survey-Skim• Question• Recite• Record• Reflect• Review

Before Class:Lecture Classes, Discussion

or Small Group Classes

• Take 10-15 minutes to skim the reading assignment

• Note chapter titles, main headings, and key words

• Review charts, pictures, and graphs

• Read the conclusions twice

• Make a list of questions

During Class:

• Take effective notes

• Try to participate by offering comments and asking your questions

• Add your observations to your notes

After Class:

• Rescan your reading assignments

• Review your class notes and highlight ideas that the professor stressed

• Circle notes by which you are confused

• Add your class notes to your reading notes and look for relationships

Mistake: Not Buying the Book!

• Great Idea: Save money

• Bad Idea: I will save money by not buying the textbook for my class

• What do you lose by not owning the book?

Tips from Richard Feldman:

• Read early in the day• Prioritize your reading• Skim material for

main ideas• Form a question• Read in a proper

environment

• Write a course of action

• Avoid highlighting• Preview before

reading• Use flexible reading

speeds

Common Mistakes:

• I must read every word.

• I don’t need to reread anything.

• It is wrong not to read every word that is assigned.

The Last Word:

• Love it….– Enjoy it….

• Appreciate it…. – Embrace it…

» Become it…

Sources:• Harvey, S. and Anne Goudvis. (2000). Strategies that work.

Portland, ME: Stenhouse.• http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/suggest.html• http://english.glendale.cc.ca.us/methods.html• http://www.selfgrowth.com• http://www.roadtoreading.org • Penn State Reading Skills:

http://www2.psu.edu/learncenter/students/studyreadskills.shtml• Weaver, C. (1994). Reading process and practice. Portsmouth:

Heinemann. • Feldman, R. http://learningtechiques.com/speedreadingtips.html • http://counseling.binghamton.edu/EFFICIENT%READING.html• http://www.ccsn.nevada.edu/retention/reading.html