Top 7 Ways to Engage in Nonfiction ReadingAttention high school students! Revealed on this page...
Are you a student who struggles to understand what is going on in class, because you can't understand nonfiction writing? After spending hours reading an assignment, do you forget what you just read? You are not alone. I have tutored many high school students who struggle with the same issues. If you want to succeed in life, you must be able to read nonfiction text. For example, getting a driver's license. High school students dream of driving themselves around without the need for a parent. If you can't read and understand nonfiction text, it will be hard to pass the written exam to get a driver's license. Reading nonfiction text also helps you to pass other tests such as the ACT, finals and scholarship applications. If you can't understand assigned reading if you have tunnel vision when reading if you think you are stupid when reading nonfiction text if you have ever tried to build furniture you need to read this article. How do you know if you are not engaged in reading a nonfiction text? Read on to find out. It's not a race Great readers follow several steps when reading and you can too. First, before reading anything, great readers will decide if the reading is for fun or an assignment. By deciding the purpose, great readers will determine the speed of their reading. Reading for fun can mean reading faster; while reading for an assignment will make the reader slow down and look for important clues. Do you have tunnel vision? Great readers look at everything on the page and decide if they need to read it for information. Struggling readers, on the other hand, just read what they feel is necessary and leave out the rest. Only looking at the bulk text is called having tunnel vision. Before you begin to read a nonfiction text, you should scan the reading for the following information:
"I just don't get it." After you have scanned for the above items, now you can start asking yourself questions about it. For example, after looking at picture ask yourself "why is this important?" Turn headings and subheadings into questions. As you read, you can answer those questions to get a better understanding of the given information. What if I don't use a textbook? Let's say you are reading articles on the computer or nonfiction books from the library. You still apply the same strategies as you would with a textbook. There are still headings, subheadings, pictures, diagrams, graphs, bold-faced words, etc. Turn those items into questions. As you are reading, answer the questions to help with comprehension. Getting a Speeding Ticket If you speed past a word while reading, you struggle with reading nonfiction text. If you are reading a school textbook, the tested vocabulary words are in bold-faced print for you. However, I believe that you should be creating your own vocabulary words while you are reading. Great readers not only figure out what the bold-faced words mean but other unknown words as well. How else are you going to understand the reading? Try these ways to figure out unknown words:
Increasing Memory and Recall Great readers take notes on what they read, so they can remember the information better. Taking notes also helps when writing a report and completing assignments. You can take notes a couple of different ways, such as using a notebook, computer, or my favorite: Post-it notes. As you read a textbook, write your questions on Post-it notes and leave them in the book. Then when you find the information, write the answer on the same Post-it note.
Some struggling readers forget what they read shortly after reading it. Taking notes is crucial for remembering facts and important details in the reading. However, DON'T COPY WORD FOR WORD. Copying out of a book exactly is called plagiarizing and it is ILLEGAL. Write 3-5 words about each detail to help you remember what you read. If you have a paper to write or an assignment to complete, paraphrase what your notes say. Paraphrasing is using your own words to say the same thing. Don't Stop There There is one last crucial step about reading nonfiction text. Review what you have learned several times to move the information from your short-term memory to long-term memory. The amount of review varies from person to person. Some people might get away with reviewing a couple of times a week, while others might need to review every other night. How do you interact with nonfiction writing and reading? I would really like to know. Leave a comment below. P.S. Here are some related blogs to help with nonfiction reading Vocabulary Bad, No Vocabulary Good How Schools are Getting Rid of Textbooks
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Have you heard that reading can take you anywhere you want to go? People who love reading can get lost in a book for hours upon hours. For others, this is not the case. Instead, some readers can decode the words very well but do not understand a word of it. I call this zoning out while reading. Yesterday, I was tutoring a high school student who did just this while we were reading a book he wanted to read. Previously, I've noticed that he was engaged in the reading by answering questions, laughing appropriately, and participating in the discussion. Yesterday's student wasn't the first high school student of mine to zone out while reading. I have had many others do the same thing. HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS! Main Way of Getting Information Reading is an important way of getting information at the high school age. High schools use textbooks, computer articles, periodicals, and other media to gain information. Three of the four main tests on the ACT involve reading. The ACT gets students valuable scholarships to college. Colleges depend on using textbooks for information. But yet students are wasting their time decoding words on the page while lacking the understanding of what they are reading. If you have struggled with reading since you were little, if the school has taken special reading help away from you, if you can read a recipe, then you can change your reading comprehension level. But how exactly can you figure out if you are zoning out while reading? Today I am going to talk about staying engaged in a prose fiction type of story. My next article will talk about how to stay engaged in a nonfiction type of story. Reading during School Breaks: Important or Waste of Time Some of you might be enjoying summer, winter, or spring break and want to skip over this article because you think it doesn't apply to you, but you would be wrong. During breaks would be the perfect time to hone in on your reading skills and get some extra practice while you don't have other homework to complete. Here are some other benefits of reading during breaks
Missing Warning Signs If you speed past a word you don't understand, you are zoning out while reading. Getting used to stopping at words you don't know is a great way to increase your comprehension, vocabulary, and ACT scores. Great readers will slow down during this part of the story and ask themselves questions such as:
Not understanding what is going on in the story is another warning sign. Why continue to read, if you don't understand what is going on? Great readers will not let this happen. Great readers interact with the story to keep them engaged and keep reading. Here are ways to interact with the story: Every couple of pages or so ask yourself these questions
By asking yourself these questions, you should be able to engage in the story. However, it could be time to abandon the book altogether and find a different one. If you find that you have tried to get into a book, but it just isn't that interesting, abandon the book and find a different one. Great readers abandon books all of the time. Be Like Spielberg As you read, can you picture what is happening in the story? Great readers create a mini-movie in their head as they read. If you have heard someone say the book was better than the movie, it is because of the mini-movie he/she imagined while reading the story. Here's how you can create a mini-movie while reading:
Using Post-It Notes One of the excuses that my students use is "I don't remember what I read." I understand. You are a busy person and might not have hours upon hours to sit with a book to read it from cover to cover. I used Post-it notes with one of my students to help her understand what was going on in the story. She had to learn to stop every couple of pages and write a sentence about what was going on. That way she could look back to help her remember without rereading the whole book or story. By the time you reach high school, you have created habits that are hard to break. However, you can change those bad habits to good habits even those dealing with reading. Use the tips above to change your reading behaviors and start understanding what you are reading. What struggles do you have while reading? How do you fix them? I would love to know. Please leave a comment below answering these questions. P.S. I would like to help you comprehend reading better, so I am giving you a free PowerPoint that teaches you to ask questions as you read. The document also works for creating test questions in reading, science or social studies classes as well. creating_reading_questions.pptxCreating Reading Questions has worked for countless students of mine and it can work for you too.
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