1/20/11

Wow, it would have been so helpful to hear this reading advice about five years ago. I would have done so much better my college placement exams and would have retained so much more information during my first years of college. Before college, I was always a passive reader and never really read the way that I was supposed to. I only just started reading actively when I became a college student in which I was forced to comprehend and apply what I read. Along with reading actively, another really helpful reading strategy that is introduced in the text is activating prior knowledge. Making personal connections with previous experiences and knowledge helps the reader comprehend so much more. Activating prior knowledge does not require too much cognitive ability and can be done easily by a common reader. On the other hand, annotating text is a little more complex. Although it is helpful, many people see it as tedious and time consuming.

What you get out of what you read is definitely determined by how you read. If you read actively, you will obtain insightful knowledge from the text and will be able to comprehend more. On the other hand, if you read passively, you will not obtain as much information over a long period of time and you will not have a complete understanding of the text. I relate it to working out; if you just show up the gym and don’t work out, there will be no physical results. On the flip side, if you go the gym and lift weights, you will see physical results. Although good reading habits come naturally to the select few, they do not come some naturally for everybody. Many people have to work a little harder than others while they read to make sure they are obtaining full comprehension of the text.