Reading+Habits

READING HABITS

How to improve your reading skills

Like all travels in this glamorous and lucrative world of study skills, we have come to the section where I contradict everything I have said up to this point. While I truly believe that each student needs to individualize his approach to school, there is a time and place for good old uniformity and standardization. There are some good habits, which, if your child chooses to use, will increase his retention and comprehension. They are based on a concept called active reading. This idea is simple: The more of your child's brain is engaged in the act of reading, the more he learns. The following strategies are good active reading habits that will help any reader:


 * **Use the cover up:** For many students, the words on the page run and blur together -- especially if you are hard wired like myself. To mitigate this, use a three by five index card to cover everything except the sentence that your child is reading. When they finish a line, they move the card down and repeat the process.
 * **Give the text the finger:** Along with the card, have your child follow their reading with their finger, engaging a tactical learning style.
 * **Read out loud or mouth the words:** Again, another way to engage verbal processing. Many students don't need to literally talk out load -- mouthing the words serves the same end.
 * **Keep moving:** As always, fidgeting is good for the brain. Keep them moving, to keep them on target.
 * **Use three-color highlighting:** Highlights are a cheap and easy way to integrate visual memory into the reading process. Buy your child three colors and have them assign a different color to the main points, supporting details, and terms of the reading.
 * **Use bookmarks/flagging:** Buy your child some type of "red" flag that they can use to mark important ideas or passages. The coolest ones are made by 3M and are literally plastic flaps that come in all different colors and stick directly on to the pages. Also, have your child record in a notebook the page numbers and any thoughts they had on why they flagged that page.
 * **Take margin notes:** Despite what crotchety old librarians say, books are supposed to be written on -- have your child write notes, questions, comments, snide remarks, or draw pictures in the margins.
 * **Write or talk out summaries:** Having your child take a few minutes to either write up a reading summary or talk it out will help him retain the readings and ultimately help him recall it come test or essay time.
 * **Consider reading notes:** I include this one with some hesitation -- reading notes are great for some kids, horrible for others. The problem with reading notes is that for some kids, if they take notes, they'll never finish the reading. The upside of reading notes is that they can obviously help with retention and retrieval of information come test time. So if you decide to work with your child on taking reading notes, make sure you limit them to writing at most one sentence about every other paragraph and summaries at the end of sections or chapters depending on the lengths of the assignments.

** Bad Reading Habits and How to Break Them **

To really get rid of a bad habit, you should replace it with a good one. You have to want to get rid of the bad habits, and you must practice and work at it in order to change. The following are some of the bad habits which tend to cause people to read slowly. Ask yourself whether you are guilty of any of the following: **A. Moving your lips when you read**

Moving your lips slows you to a fast talking rate, about 150 words per minute. Put your fingers on your lips to stop the motion. **B. Vocalizing**

Vocalizing means that you are pronouncing words in the voice box of the throat without making sounds. This also slows your reading rate to that of speaking. To check, rest your fingertips lightly against the vocal cord area of your throat. If you feel a vibration, or if you find that your tongue is moving, you are vocalizing. **C. Reading everything at the same speed**

When reading, set your rate according to your purpose for reading and the difficulty level of the material. Practice adjusting your rate to suit your material. The more difficult the material, the slower the rate. **D. Regressing out of habit**

Regressing means rereading a word, phrase, or sentence out of habit and not because of need. Sometimes, it is necessary to reread something, especially in a difficult passage. But habitual, unnecessary regressing really slows you down. Use a card or paper to cover the text after you read it to prevent regressing. **E. Reading one word at a time**

Do you think one word at a time, or in phrases? Slow readers tend to see only one word at a time. Good readers will see several words at a time and their eyes will stop only three or four times as they move across a page. Reading in idea-phrases speeds your reading and improves your understanding of what you have read. Mark the phrases in the sentences of a passage, then practice seeing more than one word at a time. The best way to read faster is to practice reading just a little faster than is comfortable. Changing reading habits is not easy, after all you have been reading that way for many years. It takes several weeks of conscious effort in order to change bad reading habits.





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__** MY FAVOURITE BOOK IS: **__  "Ευτυχώς που δεν γεννήθηκα όμορφη", ΚΩΣΤΑΣ ΚΑΡΑΚΑΣΗΣ

My favourite book is called <> and in Greek is called <<Άσπονδες Φίλες>> and it's written by Rebecca James! Her official website is Rebecca James! This book is a psychological book but it's not thriller! It's mysterious in the beginning but in the end all things get solved. It's like 3 stories together but all 3 stories after they all link together! Here is the summary of the book http://www.rebeccajamesbooks.com/#!__page-5