6.3 IMPROVING YOUR READING
With effort, you can improve your reading. Remember to be flexible and to adjust how you read depending on what you are reading. If you feel that you do not understand what you are reading because you are thinking about something else, you need to stop and focus on the task and read actively, marking and taking notes. Here are a few suggestions:
Evaluate the importance and difficulty of the assigned readings, and adjust your reading style and the time you set aside to do the reading. How you read your math textbook is different from how you read your psychology textbook. When reading your math textbook, you should have a notebook to record your solutions to the problems. When you read your psychology textbook, you should be highlighting the important ideas or making margin notes.
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Connect one important idea to another by asking yourself: Why am I reading this? Where does this fit in? Writing summaries and preparing notes and outlines can help you connect ideas across the chapters.
When the textbook material is exactly the same as the lecture material, you can save time by concentrating mainly on one or the other.
It takes a planned approach to read and understand textbook materials and other assigned readings and to remember what you have read.
Monitoring Your Reading
You can monitor your comprehension while reading textbooks by asking yourself: Do I understand this? If not, stop and reread the material. Look up words that are not clear. Try to clarify the main points and how they relate to one another.
Another way to check that you understand what you are reading is to try to recite the material aloud, either to yourself or to your study partner(s). Using a study group to monitor your comprehension gives you immediate feedback and is highly motivating. After you have read with concentration from the first section of the chapter, proceed to each subsequent section until you have finished the chapter.
After you have completed each section and before you move on to the next section, ask again: What are the key ideas? What will I see on the test? At the end of each section, try to guess what information the author will present in the next section.
Developing Your Vocabulary
Textbooks are full of new words and terms. A vocabulary is a set of words in a particular language or field of knowledge. As you become familiar with the vocabulary of an academic field, reading the texts related to that field becomes easier.
If words are such a basic and essential component of our knowledge, what is the best way to learn them? The following are some basic vocabulary-building strategies:
Notice and write down unfamiliar terms during your preview of a text. Consider making a flash card for each term or making a list of terms.
Think about the context when you come across challenging words. See whether you can guess the meaning of an unfamiliar term by using the words around it.
Consider a word’s parts. If context by itself is not enough to help you guess the meaning of an unfamiliar word, try analyzing the term to discover its root (or base part) and any prefixes (parts that come before the root) or suffixes (parts that follow the root). For example, transport has the root port, which means “carry,” and the prefix trans, which means “across.” Together the word means “carrying across” or “carrying from one place to another.” Knowing the meaning of prefixes and suffixes can be very helpful.
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Use the glossary of the text or a dictionary. Textbook publishers carefully compile glossaries to help students learn the vocabulary of a given discipline. If the text has no glossary, have a dictionary on hand or do a quick online search for the word’s meaning. If a given word has more than one definition, search for the meaning that fits your text. The online Merriam-Webster Dictionary (merriam-webster.com) is especially helpful for college students.
Use new words in your writing and speaking. If you use a new word a few times, you’ll soon know it. In addition, flash cards can be handy at exam time for reviewing the definitions of new words.
YOUR TURN > TRY IT
Choose a chapter in this or another textbook. As you read it, list the words that are new to you or that you’re not sure you understand. Look up a few of these words in a dictionary. Set a goal to add at least one new word a week to your personal vocabulary.
What to Do When You Fall Behind on Your Reading
From time to time, life might get in the way of doing your assigned readings on time. You may get sick or have to take care of a sick family member, you may have to work extra hours, or you may have a personal problem that prevents you from concentrating on your courses for a short time. Unfortunately, some students procrastinate and think they can catch up. That is a myth. The less you read and do your assignments, the harder you will have to work to make up for the lost time.
If you try to follow the schedule for your assigned readings but fall behind, do not panic. Here are some suggestions for getting back on track with your reading:
Add one or two hours a day to your study time to go back and read the parts that you missed. In particular, take advantage of every spare moment to read; for example, read during your lunch hour at work or while you are waiting for public transportation or at the doctor’s office.
Join a study group. If everyone in the group reads a section of the assigned chapter and shares and discusses his or her notes, summaries, or outlines with the group, you can all cover the content more quickly.
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Ask for help. Visit your college’s learning center to work with a tutor who can help you with difficult concepts in the textbook.
Talk to your instructor. Ask for extra time to make up your assignments if you have fallen behind because of a valid reason such as sickness or dealing with a personal problem. Most instructors are willing to make a one-time exception to help students catch up.
Do not give up. You may have to work harder for a short period of time, but you will soon get caught up.
If English Is Not Your First Language
The English language is one of the most difficult languages to learn. Words are often spelled differently from the way they sound, and the language is full of idioms—phrases that cannot be understood from the individual meanings of the words. If, for example, your instructor tells you to “hit the books,” she does not mean for you to physically pound your texts with your fist but rather to study hard.
If you are learning English and are having trouble reading your books, don’t give up. Reading slowly and reading more than once can help you improve your comprehension. Make sure that you have two good dictionaries—one in English and one that links English with your primary language—and look up every key word you don’t know. Be sure to practice thinking, writing, and speaking in English, and take advantage of your college’s services. Your campus might have English as a second language (ESL) tutoring and workshops. Ask your adviser or your first-year seminar instructor to help you find where those services are offered on your campus.
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YOUR TURN > STAY MOTIVATED
Some first-year students, especially those who have trouble managing their time, believe that they can skip some of the required reading and still get good grades on tests and exams. The best students, however, will tell you that this isn’t a smart strategy. Instructors assign readings because they believe they’re important to your understanding, and concepts and details in the readings will be on the tests. Maintain your motivation to do well by reading all the materials assigned by your instructors. Your instructors have told you precisely what you need to do to be successful. All you have to do is to follow it.
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