Introduction
Reading comprehension is the ability to understand what you have read. It’s an important skill for school and in your career, but it can be hard to improve. Luckily, there are some techniques that can help you improve your reading comprehension. In this article, I’ll tell you about some of my favorites!
Find a study group.
One of the best ways to improve your reading comprehension is by finding a study group. A study group can help you stay motivated and focus on the material, because it’s easier to concentrate when you’re not alone. It also gives you an opportunity to ask questions about topics that are unclear or confusing, which will make it easier for everyone in the group to understand what they’re reading.
If there aren’t any existing groups available at your school or college, try making one yourself! Post flyers around campus advertising what kind of subject matter interests each member (for example: “biology majors who want help understanding genetics”). You might be surprised by how many people come out of their shells once they realize they’re not alone in their struggles with comprehension–and even if nobody else shows up at first, talking over class notes and homework assignments with friends can still be useful!
Identify the most important parts of the reading.
Identify the main idea of the reading. The main idea is the most important information in a text, and it’s usually expressed in a sentence near the beginning or end of a paragraph. Once you’ve identified this sentence, read it over to make sure you understand what it means and why it’s important for your understanding of this passage.
Next, identify any supporting details for your main idea. These are facts that help prove an author’s point but aren’t necessarily essential to understanding their argument; they may be facts about specific people or events mentioned in your reading as well as statistics (for example: “90% of Americans wear shoes”). If these details are not explicitly stated by an author but can be inferred from context clues within their writing style–such as using certain words repeatedly throughout their piece–they’re still important because they support ideas found elsewhere within their work (i.e., if someone mentions shopping at Bloomingdale’s frequently). Finally once both types have been identified together with confidence level rated between 1-5 stars (1 being easiest), move onto step 3!
Create questions to answer after each section.
You can create questions to answer after each section. This will help you focus on the main ideas in the passage and make sure that you understand what was said.
To do this, highlight key words or phrases in your reading material that are important for answering questions about it later on. Then write down these highlighted words next to each other in order of importance–for example: What is the main idea? How does this relate back to the question? Why am I reading this passage? These are good examples because they show how much thought goes into assessing whether or not someone has understood what they’ve read!
The next step when doing this exercise is writing down any questions (or answers) related directly back towards whatever question asked at first glance upon opening up every single page within your textbook/notebook/etcetera…
Relate what you read to your own experiences and knowledge.
Another way to improve reading comprehension is to relate what you read to your own experiences and knowledge. This can be done by asking yourself questions about the text, such as:
- How does this relate to my life?
- How could I use this information in my own life or future?
The answer may not always be obvious, but if you apply it in a meaningful way, it can help with comprehension! For example:
If I’m reading about how ants work together as a colony (and there’s an example of an ant colony), then maybe later on when I’m working on something with my friends, we could all work together like ants do!
Discuss what you’ve read with others.
Discussing what you’ve read with others is one of the best ways to understand and retain the information. When you discuss a book or article with someone else, it forces you to think about what happened in the reading and how it relates to your own life. This helps both comprehension and memory because when we talk about something, we actively process it in our minds rather than just passively absorbing it like when we read silently.
In addition to helping us better understand and remember what was read, discussing literature can also help us learn how apply this information in real life situations–a skill known as critical thinking (or critical analysis).
Reading comprehension takes practice, but these tips will help you do it better!
Reading comprehension is a skill that can be improved with practice, and it’s important in many aspects of life. If you’re looking to improve your reading comprehension skills, here are some tips:
- Read more often. Reading regularly will help you develop the ability to understand what you read more quickly and easily. It also helps build up an extensive vocabulary so that when new words come up in future texts, their meanings will be familiar to you. Reading fiction or nonfiction books about topics that interest you will help keep things interesting!
- Try reading passages out loud as part of your study sessions–it’s a great way for kids who might have trouble with reading silently (or even just sounding out words) practice their pronunciation skills while also getting used to hearing how sentences sound when spoken aloud instead of just being read silently inside one’s head.*
Conclusion
Reading comprehension is a skill that takes time and practice to develop, but there are many ways to improve it. The tips we’ve outlined here can help you understand what you read better and remember more of it, too. If you want even more tools for improving your reading skills–and who doesn’t?–check out our other article on how to read faster!