Remembering What You Read

Have you ever sat down to read informational text, read an entire page, and then realize you didn’t retain any of it? This has happened to all of us at some point, but it happens often to many students in the classroom. If students are not taught the steps to focusing while reading, they often cannot pick up this skill on their own.

First and foremost, students must understand how the mind works. For example, when a student says, “I don’t want to read that! It’s boring!” What he/she is really saying is, “I have no connection to this, I’ve not experienced it before.” The brain likes to retrieve from what it already knows. It is simply how we make sense of things. When we are reading brand new information, the brain frantically searches for a connection. If it cannot find one, it will drift into thinking about more known topics. Awareness of this process is key. Below are a few tips to help your child to actively engage his/her mind in reading informational text:

Setting a Purpose:In order to avoid “spacing off,” students must prepare their minds for the text. Before a student approaches the text, it is important for him/her to set a purpose for reading. Often this is done in the form of “I wonder” questions…
“The title of this chapter in my history book is The War of 1812, I wonder what happened?”
“How is this war different from other wars that I’ve learned about?”
“Who was involved in this war?”
“Why was this war fought?”

Questions naturally arouse curiosity and give us a purpose for reading. It is important for teachers and parents to note that at first students will not know what types of questions to ask. These will have to be modeled for the child.

Visualizing:The next step in the reading process is to visualize and make connections while reading. Teaching students to place themselves inside the text will help make it more personal and aid them in making these connections. We can guide students in this process by asking them questions. For example, “What do you think it would be like to be on a British ship?” What do you picture when you hear the sentence, “The British navy ships were scattered around the globe?” Getting your child to talk about what they see as they read will definitely aid in reading comprehension.

Questioning:Finally, it is utterly important that students start to ask their own questions before, during, and after the reading process. Asking questions will create independence in your reader more than any other strategy. Once a student understands the power of the question and the joy of finding the answer, all text reading can be successfully mastered!