Active Reading – The First Step in the Learning Process

Learning does not happen just by reading the material we want to learn. Reading and learning are not the same thing. We all know that to be true or test scores across this nation would be different among high school students. Reading the material in front of you is only the first step, much like getting out of bed each day does not make you successful at the office. It begins the journey, but other steps must be taken. That applies to learning as well. If we want our students to truly learn what they must learn in school in order to be successful in college and their future careers, or we wish to learn new material ourselves, then we must practice active reading and engage our brains with the information while we read it. That can open the door for true learning, not just rote memorization.

The first step in active reading is to use that tried and true “reporter’s approach” to our reading. Asking relevant questions while we read will force our brains to think about what we are reading. These questions might be in the “who, what, where, when, why” categories, or they may take the form of “why do I care about this,” or “what difference does this make to me” instead. Depending upon the reading material, the subject matter, and the level of background knowledge that the student brings to their studies, different questions will be more meaningful at different times. The important charge to your student is to never, never “just read” again if he expects to learn anything.

Another step to make your student’s reading and studies come alive is to make the material as visual as possible while reading. For instance, if the student has remembered to ask himself “when” about a particular event in history, then he can go one step further and imagine himself holding a calendar, open to that date. Then, he can imagine the person or event taking place before his eyes as if in a movie and he is taking notes on the calendar’s margin. Turning data into pictures in the mind will drastically improve the brain’s retention of the information. The fun part about this step is that the sillier the image, the more likely the student will be to remember it. So, encourage your student to have fun with this one!

Another valuable tool to active reading is to compare the new material to any information that the student already knows. In school, you probably wrote lots of papers that started off with “Compare and Contrast” assignments. There is validity in that. Comparing information that is new, to information that we already know, allows the brain to connect pieces of information and build upon existing familiarities rather than starting from scratch. This is easier, and retention is improved through this application.

Finally, your student should pay attention to the examples and illustrations that are given in the material. All too often, these charts or pictures are skipped over as a waste of time. In fact, these visual images will do much to implant the information into our long term memory banks. These examples or visual illustrations are ideally reviewed before the student begins their reading so as to give some building blocks for the data to be added to. This step of active reading, often incorrectly not thought of as reading, will become a highly profitable reading tool.

Taking the time to approach reading from an active place rather than a passive reading place will make a big difference in how a student studies. This will also impact their understanding, long-term memory, and application skills. If we are truly hoping to give a student the gift of learning, and to impart into them the love of learning and the life-long ability to learn, using active reading cannot be underrated. A student who develops the habit of active reading will gain skills of visual discrimination, critical thinking, and analytical application very easily. These skills will be invaluable in college and later adult years. It takes very little time to approach a reading assignment from this different perspective, but it takes regular application of these tools to make it a habit. True learning, learning that is meaningful, applicable and practical, requires the habit of active reading as the starting point to engage our brains in intentional, purposeful, active reading.