5 ACTIVE READING STRATEGIES

Do you want to improve your reading comprehension skills?

Here are 5 AMAZING Active Reading Strategies that you can practice:

QUESTION

VISUALIZE

PREDICT

CONNECT

RESPOND

1) When you read a text for example a story, you need to QUESTION what your read and some of the questions that can help you become an active reader are:

• Why do the characters act as they do?
• Who tells the story?
• What causes events to happen?
• When does the action peak or climax occur?

2) VISUALIZING what you read also helps you understand better:

• What images come to your mind when you read a text?

3) Make PREDICTIONS on future events that may occur as you read a text:

• What do you think will happen in the end of a story that you are reading and prove why you say so.
• Make use of clues to make predictions.

4) Make CONNECTIONS as you are reading a text:

• You can make yourself as the character in a story and imagine you are experiencing the events in it.
• You can also relate a story to your own experiences.
• Make connections with other sources such as other literature texts or the media (songs, movies)
• Relate the text with actual events ( "this story reminds me of.....")

5) RESPOND to the text that you are reading (for example a story):

• What does the story say to you?
• What is the mood of the story?
• What is the theme of the story?
• What are the internal and external conflicts in the story?
• What is the tone of the story?
• What symbols are in the story?
• What moral values can be gained from the story?

Now, start practicing these strategies and become a successful active reader! here's a quick one for you to try!




Dear Mr Landers,

I run `Snips' hairdressing shop above Mr Shah's chemist's shop at 24 High Street. I started the business 20 years ago and it is now very successful. My customers have to walk through the chemist's to the stairs at the back which lead to the hairdresser's. This has never been a problem.

Mr Shah plans to retire later this year, and I have heard from a business acquaintance that you intend to rent the shop space to a hamburger bar. I have thought about trying to rent it myself and make my shop bigger but I cannot persuade anyone to lend me that much money. I don't know what to do. My customers come to the hairdresser's to relax and the noise and smells of a burger bar will surely drive them away. Also, they won't like having to walk through a hot, smelly burger bar to reach the stairs.

I have always paid my rent on time. You have told me in the past that you wish me to continue with my business for as long as possible. I believe you own another empty shop in the High Street. Could the burger bar not go there, where it would not affect other people's businesses?

I hope you think carefully about this.

Source: EnglishExercise.org