Improve Your Reading

[Music] do you know how to read of course you do you read in class and at home and in libraries but how well do you read for all of us there is room for improvement in reading almost all of us have reading problems of one kind or another here's the point who read so slow case is similar to hundreds of others suppose we call him Peter this girl's problem is that she reads too fast to understand what she is reading and there are a lot of people who have similar problems let's call this girl John and this boy Billy you can see what his trouble is he pointer word and pronounces it with his lips and many of us do the very same things every Monday afternoon in this school students who want to improve their reading students like Peter and Joan and Billy can bring their reading problems to the school librarian miss Baker in her conference room miss Baker devotes this time to what she calls corrective reading first of all Oh what are you reading in the library we had a history assignment to read and it was very hard to I'll never be able to read it yeah well I think the first thing we ought to do is to develop an interest in what we're reading that is the read along in search of something what do you mean miss Baker I mean we should ask ourselves questions about the things we read and then look for answers or look for solutions to problems the topic can be interesting if we show an interest too but I'd be more interested if I had to read about something all right like baseball food well that's exactly what we're going to do right now I'd like each of you to come over to the bookshelf and find something that you really want to read all right here's the book on furniture and interior decorating this is exactly what I like oh I think this would be spaceball darling this looks good radios my hobby miss Baker I'd like to try this one on radio mechanics it is a fact that if a reader is interested in his subject he reads better interest in what we are reading helps us to solve our mechanical difficulties more easily the card that Peter will read is a sample page from a textbook used by pupils about his age by watching Peter closely miss Baker can see that he reads only one word at a time he has not developed what is called a wide perception span per session span is the width of the printed material which our eyes take in at one time Peter was slow because he saw and understood only one word at a time like this with a little practice we can gradually increase our perception span it helps to to remember the phrase just rent to think about the phrases to come not only does this increase our reading speed but it also helps us in words enters it shouldn't be hard for Peter to increase his perception span he can try it with a book on sports he was anxious to read when Joan is given the same sample material to read she races through it moving too fast and using no regular system of scanning the lines of tight she reads rapidly but does she read carefully Joan did you understand all the words on the page well not all the hard one I had to skip over a few of them but I got a pretty good idea of what I read well sometimes the meaning of a difficult word can be guessed from the content that is the phrase or the sentence in which the word is used but if the context doesn't give you any clue to the meaning you shouldn't go on without looking up the word in the dictionary finding out what it means do you think you'll be able to read the book and I'm Terry you're decorating you selected oh yes I really want to learn all about styles and homes the furniture oh hell you're gonna meet a lot of new words such as Chippendale and architraves and old many of it promise me you won't race by them oh no miss Baker if I'm going to be an interior decorator I'll have to learn all those words this time I'm going to read more carefully and more slowly by the way that's the point all of us should try to remember the speed of our reading depends upon the material we're reading story material and that includes such things as novels in your favorite comic strips can and should be read more quickly but factual material your textbooks and your guide on interior decorating for instance Joan should be read more slowly so let's all try to remember our purpose and reading whether you want a general idea or it's a big information miss Baker's next problem is to help Billy overcome a childish reading habit Billy points to each word and pronounces it in a whisper because of the time he loses in pointing and whispering it takes Billy twice the average time required to read the sample page using his finger this way slows his reading and moving his hand back and forth across the page is annoying so Billy tries not using his finger to follow the lines it's hard at first but he manages to remember but he is still moving his lips which means that he can read no faster than he can pronounce each word the thing he must do is his lip still and concentrate on reading as he should with his eyes miss Baker illustrates a bit more with his book on radio the book Billy selected is a good one because it has a lot of visual aids illustrations charts and diagrams which will help him to visualize what he is reading all of us must visualize what we are reading we must remember that printed words are symbols for real things we must make mental pictures of the action or process or event the words described so do you really want to learn about radio you can train your eyes to move along in search of the information I think that's something all three of you should remember we have to want to read before we can get the most out of our reading well it's easy enough to be interested in our favorite subjects like baseball and radio and interior decorating but what about the subjects that we don't like well that's a good question Peter it's not as easy to read things we don't like but if we can improve our reading methods on material that we like shouldn't we be able to apply the same procedure with any material that sounds logical here but I'm interested in famous baseball players that's a lot different from history oh I'm not so sure Peter have you ever thought in history has the series of famous people of men and women with unusual abilities you know that's an idea each of you might be able to create an interest in history by interpreting it in your own way you mean I can find interior decorating in write history yes you could watch for style and architectural changes in costume and home furnishings what about radio miss Baker well radio is only one of a long series of invention you might think of the story of America the series of great inventions that have helped so much to build it yes it's possible for all of us to develop an interest in what we read when we do this we can solve our individual reading problems much more easily I'd like you to read your new book and then we'll discuss them when come back next Monday afternoon and will you all try to remember to correct your reading troubles as you read we do Peter yes and I'm going to practice increasing my true perception spam I'm not going to read that maybe not the fact that I don't understand what I'm reading and oh yeah I'm gonna lock up all the words I don't understand and make sure I know how they're being used I'm going to get over the habit of pointing towards and pronouncing them good and remember we've only just begun reading is just like any other skill you've got to practice reading and practice it constantly next week we can see what we can do about that very very difficult