Reading Growth: Adjusting Your Reading Speeds (1968)

n here is a short silly story once upon a time there was a boy named Willie who had just one speed the speed was too slow for running in races [Music] the speed was too fast for walking with [Music] friends so he seldom walked with friends and he never won a race poor Willie onpe the end yes it's a silly story but not as silly as you think it was was meant to make a point about people who read with just one speed are you one of them then you may be in trouble it's not very efficient to read everything at the same speed either fast or slow for instance you wouldn't want to read this simple fairy tale at a slow speed and you probably wouldn't want to read this science material at a fast speed one speed obviously won't do so our question is how can you change a Willie or even will helino onee speed into Willies and wiel Minas with several speeds how can you learn to adjust your reading speeds well let's start by supposing you have a reading assignment for school say in history before you read think about your purpose for reading it you might want to remember several details or find the main ideas or find a specific fact should your reading purpose affect your spee it certainly should let's see why the subject is the Virginia colony page 94 suppose you decide to read to remember details details like the date the number of men the name of their country the number and names of their ships the name of the settlement and who it was named for if you wanted to remember details like these how would you read fast probably not this purpose to remember details usually calls for slower more careful reading and then you'll be more likely to remember that in May of 16 1807 120 Englishmen who came in three ships named the good speed the discovery and the Susan Constant established jamest town which they named for King James I but suppose you're not after details suppose you just want the main ideas the big ones a slow reading speed may actually interfere with your getting the Big Ideas so you'll want a relatively faster speed now now you just watch for the pattern of ideas so it's the pattern of Big Ideas that stands out now not the details because of your relatively fast speed a very fast speed is usually best for the third type of reading purpose I mentioned to find a specific fact suppose the fact you want is the name of the English king the settlement was named for it's in the first paragraph all right here we go and here is his name and here he is and here we are having seen that your purpose is one guide to how fast you ought to read another guide is the material itself different materials are written in different ways for instance here's a sentence from one of Kipling's Just So Stories that tells how the elephant got its trunk you've probably read it then the elephant's child put his head down close to the crocodile's musky tusky mouth and the crocodile caught him by his little nose which up to that very weak day hour and minute had been no bigger than a boot though much more useful it's very easy reading but what you should notice is the way it's written we could take out most of the words and you'd still get the idea elephant's child put his head down crocodile caught his nose you see now listen to a sentence from an arithmetic book when you add you can change the order of the add ends and the sum is the same how many of these words could you leave out and still get the idea not many that's because some subjects like arithmetic are written compactly nearly every word is important so the material you're reading and your purpose for reading are two guides that should help you determine your reading speed let's put these guides to work but we've seen enough of Willie let's stay with willomina for a while this is the subject she's reading about the science of light in particular how lenses affect light rays and this is the material she's reading which reading speed should she choose fast well what's her purpose to remember details so a relatively slow speed seems called for but the material is science which is written compactly perhaps an even slower speed would be best for Wilhelmina now she begins to read the light rays pass passing through a convex lens does she know what convex means here she just read the definition at the bottom of the last column convex lenses are the lenses that are thicker in the center than at the edges convex the light rays passing through a convex lens at other points than Center are refracted refracted let's try the glossery refraction is bending of light rays as they pass from one substance or material to another refracted or bent then they come together or converge at a point this is called the focal point of the lens focal point another term to remember will hela's relatively slow speed helps her understand and remember details you can learn to let your purpose and material guide your reading speed just as will helmina did to show you that you can Let's help willly read Will's just finishing a reading assignment he's given it a careful detailed reading but now he's going to go back and reread it to be sure he got the big Ideas yes that's his purpose purpose is the first thing we have to consider and what's the second right the material you can see that it's geography the first time he read the material slowly for details but this time his purpose is to find the Big Ideas which speed should he use slow again not to get the big ideas even in Reading geography relatively slow no not that speed either the geography Willie is reading isn't that compactly written and besides Willie is looking for the Big Ideas not details this time because of that he's decided on this speed relatively fast he does it like this the topic is climate and vegetation Willie keeps that in mind as he reviews the a big idea in the sentences and paragraphs here's one a definition of climate weather in an average year and here are details that relate to it the principal parts of climate are temperature and moisture here's the big idea of the second paragraph temperature depends on several things latitude altitude winds and ocean currents these details are important parts of the big idea big idea of this paragraph detail detail detail relatively fast reading helps Willie see the overall pattern of ideas so he reads at the same speed as long as his purpose and the material remain the same oh he's slowing down he's reading very slowly what would make him do that the material is the same what's changed right the purpose Willie has stopped reading for big ideas for the moment there's a fact here that he didn't remember from his last reading South America's pointed tip lies about as far from the South Pole as the southernmost end of Alaska lies from the North Pole it's a complicated idea so Wily's reading it very carefully paying attention mention to every word he's got it purpose change not for careful understanding but for Big Ideas again so we've seen something about using different speeds for school reading but some of the reading you'll do will be just for fun for your own pleasure now you're free to choose the material you want to read as well as your purpose for reading it and you can be just as free with your reading speed too even within the same material your speed can change from time to time as it suits you but the important idea to remember is that one reading speed is not really enough don't be a wiie or willina one speed the only efficient way to read is to have several speeds and to know how to adjust them how to use the right speed at the right time let your purpose for reading and the material you read be your guides