How to Get Students

to Understand (and Remember) What They’ve Read

We all know students have to do more than just read the words on the page in order to understand and master the material. Thinking about the content is necessary to learn and “own” the material, but how to get students to engage with reading at this level? Mention “active reading strategies” and students’ eyes glaze over. But try telling students if they do these 2 things while they read, they will dramatically improve their comprehension and memory of material

Skip the Highlighter 

Good students use a highlighter to identify important information as they read, right? Color and bold-face are good, but highlighting does not encourage ACTIVE READING – it becomes a passive action that requires little input from the reader. Very little thinking is required to move the highlighter across the page.

Instead…READ WITH A PEN in hand. Underline, circle, and star ** important information, but also write notes in the margin such as:

• Questions: what’s this mean?
• Arrows to connect examples to the main idea/headline
• Drawings: doodles of an idea will stick with you more than words

Write What You’ve Learned

After each section (or even paragraph if it’s a challenging text) write a summary note (annotation) in the margin of what you’ve just read. The act of having to synthesize the content will get you thinking and test whether you understand the reading. Also, by writing a notation of the content, you will remember it better and for a longer period of time.

Don’t want to take the time to write these notes? A brief margin note will save you time. It will enhance learning, improve your memory of the material, and save you from re-reading the entire passage later if you write a good notation.