Active Reading Strategies

Goal

Use these strategies to understand and remember what you read.

Reading Aloud

Read out loud, not in your head. Best when you are alone. Helps you focus and understand dialogue. Keeps your brain engaged.

Annotations

Write small notes or symbols in the text. Use pencil and eraser if the book is not yours. Helps you remember key points. You can go back to your notes later.

Highlighting

Use highlighters for your important info. Color code, for example yellow for theme and blue for characters. Helps find details for essays later. Makes reading more fun and organized.

Gisting

Write short one or two sentence summaries. For short stories do every paragraph or two. For books do every chapter. Helps you remember what is happening overall.

Prediction

Guess what will happen next. Keeps you thinking while reading. See if your guess is right or wrong.

Questioning

Ask yourself questions as you read. Write them down. Unanswered ones make great class discussion topics.

Graphic Organizers

Use charts or maps to organize info. Helps when writing essays or finding evidence. Add page numbers for easy reference.

Remember

Active reading means reading aloud, annotating, highlighting, gisting, predicting, questioning, and using graphic organizers.