How to Comprehend What You Are Reading

Video Transcript

"Comprehension is imperative if you want to make reading worthwhile, because if you don't comprehend what you've read, then you've wasted your time. Often times, people don't stop and ask themselves 'What did I just read? What was this about?' and that is a main-idea kind of thing. You want to find out what is the gist of the story, what is the big idea or the main idea? And then ask yourself some underlying questions of what are some of the details that support that information. When you read, your comprehension is directly attributed to what your interest is in the information that you're reading. If it's an assignment, it may be that you have to read it several times over in order to understand it because your interest truly isn't there. But if it's something that you're reading because you know every other kid in the school is reading it, then you read it quickly and with great comprehension because you know they're going to expect you to be able to talk about it when you see them. Often times, I'll ask my students to just take a look at what it is that they've been assigned, look at the title, look at the headings, take a minute to skim through it, maybe do some scanning. Sometimes, if it's possible, they can read with a highlighter and actually highlight those key phrases or words that are interesting to them, or that they think are important to their understanding of what's being said. So comprehension is something that is directly related to your interest and your ability to question what it is that you're reading as you read."