Speed reading is a skill that is surprisingly easy to improve. You can improve your speed by using special software or by attending speed reading courses. In this article we talk about 5 basic speed reading techniques that you can master yourself!
So here they are:
Stop saying words in your head
By the way, many people have an even more terrible habit: speaking the text out loud while reading. This slows down the reading process more than speaking thoughts in your head. Subvocalization is a habit inherent in most people. When reading, we seem to “hear” all the words with our brain. Try to get rid of this habit and your reading speed will increase significantly! All you need to do is turn off the mechanism of speaking the text in your head. Try chewing gum while reading, humming to yourself (tested it on myself, it helps!), or even eat.
Avoid "comebacks"
When we read, we tend to look back and stop at the word we just read. This slows us down significantly. Unfortunately, the only way to break this habit is to admit that you are doing it and notice when you do it.
Follow the text
One of the most amazing techniques for speed reading is “meta guiding” (text tracking). Remember how at school, when reading a text, you moved your finger/pencil over it or followed it with your head? So, this is exactly what this story is about. It turns out that this method seriously speeds up the reading process. Remember to concentrate on each word if you want to remember the information you receive.
Speed reading, in fact, is not for everyone. Most people are able to process huge amounts of information they read at high speed, but there are those who cannot. If you're interested, give speed reading a chance, but don't be discouraged if it doesn't work out. There are other options:
Skip sections (or even chapters) you don't need
Another trick to increase your reading speed is to skip unnecessary information. As former British Prime Minister Arthur James Balfour once said: “A man is only half a master of the art of reading unless he has added to it the skill of skipping unnecessary text.”
Skipping unnecessary text is one of the methods of speed reading, and although this is not the best method for schoolchildren and students, for example, for scientists interested only in certain sections of a particular book, the method is a great time saver. Professor David Davis shared his strategy for effective skimming:
1. Start with an introduction or preface. Read them carefully to understand what the main point of the book is and where the information you need is located.
2. Read the last chapter or conclusion.
3. Skim through all the chapters and read the first and last paragraphs.
Obviously, you won't do this with every book. We don't recommend it. Skimming is best used for those books that you are not very interested in reading or for a quick acquaintance with the book and identifying areas that interest you most for subsequent detailed familiarization with them.
Listen to audiobooks when you can't read
When you're traveling somewhere, cooking or playing sports, or other times when you can't read, listen to audiobooks. This is a great way to use your time effectively.
Read several books at the same time
Last year, Jeff Ryan set himself a goal of 366 books that he had to read in a year. This seems like an incredible goal until you find out how Ryan achieved it:
The idea of reading one book a day from cover to cover quickly failed. Jeff also had days when he was busy with work and raising children, and he did not have a minute of free time to read. As a result, he used the parallel reading method and eventually managed to complete his difficult challenge.
Of course, Jeff combined this tactic with others that we have listed here. The technique of reading several books at the same time means that you can distinguish between the material you are reading and it does not merge into a continuous mess in your head. If there are signs of this behavior, adapt the method to suit yourself: read books of different genres and formats at the same time (example: comics, novel and audiobook).
Give up books that don't work for you
The advice seems obvious, but we will still dwell on this point in more detail. So, if you have already read several chapters and do not feel any pleasure or benefit from reading it, then just stop reading it. Think about why you don't enjoy reading. Is it just the wrong book at the wrong time? If so, then just put it off until better times. Someone recommended a book to you and you don't like it? Return it to the seller, donate it, or give it to the library. Don't waste your precious time on books you don't like.
Summary
Take a look at the books you want to read. Using the methods described above, you will master them in less time. Set yourself a reading schedule and get going!
Quickly and efficiently absorbing new material and navigating the ocean of new information is the main necessity in the modern world of high speeds and frantic rhythms. But how can you learn to read quickly?
There are many techniques and technologies for teaching fast reading. Where to start? First of all, you should find out your current reading speed. How to make such a measurement? You need to choose a book suitable for work:
- It should contain several pages of complete, continuous text;
- These pages should not contain drawings, photographs or tables;
- These pages should not contain any technical terms;
- A newspaper or magazine is not suitable.
It is convenient to use a timer for training to measure out the required periods of time.
So, the book has been found! We carry out the first test. Read for one minute at your normal pace once full understanding is achieved. After exactly a minute, stop and count the number of words you read. This will be your reading speed. Remember it!
- The first acquaintance with the subject in question will be helped by “sliding”, i.e. paying attention no more than 1-2 seconds to one page. We just glance at the key phrases so that the brain catches the theme and the author’s style.
- It is not necessary to see the sentence verbatim; the brain itself will complete the connecting words. But negating words - “not” and “no” - should definitely be caught, they can change the meaning of the entire sentence.
- You should concentrate on the topic of the material, otherwise the speed will decrease due to the constant loss of the thread of the story.
- To pace your reading, use your left hand, moving it from left to right along a line, then back to the beginning of the next line until you reach the end of the page.
How to learn to read quickly. Self-instruction manual
When learning to speed read, it is important to determine its purpose. If you just want to spend your leisure time, you should turn off the high speed and relax, but if your task is new knowledge, then this tutorial will effectively help you read books on self-development, you will be able to learn incomparably faster than before.
- Typically, in educational literature, it is optimal to read with full understanding the first 2 pages of each chapter, where the main concept is introduced, and the final conclusion lines at the end, and the illustrative examples in the middle of the chapter can be read at your fastest speeds.
- In magazines, it is convenient to treat each column as a separate page of text and focus on the column using a pacing technique.
Now let's do an exercise to change the reading speed threshold. Breathe deeply, have a beautiful posture, smile! Start reading at your usual speed, after a minute double it, for which you should move your hand over the text twice as fast, or cover 2 lines of text with your eyes at once. At the 3rd minute, triple the speed! Read 3 lines at a time! Comprehension at this point is not important, we just allow the eyes, skimming along the lines, to see the words as quickly as they can. At the 4th minute, return to normal speed, fully understanding what you are reading. Repeat the entire training 4 times in a row. Thus, the exercise will take 16 minutes. Now test yourself and read the test text again, but at the highest speed at which you understand what you read. After a minute, count the number of words you read this time. Your speed has increased noticeably!
How to learn to read aloud quickly
And you also received a bonus! During the lesson, you developed a new quality: the ability to simultaneously cover a large area of the text with your vision, which means you automatically began to read quickly and out loud due to the accumulation in your mind of words that had not yet been spoken, but had already been transmitted to the brain by your eyes.
By regularly repeating the exercise given in our article, you will develop the skill of speed reading, a skill that will remain with you forever.
“I just sit in my office and read books,” is how one of the most successful and influential businessmen, Warren Buffett, describes his everyday day. He just sits and reads. And he advises everyone to adhere to this simple and straightforward routine.
Agree, this is a pretty useful habit. But not everyone knows how to instill this habit in themselves and not just read books, but extract everything useful and valuable from them. If you manage to read several books a month and are content with short-term insights, but do not apply anything you read, consider that you are simply wasting your time.
How to read more and have time to comprehend everything you read, remember and apply it in life is a subject of debate among many researchers. Each of them considers it their duty to offer their own unique methodology that will help you become more perfect in this matter. However, they all agree on one thing - reading books opens up many opportunities for people to grow and achieve success.
We will tell you about the most interesting methods of reading books in this article. But first we want to cover some basics.
How fast do you read?
One of the most obvious answers to the question “How to have time to read more?” - learn to read faster. The topic of speed reading is so popular that some companies (like Staples, for example) use it in their marketing campaign. By the way, the aforementioned Staples, to promote e-books, developed and implemented technology that allows you to determine your reading speed. Unfortunately, there are no texts for Russian-speaking audiences.
But Staples doesn't just provide such a widget to site visitors: the company collects and analyzes the data it receives. According to these data, 300 words per minute is the average for an adult. You can see more results below:
Average reading speed by group: primary school students, 8-9 years old (Third-grade students) - 150 words per minute; secondary school students, 13-14 years old (Eight grade students) - 250 words; college and university students - 450 cl; top managers - 575 words; university professor - 675 words; master of speed reading - 1500 words.
However, will speed reading help you read more? Is this the right path and is it justified? Not always. In the process of reading books, the most important thing is to understand what you read. It's no secret that people who deftly manage one and a half thousand words per minute, in fact, remember little from the text, comprehending practically nothing. So if your reading speed is average, don't worry. Gradually increase speed, but without compromising understanding. Only in this case will you be able to find the right path to having time to read more.
How much do you read?
Some people read quickly, while others read a lot. You will be surprised, but not all people are trying to save time on their favorite activity. In this case, speed reading is not an option at all. In fact, in this situation the question “How to read a lot?” disappears by itself: if a person loves to read, he will devote a lot of time to it.
According to a study by the analytical company The Pew Research Center, adults in the United States read an average of 17 books per year. How many books do you usually read in a year?
The key word here is "average". There are people who read much more than 17 books a year. There are also those who do not read them at all (19% of them, and according to the latest data for 2013, 28% of Americans). What does it mean? This means that if you start reading more, you will be head and shoulders above one third of the US population.
5 techniques that will allow you to read more books, blogs, articles
1. Speed Reading: The Amazing Technique of Tim Ferriss.
His method consists of 2 techniques:
- Draw a pen or pencil along each line you read, just as children do when they are learning to read.
- Start reading each new line from at least the third word, and try to catch the first two words with your peripheral vision. Move to the next line at least three words before the end of the line itself.
Ferriss calls this technique perceptual expansion:
“Untrained readers spend up to half of their peripheral vision reading... margins. If you read lines from beginning to end, you will waste about 25-50% of your time.”
How do our eyes see?
You may have already heard that to improve your reading speed you need to use your peripheral vision. Rapid eye movements, so-called saccades (fast, strictly coordinated eye movements that occur simultaneously and in the same direction), occur constantly while we read (from the margin to the beginning of a new line, for example). Minimizing these jumps is a sure way to increase your reading speed.
Conclusion: Using your peripheral vision will help you improve your reading speed. You won't achieve record-breaking changes in speed, but you will definitely start reading faster.
2. New Spritz and Blinkist techniques
Spritz and Blinkist are two completely new, unique techniques that will help you read not only faster, but also less.
As mentioned above, when reading, a lot of time is spent moving the eyes. Spritz technology eliminates this completely.
How it works? You simply look at a small rectangle on the screen of your laptop or smartphone, in which words from the text are displayed one after another. In each word, one letter is highlighted in red: this makes it easier for the eyes to concentrate on the center of the word.
There is a special bookmarklet called OpenSpritz, which allows you to read any text you find on the Internet in this way. Below is an example of one such text, which is read at a speed of 600 words per minute.
On the main page of the Spzirtz application you can try this technology at different speeds and in different languages (including Russian).
In addition to the revolutionary, in our opinion, Spritz technology, there is another one called Blankist. Instead of helping you read faster, Blankist only suggests reading the most important. The program splits texts into digestible parts. Each of them contains a key idea that you can read in just a couple of minutes.
3. Don't watch TV or get carried away with shopping
Shane says there are no secrets to this success. The average American spends the time he devotes to reading watching TV (35 hours a week), some kind of interactive entertainment, and shopping (at least an hour a week). Shane eliminated all these unnecessary activities from his life and used the saved time to read. In total, he reads 43 hours more per week than the average American.
4. Buy an e-reader
According to the results of a study by The Pew Research Center, those people who use e-books read on average about 24 books per year, while people without this device only manage to read 15. Question: Do you want to read 9 more books per year? than usual? If yes, then buy an e-reader. It is light and convenient, and you can devote any free minute to reading. Needless to say, in this situation you will read much more?
5. Read more, but don't read everything.
For some, this advice may seem completely illogical, but it is taken from an equally illogical book.
The book “How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read?”
This book was written by Pierre Bayard, a professor at the University of Paris. In it, he says that people usually divide all books into those that they have read and those that they have not read:
- books we have read;
- books we reviewed;
- books we've heard about;
- books we forgot about;
- books that have never been opened.
Who knows: maybe in order to be able to read more, you just need to look at the reading process a little differently. Obviously, the professor classifies those books that fall into the first 3 categories as read. Will this help you? Give it a try. But, to be honest, we doubt it a little.
3 Effective Ways to Remember What You Read
To learn how to better assimilate what you read and retain information for many years, you need to understand the specifics of how our memory works. To do this, remember 3 key words:
- impression;
- associations;
- repetition.
Let's say you read Dale Carnegie's book “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” You really enjoyed the book and want to remember as much as possible.
What should be done? Work on three levels.
Impression. You will remember much more if you emotionally work through the book. For example, you can play out some chapters in your imagination, try to feel the emotions that the author is trying to convey or is talking about. Imagine yourself as the main character of the chapters you read. You must create and manage your experiences. Thanks to them, you will be able to retain most of the information in your memory. If visual images do not help, then try reading chapters you particularly like out loud. Make the book make you feel.
Associations. The association method is known to many, but it cannot be ignored on our list, since it is characterized by record-breaking efficiency. Its essence is simple: you connect the meaning of what you read with something that is already familiar to you, and relate it to each other. In addition to the fact that this method will allow you to remember the texts better and more clearly, you will also understand them better. The rule works: it’s easier to explain something new if you compare it with something familiar.
Repetition. Repetition is the mother of learning. And that's it. The more often you return to the books you liked the most, the better you will retain them in your memory.
4 reading levels
Mortimer Adler, philosopher and author of How to Read a Book, identifies 4 levels of reading:
- Elementary.
- Inspection.
- Analytical.
- Thematic.
Each level builds on the previous one. The elementary level is taught to you in school. The inspection level is, in fact, a superficial acquaintance with a book or article, the same as “skimming.”
The most painstaking work happens at the last two levels. The analytical level involves a more thorough familiarity with the material. You literally read the book from cover to cover. During analytical reading you will have to go through 4 stages:
- Classify the book by subject.
- Briefly state what the book is about.
- List the main chapters and make connections between them. Describe each of these parts. Expand her role throughout the book.
- Identify the problem or problems the author addresses in the book. Describe them.
Finally, thematic reading requires you to read several books on the same topic and analyze each of them in relation to the other: compare, contrast, evaluate.
As you master these 4 reading levels, you will also develop the 3 memorization techniques discussed above. By dissecting the book into parts (at the analytical and thematic levels), you will consolidate in your memory the impressions you received from it. A thoughtful analysis of works on similar topics will help you better understand the material and remember it for many years.
Take notes!
Here's a little tip: take notes.
Write in the margins. Leave bookmarks. After reading the book, write a short review. Then you can return to your notes and notes and refresh your memory of the most important points from what you read.
The importance of notes and bookmarks is emphasized by Shane Parrish, already mentioned:
“After I finish a book, I put it away for a few weeks. Then I go back to it, study all the bookmarks and notes I made, re-read the chapters that I marked as important. I do this with all books without exception.”
Conclusion
Remember the main rule: books cannot be read, books must be studied. You should see books as an investment in your own education, and therefore in your own success. The craze for techniques that allow us to increase reading speed, which we can see today, at first glance seems to be life-saving, but they will be of no use if what you read is not comprehended and used. Learn to read correctly and you will definitely achieve excellent results.
Good luck and high conversions!
Being able to read quickly is not a luxury, but a must-have skill in the modern world. The need for speed reading is not even discussed, but, nevertheless, many people say that reading speed is established in childhood, and if your parents don’t try, then you will never learn to read quickly. This is the main myth. You can learn to read quickly at any age. How? I will talk about this in this article.
Don't read out loud
The main problem when reading a text is pronouncing words to oneself, but literally from childhood they “drill” something completely different into our heads, forcing us to read out loud. To prove that the teachers are wrong, I will cite this fact: John Kennedy, the former US President, had a record for speed reading, but he could say no more than 300 words per minute out loud. Is more evidence needed?Of course, it’s easy to say that it’s wrong, but how to fix it? To avoid saying words out loud when reading, do the following exercises.
Exercise “Lip Silence”
- Keep your finger on your lips.
- Make sure that your lips do not move.
- Hold a pencil or pen between your teeth.
- The tongue and lips should not touch the pencil.
Press your tongue against your teeth.
Exercise “La-la-la out loud”
While reading, say out loud any sound phrases (la-la-la, no-no-no) or individual words.
Exercise “La-la-la to myself”
While reading, say to yourself any sound phrases or individual words.
Exercise "Fragment"
Say a short text while reading. Various tongue twisters, proverbs, aphorisms, and poetic phrases are suitable.
Exercise "Counting"
As you read, count from 1 to 21.
Exercise "Music"
While reading, listen to calm music, following the development of the melody.
Exercise “Behind the Finger”
- You need to quickly move your index finger along a column of newspaper text.
- You should try to read the text at the same pace as the movement of your finger.
- There is no need to strive to deeply understand what you read.
- You need to read simple texts.
Concentrate on reading
Another problem that slows down the development of speed reading is returning to an already read part of the text. While you are returning to the words you read, you are losing valuable time, but the meaning of one word in the text does not matter much. Exercise "Concentration"
When you read a text, returning to what you read makes your brain think that you can go back at any moment, so your overall concentration drops. In this regard, MirSovetov recommends reading everything with the thought that you cannot go back, and even if you do not understand something, under no circumstances return to what you read. Don't stray from the given rhythm - and the level of understanding will increase.
Exercise “No Limits”
When reading, constantly exceed your own speed limits: read a page in a minute, then in half a minute, etc.
Expand your perspective
By reading my article, you have already seen that I condemn the school system of teaching reading, but it is not only about reading aloud. Another important point in reading, instilled in us since childhood, is running your finger along the lines. The idea is initially “rotten” because it does nothing to increase reading speed. Can a piece of flesh and blood compete with our thinking, the speed of thought? Of course not. The eyes of a person who does not read correctly move evenly, but they constantly stop and only then begin to move. This is the wrong education! Our finger cannot instantly jump from line to line, it takes time! And because of this time, our overall reading speed decreases! Exercise "Poems"
- Find a poem with short lines.
- Read one line at a time, focusing your eyes on the outer words.
- Gradually select poems with longer lines.
- Look at the wide panorama outside your window.
- Shift your gaze to the text, adjusting your eyes to the edges of the lines of text: the sector of the operational field narrows, it needs to be enlarged again and again.
- Repeat these steps several times.
- Read the text of a newspaper column, accompanying the reading with four fingers, quickly moving them from top to bottom.
- Do the same with three, two and one fingers.
- Go to the window that you have already looked through (exercise “Window”).
- Shift your gaze from the panorama outside the window to the text: the sector of vision narrows - expand it, repeating it again and again.
- Prepare several cardboard sheets with a slot for two, three or more lines of newspaper columns or strips of colored plastic film of the appropriate width.
- Read the text by quickly moving the frame or strip, taking in the entire surrounding text fragment at one glance.
- Draw a 3x3 square on paper and arrange the numbers from 1 to 9 in a chaotic order.
- Looking at the center of the square, without taking your eyes off, look for other numbers in order.
- Increase the square to 4x4 (numbers 1-16), to 5x5 (1-25).
- Take a spelling, antonymic, synonymous, Russian-foreign or other similar dictionary.
- Read words as quickly as possible, recognizing several words per second at a time.
- Turn on the music.
- Read quickly the first and last word in each line, without needing to read the other words.
- Walking along the streets, instantly “take away” the license plates of parked or passing cars with your gaze.
- Looking around, also “grab” the highlighted words on any signs and advertisements.
- Expand your field of view always and in any environment.
- Without moving your pupils, see as many objects as possible from all sides (bottom, top, left, right).
- Write the numbers from 0 to 33 with your eyes.
- Also write all the letters of the alphabet.
- Write a few phrases or phrases.
Reading skills are the basis of all learning, one of the main conditions for a child’s success in school. The process of reading for children is quite complex, because it simultaneously involves memory, imagination, sound and auditory catalysts. Meanwhile, the reading speed should be as close as possible to the speaking speed. But how can you learn to read quickly? You are offered a fast reading technique that will help your little prodigy significantly raise his own level and increase his reading speed.
At school, a child who has a low reading speed will have a harder time learning new material. During the time that he will spend reading the terms of the task or exercise, a fast reading child will have time to copy everything into a notebook and begin to complete the task. Reading speed is the most important factor in academic performance, so learning to read quickly is very important. There is such a thing as “optimal reading”; it involves reading 120-150 words per minute. This figure appeared for a reason - it is believed that it is when reading at this pace that the best learning of the material is achieved by the student.
Why is learning to read quickly not for everyone?
Some of the main reasons for slow reading in children are the following:
Reason No. 1. Low level of memory and attention (reading the fourth word, the child no longer remembers the first, and, therefore, cannot understand the meaning of what he read). Attention is the main engine of the reading process. Brain processes themselves are very fast, and therefore a child who reads slowly switches his attention to some extraneous thoughts, as a result, interest in what he is reading disappears, reading becomes mechanical, and the meaning does not reach consciousness. Therefore, the main advice in this case is to be sure to systematically work with your child at home to develop memory.
Reason No. 2. Reduced volume of the operational field of view. That is, the child’s gaze does not cover the entire word or even several words, but only two or three letters.
Reason No. 3. Low vocabulary.
Reason No. 4. Regression - so-called recurrent eye movements. Many children, without noticing it themselves, re-read the word twice, automatically, as if to be completely sure of the correctness of the reading.
Reason No. 5. Underdeveloped articulatory apparatus.
Reason No. 6. Works selected not according to age.
Speed reading technique: how to learn to read quickly?
There is special training for fast reading, a special technique for fast reading developed by specialists. The following exercises will help ensure that your child has the technique of reading quickly, consciously and expressively: .
Learning to read quickly: step one.
Involve your child in an active reading process from an early age.
Read to him yourself more often, and while reading, stop at the most interesting moments and, citing fatigue, ask the child to read a piece of the work. Pretend that you were distracted and listened, be sure to ask him again what he just read, ask what words were repeated several times? Explain words the child does not understand. Discuss what you read.
Learning to read quickly: step two.
Make reading an essential part of your daily life.
Every day, write your child notes, some postcards, plans, to-do lists that you instruct him to do.
Learning to read quickly: step three.
Make watching filmstrips a tradition for some time, like reading a fairy tale before bed in infancy. A slow change of bright frames, short captions under each, easy to read - excellent conditions for improving the technique of quick reading.
Learning to read quickly: step four.
Master parallel reading.
To do this you need to prepare two identical texts. You will read the text out loud, and the child will follow you, running his finger along the lines. Gradually increase your reading speed, but make sure your child keeps up with you. Read some passages slowly and some quickly, for example, thus highlighting dialogues. Ask if the child noticed the change in speed?
Learning to read quickly: step five.
Monitor your speed reading technique and give your child timed reading tasks.
To do this, select a simple text consisting of words familiar to him, time it, for example, one minute, and then count how many words he managed to read. Be sure to tell him this number and “stimulate” his interest with a question like: “Can you do it faster? Let's check!". Let him read the same text again, there will definitely be more words read. Praise him and time him again. Do this three times, but no more. This task will demonstrate to the child that he can read much faster and that learning to read quickly is not at all difficult.
Learning to read quickly: step six.
Practice reading silently, not out loud.
When reading aloud, the following processes occur: 1. the eyes read the text, 2. a signal is sent to the brain, 3. the speech organs are prepared, 4. the text is spoken out loud, 5. the ears perceive it, 6. the signal is again sent to the brain to analyze what was heard and compare it with read. With such reading, the loss of speed is obvious; whispering is exactly the same story. When reading occurs “to oneself”, the picture is completely different. The child’s eyes run ahead, and he begins to understand the meaning of the text he is reading, and the speed increases accordingly, sometimes significantly.
Learning to read quickly: step seven.
Games with stress.
As already explained, understanding the meaning of the text being read is the main trump card in how to learn to read quickly. And placing the correct emphasis is not the last thing here. When reading a word incorrectly, the child does not grasp the meaning, loses the thread of the story he is reading, and accordingly reduces his speed, and cannot retell what he has read. How to read quickly if your brain is feverishly trying to find meaning, but in the end, it never finds it. Therefore, learning to read quickly also involves practicing stress. Choose any word and place emphasis on all syllables in a row, so the child will understand more clearly what exactly is being said. Then ask him how to pronounce this word correctly.
Learning to read quickly: step eight.
Stumbling over consonants.
Children often stumble when reading when they see several consonant letters in a row: “sister”, “mug”, “construction site”. Your task is to write down such words on a piece of paper and let your child read them periodically until the difficulties with such moments disappear. Don't be lazy to add new words.
Learning to read quickly: step nine.
Buzzing reading.
The following speed reading technique may seem strange to you, but you should not neglect it - it is very useful for learning how to read quickly. The child needs to read to himself and at the same time buzz out loud like a bee.
Learning to read quickly: step ten.
Develop your vigilance.
Write five or six vowel letters in a row, inserting one consonant letter somewhere in the middle, and ask the child which letter is the extra one?
Learning to read quickly: step eleven.
Develop your intelligence.
Write words that differ by just one letter. For example: 1. cat - mouth, 2. cat - whale, 3. forest - weight, 4. forest - bream. Ask what the differences and similarities are between these words.
Learning to read quickly: step twelve.
Articulatory gymnastics as a technique for fast reading.
Such exercises improve pronunciation, regulate breathing, and make speech clear. To do this, read more tongue twisters, and do it in different ways: loudly and confidently, slowly and in a whisper, strictly monitor the reading, clearly pronounce the endings in words. The quick reading technique also includes reading sayings and proverbs.
Learning to read quickly: step thirteen.
Development of the visual field.
Take a sheet of paper and draw a table, writing one letter or syllable in each cell. The child is required to read them all to himself, pointing to the letter with a pencil, and trying to read quickly. It is important that he tries to remember the location of the following letters or syllables one after another. You can read them from top to bottom, from bottom to top, form words, and so on. .
Learning to read quickly: step fourteen.
Develop anticipation - this is what is called a semantic guess.
While reading a text, the child catches the next word with peripheral vision and can, based on what he read, guess what the next word will be. The fast reading technique may include the following exercise, the purpose of which is to develop anticipation. You need to write sentences that contain words with missing syllables or letters, let the child fill in the missing letters. Then, complicate the task and simply write separate phrases or words for it, with gaps in the middle, at the end, at the beginning of the words.
Learning to read quickly: step fifteen.
Reading with a bookmark.
When reading a text, the child should move the bookmark not as usual, under the line, but covering the word he has already read with it. This exercise will help you learn to read without repetition and increase your pace.
Learning to read quickly: step sixteen.
Concentration.
This speed reading technique involves reading words that are written in different fonts. Moreover, such words can appear in a row, making up one sentence. It is necessary to ensure that different fonts do not confuse the child and are not perceived by him as some kind of obstacle.
Learning to read quickly: step seventeen.
Build up your words.
Write on a piece of paper in a column the words that increase in length as they are modified:
Learning to read quickly: step eighteen.
Learning to read quickly: step nineteen.
Reading through teeth.
The child reads an unfamiliar text at maximum speed, clenching his teeth and lips tightly as he does so. After reading, he will need to answer some questions about the text. It is recommended to carry out a similar exercise every time before reading a text out loud.
Learning to read quickly: step twenty.
Accompanied reading.
Learning to read quickly: step twenty-one.
Tapping rhythm.
The exercise involves the child reading an unfamiliar text while simultaneously tapping a previously learned rhythm with a pencil.
Learning to read quickly: step twenty-two.
Learning to read quickly: step twenty-three.
Required daily five minutes of reading.
The child should read in buzz mode for five minutes. These exercises need to be done 4 lessons daily. Family games. Don’t be lazy and regularly organize all kinds of letter and word games in your family. Such training will help the child easily navigate the space of many letters and easily read unfamiliar words.
Learning to read quickly: step twenty-four.
Reading consonants.
It is necessary for the child to take a deep breath and as he exhales read 15 consonants - absolutely any set will do, for example: s, t, p, k, n, w, g, v, g, l, g, sch, n, f.
Learning to read quickly: step twenty-five.
Forming words from halves.
Take some simple word, break it into two parts and write it on two different cards, thus preparing about 10 words for one lesson. Invite your child to fold the cards to form a whole word. It would be even better if several versions of such words could be made using the same cards. Constantly change and add cards. Over time, move on to more complex words consisting of three or more syllables.
Learning to read quickly: step twenty-six.
Reading with expression. The child needs to read a short passage of text, as he usually reads. Then return to the beginning and read it again, but with expression, with intonation, and therefore at a different pace. Having read an already familiar passage, he must continue reading the text further without stopping. The point is that the tempo, developed and accelerated in a text that is familiar, does not subsequently subside, even when it moves to an unfamiliar part.
Learning to read quickly: step twenty-seven.
We train attention. While reading the text, the child, on the command “stop,” stops reading, lifts his head from the book, closes his eyes and rests for a few seconds. Then, at the command “start,” he must find the very place in the book where he previously finished reading.
Learning to read quickly: step twenty-eight.
The child, silently, reads a short paragraph at maximum speed, he should start reading the next paragraph out loud, then again - the paragraph to himself. The method of fast reading in this case works like this: reading silently, as you remember, is much faster, reading aloud; with sudden transitions, the pace of reading is partially maintained, and the child reads faster.
Learning to read quickly: step twenty-nine.
Role reading.
Learning to read quickly: step thirty.
Reading upside down text.
You can learn to read more confidently and quickly by practicing reading a sheet of text turned upside down. This contributes to the development of the skill of memorizing complete letter standards, combining letter analysis with semantic endings of words
Learning to read quickly: step thirty-one.
Set of deformed sentences.
Practice changing words in a sentence with your child. For example, write a sentence: “friends came to me for a holiday”, out of place: “friends came to me for a holiday.” Write about a dozen similar sentences on a piece of paper and let the child unravel them.
Learning to read quickly: step thirty-two.
Search for a given word.
Arrange a competition with children or involve an adult: say any word from the text on the page, whoever finds this word faster is the winner. Incentive prizes are welcome. Such a game will develop the ability to see not individual fragments, but a holistic image of a word. In addition, the exercise develops verbal memory.
Learning to read quickly: step thirty-three.
Schulte tables.
Essentially, these tables represent randomly arranged numbers, the task is to quickly find them in order. The main benefit of this fast reading technique is to expand the field of vision and develop the speed of search visual movements. Draw a square of approximately 20-25 centimeters, dividing it into 30 cells. Write numbers randomly into these cells, starting from 1 to - 30. The process of searching for numbers must be done by silent counting, silently and indicating the found numbers with a pencil. Before starting the exercise, the child needs to fix his gaze in the center, so as to see the entire table. In addition, horizontal or vertical eye movements are prohibited; the gaze, like the numbers, must be in some sense disordered. A prerequisite for improving speed reading technique is systematic practice and a positive attitude. The question of how to read quickly and the development of methods and techniques for fast reading are dealt with by some authoritative experts, whose literature we would recommend you to read: Academician Andreev, I. Fedorenko, E. Zaika, N. Zaitsev, I. Pelchenko and others. Remember that the ability to read fluently is not an end in itself, it is a vital necessity, without which it will be very difficult for your child to study further and achieve any success, both academically and in communication. Children learn the material faster and show a readiness for creativity and self-expression. Success gives birth to joy, self-confidence, and stimulates leadership.
And most importantly: do not skimp on your student’s praise.