Hobbies And Interests
Pick the Right Environment
Your reading environment greatly effects your ability to focus. If you are in a busy environment with family or friends distracting you, you may find yourself reading the same page over and over without remembering what it said. Television and music are also major distractions. If you are having trouble focusing, move to a quiet and solitary place. Make sure to sit up when you read. If you lie down, you may start dozing. Get comfortable, because discomfort will distract you.
Practice Reading
Practicing reading is the key to getting better. The more you read, the more easily you will recognize words, sentence and paragraph structures. Try reading half an hour each day. Pick out a book at your reading level; no matter your grade level, choose books you can comfortably read. Once you have practiced reading for several weeks, you may find yourself moving up to more challenging books.
Look up Words
Keep a dictionary at hand. If you skip over words you don't understand, it will be more difficult for you to comprehend the overall story, and you will not increase your vocabulary. Instead, look up words you don't understand. When you see the word again you'll recognize it. The larger your vocabulary, the better you will comprehend reading, which will help you during tests and exams.
Pay Attention
You can try several exercises if you are having trouble paying attention to what you are reading. First, read aloud. Saying the words correctly takes a conscious effort that will make you pay attention to reading. When you read aloud, you are using both your visual sense and your listening sense, which means more attention is being drawn to the text. Second, try to anticipate what will happen next. This will make you think about all elements of the plot and characters and may get you more involved in the story. Third, summarize each chapter after reading; this makes you recall characters, events and plot shifts as you read.