Best Reading Habits for High Schoolers: How to Make Reading Fun

It is important for online high school students to develop good reading habits. If they want to succeed in college and beyond, learning how to read effectively will help them achieve that goal. Habits include grasping the meaning of what you are reading, including summarizing key points and supporting arguments.

This builds your vocabulary as well as sharpens your critical thinking skills. It is also important to develop research habits that teach you to find specific information quickly and efficiently. A great way for students to learn effective reading techniques is by participating in extracurricular activities such as sports or clubs where they can develop these skills through practice and feedback from teachers, coaches, or peers.

Making Reading Easier

Making reading interesting also makes it easier to read. Students can set up a book club where they read and discuss books together or do school projects which require research. This is another great way for students to learn how to work with others, collaborate on ideas and cite sources in papers effectively.

Another important aspect of reading that many students struggle with is summarizing key points and supporting claims from what they have just read. Teachers can help students by making this a part of the writing process, providing writing prompts that require them to collect facts from multiple sources and then use those facts to support an argument.

For example, teachers may give the prompt “Make a case for why it’s good for college students to have roommates.” The student would then have to read articles or do research on the issue of whether or not college students should have roommates. While doing this research, the student would need to summarize key points and use evidence from multiple sources to support an argument for why they believe it is good for students to have roommates while in college.

What Are Good Reading Habits for Students?

We all know that today, more and more young people read on screens, but we can learn a lot from older generations when it comes to book reading. Long hours spent in the library reading for school are something that many students still experience, and fortunately, books are available in digital format. So, you don’t even need to carry physical volumes around (which is both hard on the back and environment).

Types of reading habits

 

Here are some tips on how you can make reading not boring:

Time of Day Matters

We all have different time frames where our brains work at their best ability. If you’re like me, chances are mornings aren’t your best time (neither are late nights or early afternoons), then you need to plan your reading around those times. In the age of digital everything, you can even make a daily habit of looking at your phone for a specific amount of time in the morning and only focusing on that one task. It is an easy way out if you’re not really able to concentrate enough to read something with great interest – but it also gives you a chance to try and see if this improves as you get more into your study routine.

Avoid Multitasking While Reading

This is probably one of the worst things students do when they have classes that require reading certain chapters from their books or other literature. You can’t read both sides at once – so don’t try! Reading is about developing mental associations between words, letters, and the meanings they carry – you won’t get that when your attention is divided. If you’re not able to focus on reading, try listening instead, it doesn’t require as much effort from you to make associations between words and their meaning – but it takes a lot more mental energy.

Structure Your Reading Time

A great way to make sure you don’t fall behind with work is to put aside a specific amount of time every day where nothing else matters except for getting through what’s been assigned. You can use applications such as Toggl to help assess how well you’ve been progressing with your goals. However, it is good to remember that if you’re feeling overwhelmed or like you want to give up on reading – that’s fine! If the subject doesn’t interest you, this will be difficult for anyone – to focus on picking something else up which does interest you and try setting a new goal instead.

Don’t Read Everything in One Go

Especially when it comes to schoolwork, too much information overload can severely affect your ability to concentrate at all. You have probably heard of active readers who highlight important parts of the text they are reading with pencils or highlighters to come back later on when they’ve reached their conclusion about what they’ve just read through. This allows them to stop worrying about recalling information or keeping up with the story they are reading. It is a beneficial tool, even in digital format, to keep your brain from going in circles.

Don’t Forget About the Big Picture

This means that you can use footnotes and annotations when needed – it is no longer necessary for everything to be consumed in one go! Some students find it really tough to put what they’ve read on paper (or on their computer), so this might help them get used to summarizing whatever it is they’ve been through – and make sure they haven’t left anything out. It’s also good practice for writing essays and thesis statements later on too.

Keep Practicing

All skills of life, reading included, take time to develop. Reading can be tricky at first, but definitely worth it!

Types of Reading Habits

There are two types of reading habits. One type is to read at random; this means that you pick up a book, start reading, and then set it aside when something more interesting comes along. This may be because the book is boring or the promises made by its dust jacket failed to materialize. The second kind of reading habit is much more productive: making time for reading every day, preferably simultaneously, so it becomes part of your routine. And if you find yourself with extra time, like waiting in line somewhere or watching TV, try to squeeze some in. Skipping an unenjoyable page here and there won’t hurt but still work towards finishing the entire thing.

How Do I Make Myself Enjoy Reading?

Reading is an essential skill in today’s world. To be successful, you need to know how to read and write effectively. This has been true for a long time, but the way people learn this skill may have changed.

Today’s students are required to understand information from electronic sources, not only from paper documents. There is no doubt that this information can be very difficult or even impossible to read because it may not be in the same format as the resource material they have used before. When this happens, students will feel like throwing in the towel and giving up.

The importance of good reading habits

 

But if we want to help them enjoy reading again, online high students need to be taught how to read effectively. Here are some simple rules to make reading fun:

  1. The text needs to be big enough so that your eyes don’t get tired when you read it. You can enlarge or reduce the font by pressing “Ctrl +” for larger and “ctrl -” for smaller.
  2. Reading is more effective if you sit next to a window or near an open door so that your eyes don’t strain from the lights inside the room.
  3. If you find yourself squinting or straining your eyes, take a break and relax before resuming reading.
  4. Not everyone has perfect vision, so have your eyes checked by an ophthalmologist once in a while. It’s better to know that you are doing damage to them before it is too late.
  5. If you want to retain what you read, take notes when your teacher explains something new about the subject matter. This will also help you solidify the ideas in your head and make understanding easier later on. To do this, open up a notebook or word processor and type any important points mentioned by your teacher or lecturer during class time or when they are explaining material for tests or quizzes. You can also put in some of the questions raised in class that was not answered at the time. When typing in these notes, don’t type the question mark. Just write down what you think is the correct answer to each part of the question and why you think this is so. When finished with your notes, present them to your teacher or lecturer for correction or grading.
  6. If possible, do not read at night before going to sleep because it may cause eye strain, leading to headaches in the morning. On occasion, it’s okay if you want to finish reading something that will be on a test but remember that excessive reading at late hours before sleeping every day will make constant visits to an eye doctor necessary.
  7. Reading new material should be gradual, especially when you are still trying to learn how through examples given by your teachers. New words are best explained by word of mouth. After explaining them to you, look them up in the dictionary or online for better understanding.
  8. Make reading a habit. If possible, read for about 20 minutes every day. It doesn’t have to be all at once and can help improve your eye health and level of concentration.
  9. When it comes time to do some research, remember that internet sites can be misleading, especially when they say something different from what you find in books or other online resources. Be sure to investigate these newfound facts further, so you don’t start believing everything you see on the web blindly.
  10. Reading for fun is good too, if only because it will get you away from all the stress and pressures of school or work. When reading for fun, make sure that you know where to find your bookmarks. It will be easier if you have already made a folder for it on your device.

Even if you have been doing it all your life, reading new material can be hard for students because of the stress involved. If you want to enjoy reading again, take the advice of this article and make sure that you are doing it right.