Reading Comprehension: How do I fully, deeply, and completely understand what I read by reading from an academic textbook, article or book?

Answer 1

I have a 2-part practical answer, with explanation, to your questions:

Because pictures often speak louder than words, please see "see" the short (2 minutes, 25 seconds) video that my American Heritage School students and their Video Production instructor produced. Please GOOGLE: "YouTube, ReadMate Commercial"

#1, There are three stages in the reading-learning process: 1-Attention, 2-Comprehension, and 3-Retention.

We seldom comprehend everything we pay attention to. Yet, unless we first pay our Attention to it, we will not be able to comprehend it. AND, unless we first comprehend it, it will not be Retain it.  

So, it all begins with, and is dependent upon... Attention!

Math students, for example, are obviously bright people. It takes a bright person to do well in Math, but Math students are often “slooooow” readers, which is why we choose to major in Math. Often, we choose Math because we can’t compete in the Liberal Arts, because we read too slowly. Yet, when we read slowly, we tend to be easily distracted. When we are reading slower than we think, we are easily distracted, which reduces Attention, Comprehension, and Retention.

Most all of us are reading below our potential.   

Thus, if you would like better, more efficient Comprehension, you probably should be looking at improving your Attention, which you can do WITHOUT drugs.

Fortunately, your Attention and Comprehension can be objectively measured and quickly “fixed”, by making reading a game. The game is called “Easter Egg Hunt”.

When I work with most readers for the first time, and I ask them, “What did you read”, many will answered, "Duh, I da know!"

Why, because they were not paying their Attention to what they were reading, which means that they were not asking themselves questions and looking for answers, as they read.

Attention is like money. You can waster your money and our Attention on may frivolous things, or you can pay your money and your Attention wisely, effectively, and effectively.

Most readers cannot tell me what they have just read, because they were not paying their Attention effectively, because they never learned that "Questions cause answers". They never learned to consciously (which can develop into an automatic, unconscious mental behavior) to always be asking themselves productive questions. Asking productive question, as we read, can turn even difficult reading into an Easter Egg Hunt.

OOH, there's one. OOH, OOH, OOH, there's another one!

It may sound silly, but it really works!

When we are asking ourselves the WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN questions, we can be assured that you are paying attention and reading more productively. We are controlling our mind to productively pay its Attention to what we are reading, as we are trying to find those Easter Egg Answers, rather than allowing our thought to distract our Attention.

Often, in a testing situation, we allow our mind to function unproductively, by allowing our mind do whatever it wants to do, which a colleague calls "Stinkin-Thinkin Self-Talk"; self-talk that distracts us, instead of focusing our Attention.  

We are always thinking, and doing self-talk, but we are often not thinking productively; asking ourselves questions and looking for answers.

Asking yourself productive questions, will enable you to quickly and dramatically increase your Attention, and then your Comprehension. It’s easy to learn, the WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN questions in a week, and then you can go on to master the HOW and WHY, and the WHAT IF questions.

Start by simply reading a passage, a page or two from a novel, then ask your study buddy to ask you what you have just read, using the WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN questions. Then switch with your buddy, so you are asking your buddy the questions, after your buddy reads a different passage.

Make sure you and your buddy do not feel that you are being “tested”. The objective is for you and buddy to “Get Your Picture”; the pictures each of you have developed in your mind. When your buddy “Gets the Pictures”, you can know that you “Get the Picture”. Get the picture?

Within a week of practice (in as little as 20 minutes per day), you’ll see a dramatically increase in your reading efficiency/comprehension. Best of all, this exercise doesn't take time, it makes time!

You and your buddy can even practice your Easter Egg Hunts via telephone. The more detailed questions your buddy asks you, and you ask your buddy, the greater your Attention and Comprehension will be.

REMEMBER, neither your buddy or your should feel that you are being “tested”. The objective is to “Get the Pictures”, and then to share them.

#2

Please see "see" the short (2 minutes, 25 seconds) video that my American Heritage School students and their Video Production instructor produced. Please GOOGLE: "YouTube, ReadMate Commercial"

None of us have perfect Attention, and some of us have less control of our Attention than others, which may mean we too are somewhat Attention Deficit.

Fortunately, there is newly published fMRI/Educational Psych research to indicate that Attention Deficits can be significantly overcome, WITHOUT drugs and their horrible side effects. Like teaching yourself to pay Attention, as you learn to always ask yourself productive questions, it’s now possible to teach more of your senses to be involved in the reading process, which means that more of your senses are “contributing” to your reading rate, Attention and Comprehension, rather than distracting you.

Does pizza taste good? If you recall your Psych or Anatomy-Physiology courses, you know that pizza does not TASTE good, because we can only TASTE 4 things; Sweetness, Saltiness, Sourness and Spiciness. Everything else that we think we taste…we don't. We smell many more things than we taste. However, our sense of smell and our sense of taste work so closely together, we can’t tell them apart. If we pinch our noses, we can prove it to ourselves. If we eat pizza when with our nose pinched closed or stuffed-up, all we TASTE is Sweet, Sour, Salty, and Spicy cardboard. Not till we open our nasal passages do we TASTE pizza.

What does pizza have to do with reading?

Well, if you don’t enjoy eating pizza with your nose closed, why would you read with only your eyes, when you could be using your sense of hearing and your sense of touch, too?

You could be reading 200-400% faster, with an additional 20 percentage points of comprehension.

Please refer to my WyzAnt info, or please submit another question, asking me how you too can dramatically improve your Attention, Comprehension, and Retention, without drugs/meds.