One of the aspects of developing good study skills that students often overlook is how important it is to read consistently. Both keeping up with assigned reading and making time for pleasure reading can be challenging, for a variety of reasons. For some students, reading is a part of their studies they struggle with, while others put it off to focus on other work, as well as on extracurricular activities and life away from school. Some students simply don’t like to read and/or don’t like what they have been assigned to read. These are only a few of the reasons many students procrastinate when it comes to reading, and many put it off for more than one reason. If you find that you put off reading for these or any other reasons, consider making keeping up with your reading a part of your plan to improve your study skills. While it may seem unappealing and/or daunting at first, making the commitment to read more consistently will pay off in the long run. No matter how varied your teachers’ lesson plans and teaching styles are, you will still be expected to read assigned material, and to do so in a timely manner, so the more prepared to keep up with your reading you are, the better off you’ll be.
If you are someone who finds reading particularly challenging, there are many things you can do to make it easier to manage, and even to enjoy. Some of these may be things you have heard before, maybe even many times and from many people, but before you make a plan to read more consistently and procrastinate less on assigned reading, they bear repeating. Whether or not you have paperwork that includes any of these things in the recommendations, and/or an education plan that includes them in the accommodations you are to be given on your work, these are all suggestions you can use outside of class if you think they will help you, not only to keep up with your reading, but to comprehend it well enough to be able to participate in class discussions and to do as well as you possibly can on assignments and tests that cover the material. Using an index card or a colored overlay to assist with tracking or a program that reads the book along with you to assist with decoding and fluency can all aid your comprehension of what you read. Most teachers will assign one or more ways to take notes on what you read, but just as with any other study skill, it is well worth asking for their assistance or for permission to use an alternative method if you find that what they ask of you exacerbates your learning challenges and/or does not fit your learning style. Whether you wish to write or to type, to annotate in the book or take separate notes, to make flashcards, or to dictate notes to a scribe or record and transcribe them yourself, the most important thing to do, especially with assigned novels or nonfiction texts, is to complete your notetaking as you go, so you have something to review as you read further, as well as when you complete assignments or prepare for tests on the material. If it is too time-consuming to keep up with both reading and notetaking each night, you can certainly catch up on weekends as long as it won’t keep you from being prepared for a quiz, and if you know your teacher plans to give quizzes throughout the course of an assigned reading unit, reading ahead the weekend before new chapters are due will also keep you from feeling overwhelmed with assigned reading during the week. Whatever approach you choose, an important goal to consider when trying to keep up with assigned reading is not to allow yourself to fall more than a week behind, because the more behind you are, the more difficult it will be, not only to catch up, but to do so in a way that will ensure your comprehension of the material and the best outcome possible on any work you need to complete.
If you are someone who puts off reading so you can focus on other work, one of the first things you need to do to become more consistent with it is to recognize that it is just as important an assignment as is any written work you need to do. Just as many students struggle to find the right balance between completing written work and preparing for tests, so many students also struggle to find the right balance between completing written work and making time to read. Ideally, your goal should be to find the right balance among written work, test preparation, and assigned reading. Though it may seem nearly impossible to do at first, the key to balancing these three important aspects of your studies is to plan for each of them. Whether you use a teacher-generated calendar, a mandatory assignment book, your personal device, or a combination of these methods to keep track of your assignments, it is important to include both test preparation and assigned reading in your plans, on weeknights as well as on weekends, whether your teachers do it for you or not. It is also important to spend whatever amount of time you are expected to on homework each night, rather than declaring yourself finished as soon as all written work due the next day is complete. Filling the remainder of your expected time with test preparation, assigned reading, or both will help you stay caught up or even get ahead, and might even provide you with time to read for pleasure as well.
If you are someone who puts off reading so you can focus on extracurricular activities and life away from school, or if you simply don’t like to read, and/or don’t like what you’ve been assigned to read, you may need to find creative ways to get your reading in, whether it is assigned reading, pleasure reading, or a combination of both. Even if reading is not particularly challenging for you, you might try some of the suggestions offered above to students for whom reading is challenging, just to motivate yourself to fit reading into your busy schedule, and/or to get through assigned reading you do not particularly like. You might need to bring your reading with you and make time for it during downtimes of an extracurricular activity, or to ask for help with a book you are not particularly into. Try to think about why your teacher assigned a certain book and find some value in it, instead of spending the entirety of the assignment wishing you were reading something else. If you are ever given the opportunity for free choice reading, choose wisely and/or ask for help to make your choice, so that you will be interested in what you’re reading and able to do the best you possibly can on any work that goes along with it. Above all, no matter how busy you think you are, or how much you think you don’t like to read, try to make time to read for pleasure, even if it’s only when you don’t have assigned reading to do. Whatever you decide to read, no matter the genre, reading level, or method you use – traditional book, e-book, audiobook, or any of the alternative methods suggested above- reading for pleasure will increase not only the enjoyment you get from reading, but also the success you see when you are reading assigned material. The more you read, the more you will like to read, and the more you like to read, the more able you will be to make time for it, no matter how busy you are.
While keeping up with your reading is one of the most important improvements you can make to your study skills, setting a goal to read more consistently and following through on it can be daunting, whether or not you are someone for whom reading is challenging. Whether you need to bring accommodations you receive in school home with you, figure out how to balance the need to read with the other work you need to do, or need to motivate yourself to read despite your busy schedule and/or your feelings about reading, recognizing the central role reading plays in your studies is an important key to success.