|
english honors.
i'm a sophomore female in english honors. i was in A level last year, so naturally, by moving up to honors, it was a stretch, especially to the work load.
my problem is, i can write really well (i've gotten 100s on the esasys, which count as test grades), but my weak spot is reading comprehension.
every few days, our teacher assigns us a reading and then gives a 5-question quiz, 20 points a piece. this are especially stressful for me because the questions are details from the reading that i just don't recall at all. i read the chapters as thoroughly as i can, summarize it, and read sparknotes. yet, i always somehow manage to understand the first few pages very well, but then just completely miss the rest of it. idk what happens to me, but i just zone out, and i can never concentrate on a book unless i'm absolutely in love with it. i know i must develop good reading comprehension skills in order to do well in this class, but i need some concrete advice.
please do NOT suggest...
1. dropping to A level. i have a B+ / A- average in english now (because of the test grades) but a C quiz average.
2. reading more. i don't have the time. i already have homework and studying to do as soon as i get back from school till late at night.
3. creating questions as i read along. i try, but it's very difficult to keep track of what's going on in the books.
4. getting family members / friends to read alongside so that we can discuss it. they don't have time.
5. talking to my teacher. he's not much of an extra help kind of guy, and he wouldn't be able to help me. only i can help myself.
what can i do to stay focused on the reading? i want to do well in english honors, but last year, we never did this much reading comprehension, so i'm at a major disadvantage, especially since my absolute weakness is reading comprehension.
any advice?
[ ]
Want to answer more questions in the Work & School category?
Maybe give some free advice about: School?
Well, no, not really.
In your "please do NOT suggest" you have struck out almost every rational piece of advice a person can give you. You've basically said you have no time to do anything other then what you are doing and you are unwilling to approach anyone else about your difficulties. Unfortunately, without changing your approach (which inevitably takes a bit of extra time and effort) the outcome will NEVER change.
The only thing I can possible suggest is to talk to your friends and classmates about what questions they think will be on the test and the answers, as they seem to be more comfortable with discerning the important bits.
Having said that, I’m going to ignore your “please do NOT suggest”s for a second, and tell you how to better spend the time you have, and by devoting a bit of extra time to the maximum benefit:
Take an hour or two and go over all your old reading comprehension quizzes and look for similar types of questions. Brainstorm and write a list of the common types of questions you are asked by your teacher. These questions could fall into categories like these ones:
Interpersonal relationships: How does one character FEEL about another?
Predictions: What might have happened if someone did something differently? How could the main conflict have been avoided?
Main Idea: What is the main feeling/topic the reading discusses or invokes?
Facts: Are there important dates, places or historical events mentioned?
After you have a list of the different ‘types’ of questions your teacher asks, pick three or four of the more common ones to focus on as you read the passage. As you read, make notes whenever you come across something that is relevant to the types of questions you’ve decided to focus on.
If you find yourself zoning out after three pages and no longer making good notes, put the book down and do something else. Come back to it where you left off and read another three pages.
You do have a choice here: You can decide that this is just not an assignment you excel at, and to focus your time and energy at the ones you do and rely on them to keep your average strong OR you will need to put in extra effort and yes, extra time into discovering what parts of the reading your teacher wants you to comprehend. You can do this on your own, as I’ve described above. Or you can do this by dialoguing with other people who find comprehending the important parts of a reading comes naturally to them.
But you can’t just wish it away. Improvement takes effort and time and yes, even risk that the effort and time you put in might not pay off. However, without that effort and time and risk, improvement is unlikely, if not damn near impossible.
]
More Questions: |