Reading Tips and Tricks for the Busy Ninth Grade High School Student

Because of all the stresses involved with the freshman year of high school, it's important to talk your high school student. Your student should know the importance of making school a priority. These are the skills that will carry them the furthest in their academic and professional careers.

Dennis Doyle, the Learning Center Director and Reading Specialist at Glendale Community College in California recognizes that reading and subjects like math that are largely based on texts and following directions can be taxing and time consuming.

Doyle's tips revolve mainly on how to read faster and more completely. Keep in mind when sharing them with your child that reading shouldn't be hurried through unnecessarily. Your student should enjoy reading and should keep free time available to read novels and magazines of interest. Following Doyle's tips can encourage a student who isn't as fond of reading to read more often, while offering the avid reader ideas for getting more out of their time.

Pay attention

Doyle emphasizes paying attention to everything that you read as if it really matters so that you don't become trained to reading passively. Doyle suggests you encourage your child to 'preview' the passage they are about to read. Make note of the chapter title, headings, visuals, graphics, bold lettering, and the topic sentences. Then quiz your child on what the chapter is about and what the main points are. Having an idea of what they're about to read read prevents your child from being lost from the start.

Reading isn't the Same as Speaking

It may help your child to not read aloud. Moving the lips while reading or reading every word aloud slows down the process of reading by adding the unnecessary element of having to convert the information to speech. According to Doyle, reading should involve only the eyes and brain.

Thought Grouping

Your child should try reading in thought groups. This means reading in phrases of three or four words. Comprehending blocks of words is not much more difficult than comprehending individual words, and it enables your child to read more thoroughly because he or she is automatically comprehending the relationships between words.

Always Move Forward

Make sure your child is paying attention to his or her reading so they do not re-read the same phrases. Reading it well the first time eliminates having to read it two or three times, which doubles or triples the amount of time spent reading, Doyle says. Doing a preview of the passage (see Tip 1) can also help your child to eliminate multiple readings because they will better understand the main themes of the passages.

Vary Your Pace

Alter your child's reading rate according to the content and difficulty of the work they are reading. Take more time with things that your child may not be unfamiliar with to eliminate having to go over them three or four times. Similarly, if something is familiar to your child or easy for her to read, allow them to quicken their pace. Make sure your student does not waste too much time on what they already know.

Sharing these tips with your ninth grader can make the transition to high school somewhat smoother. Having a good understanding of how to pace him or herself while reading and how best to absorb the content is a valuable tool that will increase the time that your child has for other homework assignments, as well as free time for themselves. Reading should always remain a priority to your child. Encourage them to pick up books in their spare time.