Why You Should Listen? 

Improving reading skills can be a real challenge because it is largely an activity that you do on your own. 

Unless you’re reading out loud for someone, or reading to answer questions at school for a test or project, your reading skills are largely something that are hard to see developing because feedback on your progress is well..mostly invisible. 

Invisible unless you start using this strategy... 

One of the best things you can do to grow your reading skills is to become an active reader. 

• That means you are interacting with the material you are reading. 
• As you read, underline and circle ideas you like. 
• Underline new words that you find. 
• Talk back to the writer/author in your notes - imagine you’re having a conversation with them. 

Practice Summarizing!

And finally, related to my story today, at the end of each section or chapter - take a moment and write a brief summary of what you just read. 

This will help you organize the ideas you took in as you were reading. It will also help you figure out how well you were understanding what you are reading. 

If you notice a section is hard, maybe go back and reread it. Pay attention to the parts that are more difficult for you. 

Pay attention to any new words that might be making it hard for you to follow. 

Think of summaries as an opportunity to check in with yourself to see if you’re following the main ideas of the writer. 

NOTE: this is not a tip for the actual CELPIP exam day. You won’t have time to write summaries and engage with the text in the way I am describing here. This is a tip for developing your skills over time. 

Helpful Links

I’ve created several podcast episodes and blog posts about how to develop your reading skills:

A playlist from my podcast around developing reading skills.

From My Blog:

Improve your reading skills. (A group if blog posts that I have created around reading skill development.)

Thank you for listening to today’s podcast episode. If you’ve enjoyed it, please subscribe to the show on your favourite podcast app. See you next Tuesday! 

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