Reading strategies: Introduction (SVFL)

Have you ever experienced being so enraptured in a story that the world around you stops? That the world of your imagination seems so real - like it's actually happening - and the main character's emotions feel like they're your own? Congratulations! It's an amazing feeling to have a reading experience like that! On the other hand: maybe sometimes you have felt frustrated when reading? ...

like you want to throw the book at the wall, or at least stop reading? ... And in that moment, that was certainly what you did - you stopped reading! You're not alone. Everyone feels like that sometimes! When it feels like that, it's often because the text is too difficult - so you're getting nothing from it.

The text becomes boring and pointless: "Why should I even read this!?" You can carry on reading, and also get rid of that feeling! You too, can disappear into the world of fantasy, or immerse yourself in an interesting topic. The key to a better reading experience is to read actively! Reading actively is more than just understanding the letters and the words, and forming sentences from them. When you read actively, you pause frequently, and think about the meaning of the text.

You reflect actively on what you are reading. There are several different strategies you can use to read more actively. Here are six good ones, that you might find useful: Predict what is going to happen. This builds your curiosity for the text. Connect to the text, by comparing it to some other text, something you have experienced, or to something that you know about.

Understand difficult words: pause, and figure out what they mean. Find clues to the things that aren't actually written in the text, but still can be guessed from it: read between and beyond the lines. Summarise a text, by pulling together the most important bits. And finally, create an inner image, visualise, what you are reading. Here they are again: six useful reading strategies.

They work in similar ways - all of them: From time to time while reading, pause, and do what a strategy suggests! You have especially good help from these strategies if you read a text type that you aren't used to, or a text that is more difficult or complex than the ones you normally read. When you start using reading strategies, or apply them more often, you'll notice that... ... you get a more intense reading experience of narrative fiction, and empathize more with the story... ... you understand factual texts better, and then find them more interesting... ...

you can participate more in discussions in social media, as you get better at discerning the difference between opinions and facts, on blogs and in debate pieces. You become a more critical reader. To read actively is thereby a way to keep up with what's going on in society, take part in public conversation, and be part of a democratic society. If you are an avid reader, you probably already use several of these strategies, without thinking about it. But no matter whether you are a habitual reader, or if you find reading difficult, you'll be helped by working more with these reading strategies.

By using them, you'll get more out of your reading. Reading... ? This doesn't just concern reading. You can just as well use the reading strategies when you listen... ... to an audio book, a podcast, or to someone reading aloud to you.

To pause and reflect, will deepen your understanding, of stories, facts, and of opinions. No matter whether they are written or spoken.