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  • Hello.

  • My name is Emma, and in today's video I am going to teach you how to be a better reader.

  • So I want you to think about your life.

  • Are there any things that are very difficult for you to read?

  • Maybe you have to read something in English and you really don't understand what's happening

  • in the story.

  • Or maybe you're in university and you're taking a very hard course and you can't read the

  • textbook because it's really difficult and you don't know what's happening.

  • Well, if you're having difficulty reading or even if you just want to remember what

  • you read more and be a better studier, this video is for you.

  • So first let's look at some things students might be reading that might be causing difficulty.

  • Some students in their universities they have to read textbooks.

  • If you go to university or college, or also high school, you have to do a lot of reading

  • and you have to do a lot of complicated reading, especially for sciences, maths, history.

  • So, this is a very good method.

  • I'm going to teach you how to read these books better.

  • Newspapers.

  • Sometimes you'll be reading the newspaper and it's difficult, especially in another language.

  • So if you're reading a newspaper and, you know, you want to be better at reading it,

  • this video is for you.

  • Internet sources.

  • There's a lot of great things on the internet to read, and so this will also help you if

  • you look reading things from the internet.

  • Magazines.

  • Journals, for anyone who's a professional, whether you're a doctor, a nurse, a historian,

  • or if you're in university or college, a lot of the times you have to read something called

  • a journal, which is something for professionals to read about their field.

  • So it's usually modern research.

  • These things can be very difficult to read, so if you're reading these, this is a great

  • technique for you.

  • If you're doing the TOEFL or IELTS.

  • Although I wouldn't recommend using this technique on the actual exam, I think it's great for

  • your practice tests and I'll tell you why a bit later.

  • So you can use this when you're practicing for the TOEFL and IELTS.

  • And finally, if you're reading Shakespeare.

  • When I read Shakespeare I had no idea what was going on.

  • It was very confusing, all of the old English.

  • I found it very difficult to read.

  • There are also a lot of books that can be very, very hard to read.

  • So these techniques will really work for you for any of these situations and many more.

  • So before I teach you about the KWL technique, I just want you to think about reading for a second.

  • Okay?

  • A lot of people when they pick up a book, that's all they do.

  • They open it up and they start reading right away, and then they close the book and then

  • a lot of the times they don't really remember anything they read or they don't understand

  • what they read.

  • So it's a lot of wasted time.

  • I like to think of reading how I think of jogging or running.

  • So if we look here, I have the word "running" or "jogging".

  • If you like exercise, any type of exercise kind of follows this format.

  • So, reading is a lot like running.

  • What a good reader does is they have a warm up period.

  • So if you think about running, before you go running you usually stretch.

  • Maybe you'll do a little bit of movement to get your heart pumped.

  • So you don't just start running.

  • You do a warm up.

  • The same is true with reading.

  • The best reading...

  • The best readers usually do a warm up.

  • For exercise, people then usually run or jog for a certain amount of time, and then afterwards

  • they have what we call a cooldown period.

  • So, "cooldown" is usually when somebody wants to slow their heartrate, so maybe they walk

  • instead of run, maybe they do more stretches, but they don't just stop what they're doing.

  • They slowly, you know, do slower activities before they stop jogging or running.

  • So if you think about reading like exercise, you should also have a warm up,

  • and then you read, and then the cooldown.

  • This is the meat.

  • This is the main idea of the KWL method, and I'm going to teach you exactly how we can

  • do all of this when we read.

  • If you do this...

  • The point of this method is it will really, really, really help you to understand what

  • you're reading.

  • You're going to understand a lot more, you're going to also remember a lot more.

  • And for those of you in university, and college, and high school, you're going to have to do

  • less studying because if you read something right the first time, you probably won't have

  • to keep going back again and again and again.

  • So using this method at the beginning will save you a lot of time.

  • So now let's look at an example of how we can use the KWL method.

  • Okay, so KWL, what does that mean?

  • Well, usually when I read something difficult, I make a chart like this.

  • And under "K", this stands for "Know".

  • What do you already know about what you're going to read?

  • So this is like the warm up of...

  • Remember we talked about running?

  • This would be like your stretching.

  • Then we have "W".

  • "W" stands for: "What do you want to know?"

  • What do you want to learn?

  • So usually we write a bunch of questions under here, and this is also a part of the warm up.

  • This really gets you thinking about...

  • You know, it makes you pay attention more to what you're reading.

  • And finally, "L" stands for "Learned".

  • This is like the cooldown.

  • In this area you are going to write: What did you learn from what you've just read?

  • Okay?

  • This is going to really help you with your memory especially.

  • What are some interesting things you learned?

  • Sometimes "L" is based off of what you wanted to know.

  • Maybe you had a question here, and then you can write, you know, the answer to your question

  • if you found it.

  • So anything interesting you learned, you write here.

  • Okay, so let's do an example of this method.

  • So I have a book I've been reading.

  • I don't know if you can see that.

  • It's Albert Einstein.

  • Now, I'm not really strong in science, but I'm really, really interested in physics and

  • math, but again, for me it's a little bit difficult to read about physics because I

  • don't really have a strong background in it.

  • So when I was reading this book, and I'm not finished yet...

  • But as I'm reading it, I'm actually doing the KWL method.

  • So I want to use this book as an example on how we can use this method.

  • First I wrote: "Know", and I thought about: "Okay.

  • What do I know about Einstein?"

  • So I did this before I read the book.

  • So, what do I know about Einstein?

  • Well, I know something, E = mc2, I know that has to do with Einstein.

  • I don't actually know what it means, but I always hear: "Einstein, E = mc2" so I'd write

  • that under "Know".

  • I know Einstein has crazy hair.

  • Okay?

  • That's something I know about him.

  • I know he's considered a genius.

  • I think he was German.

  • He's a scientist.

  • And I heard that he used to write the most romantic love letters, which is strange when

  • you think about Einstein, but I heard he was very romantic.

  • So these are the things that I already know about Einstein.

  • So now I can think about some questions.

  • What do I want to know about Einstein?

  • Before I read the book, what do I want to know?

  • Well, I know E = mc2, but what does that mean?

  • How do we use that?

  • I have no idea what it really means, so I'm going to write this as want to know.

  • I want to know: How did he discover it?

  • Was he in his lab doing an experiment, and found out E = mc2?

  • Or was he sitting on a beach and suddenly he just thought about it?

  • I'm really interested in: How do you, you know, think about these things?

  • How did he find out about E = mc2?

  • How is this theory used?

  • What is it used for?

  • Do we build things with it?

  • Is it used for...?

  • You know, what kind of science is it used in?

  • How do we use E = mc2?

  • I also heard before that Einstein failed math in high school.

  • I think somebody told me that in high school.

  • I don't know if that's true or not, so I want to know: Did he really fail math?

  • And I have a lot more questions, so I could go on and on, and so I write everything I

  • want to know about the book.

  • So then I sit and I read, and I read, and I read.

  • And while I read, anything that I think is really interesting or something that surprised

  • me, something that I learned, I write here.

  • So, in the first chapter I learned Einstein was married multiple times.

  • He married and then divorced, and then married again.

  • And he was...

  • He was really romantic.

  • I learned he didn't actually fail high school math.

  • And I learned he was born in Germany, but became a Swiss citizen.

  • And so I keep writing everything.

  • I'd write what E = mc2 means, but I don't really have space on the board, and I don't

  • want to, you know, complicate this lesson, so...

  • But this is a very, very good technique, again, when you're reading anything, including textbooks,

  • newspapers, magazines, biographies.

  • This is very, very useful.

  • So I really, really encourage you to try the

  • "K" for "Know" "W" for "Want to know", and "L" for "Learn" method.

  • I hope you come visit our website at www.engvid.com.

  • There you can actually do a quiz to practice these ideas.

  • It's not on Einstein, don't worry, but it's about reading and how to be a better reader.

  • So again, this is useful because it will help you remember more, it will make reading easier

  • for you, and you won't have to read the text again and again and again,

  • so it will save you time.

  • Okay?

  • I also hope you come visit our website at www.engvid.com because we have a lot of other

  • resources on reading there that you can use.

  • Also, please subscribe to my channel.

  • Until next time, take care.

Hello.

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