Painless Reading Comprehension - Darolyn “Lyn” Jones Ed.D. 2021

How can reading and graphic organizers help?
Reading strategies

Remember that reading organizers help you organize your reading. Graphic organizers are just what they sound like they are. They are graphics, which are pictures, lines, circles, and other shapes. And, once you add your own words to those shapes, you will have organized your reading. Graphic organizers help guide you, help prompt you, and help you think. They are like glue and help your brain stick to the reading.

Before, during, and after you read

Before you read, reading and graphic organizers remind you of what you already know about a topic and help you to think about what you want or need to know about the topic you will be reading. By asking you to use your background knowledge, you can connect or glue yourself to what you are reading, which makes the reading easier and more interesting.

While you read, graphic organizers help to keep your reading brain alert and awake and focused on what you are reading. They also help you fix up any confusing passages you come across. They may also ask you to predict or think about what is coming next, which again helps to keep you glued to the reading.

After you read, reading and graphic organizers remind you of what you read. They also help you to navigate through all the thousands of words to find the most important ideas in the reading. Finally, they keep what you read in your head.

In this chapter, you are going to practice! You will read passages and try out some more graphic organizers. You will practice using them before you read, while you read, and after you read. You have seen some of the graphic organizers in previous chapters, and a few are new. This is just a practice chapter. You don’t have to do every single one. You should always give new ideas a chance, try them out, but if they don’t work, then you need to move on. What works for one person may not work for another.

I prefer reading organizers. I like fewer lines and more words because I am not a visual learner. I remember words better than I remember images. But my friend Julie, who is an art teacher, loves images. She likes graphic organizers with lots of lines and shapes where she just has to write in a few words. She doesn’t mind if the graphic is long and detailed, as long as it has lots of images to prompt her thinking.

You all read and think differently. That’s what makes you human. The key to being a successful student isn’t making A’s all the time—it’s understanding how you learn and how you read successfully. If you know how you work best and what tools work best for you, then the A’s will happen. More importantly, you will know yourself. When you know yourself and how you work, you can conquer anything.