Are you struggling to get above 4s, 5s, and 6s in English? It can sometimes feel like there’s a glass ceiling between you and the higher grades. You can see them, but you just don’t know how to break through to them. You’re reading the same text as everyone else, but they always seem to have much more to say about it than you do. Your teacher writes “More analysis” or “More detail needed” on your essay, but you have no idea what else to write.
In this blog post, I'm going to show you the habits of active readers before they read, while they’re reading, and after they’ve read – habits that you, with a bit of practice, can form yourself.
Follow along to learn these tips, and also check out my longer videos on English Language and Literature to help you get a better understanding of your exam texts and the kind of analysis the examiners are looking for.
Active Reading starts with Activating Your Imagination
Remember when you were small? Books had lots of colourful pictures and may also have had different textures to feel, buttons to press that made a sound, and even patches to scratch and sniff. That’s because small children have few memories of their own and very limited experience of the world, so they need all these stimuli to help them imagine the story.
As we get older, books have fewer and fewer pictures (and NO buttons to press!) because we are expected to use our imaginations independently.
It helps to think of a text as the written instructions for us to play a ‘movie’ in our heads – we need to ‘picture’ it, ‘hear’ it, ‘sense’ it, and ‘feel’ it. Skilled readers engage their imaginations to bring texts to life.
Engage Your Memories, Senses, and Emotions
Reading isn’t just about relating a text to your real-world knowledge. That's when it becomes really dry and boring, and your ‘movie’ just isn’t going to materialize. Instead, connect the text to your memories, senses, and emotions. These three things are extremely powerful because they are intensely personal and closely related – trigger one, and you often trigger all of them.
Readers who relate a text to themselves in some way are far more likely to find it interesting. If you find a text more interesting, you’re more likely to have something to say about it! Let’s look at some exercises to kickstart your imagination.
Exercise Your Visualisation Skills
Exercise 1: Drawing from Memory
For this exercise, you’re going to need a pencil and paper. Close your eyes and remember a time when you felt either really angry, really happy, or really frustrated. Where are you? What and who can you see? What can you hear? What can you sense? Now, open your eyes and draw the scene. Don’t worry about your artistic abilities – stick figures and emoji faces are fine. It’s not the end product that’s important; it’s the process of generating an image.
Exercise 2: Sensory Visualisation
Close your eyes and imagine some scenes that I’m going to describe. Get all your senses and any relevant memories and their emotions involved to create a ‘movie’ in your head.
Scene 1: You are on a beach: there are waves crashing and seagulls squawking; you can smell the seaweed in the air, taste the sweetness of the ice cream on your tongue, and feel the warmth of the sun on your skin. How are you feeling?
Scene 2: You are now in a deserted wood at midnight: the wind is howling, and a branch is creaking; you can smell the earth and plants, taste the rain on your tongue, and feel the damp coldness of the night on your skin. How are you feeling?
Gaining Extra Skills from Engagement
Now that we’ve practiced using our imagination, we can consider the extra active reading skills we gain from engaging our memories and our senses. Visualising (seeing pictures with our mind’s eye) and auralising (hearing sounds with our mind’s ear) while reading enhance our understanding and interpretation of texts.
Interrogate the text: Ask questions about it.
Make associations: Either directly through the writer’s use of metaphor and simile or indirectly from our own experiences.
Make predictions: About what is going to happen next.
Think critically and analytically: About what the writer is saying.
Contextual understanding: Work out unfamiliar words from their context.
Expand vocabulary: This makes us better at interrogating the text, creating a beneficial cycle.
Questions to Ask Before You Start Reading
1. What do I already know about this topic or genre?
Understanding your prior knowledge about a topic (e.g., global warming) or a genre (e.g., science fiction) sets a foundation for new information.
2. What is the text’s purpose?
Is it to inform, persuade, entertain, or make you think about an issue? Knowing the purpose helps set your reading focus.
3. What do I expect to learn or find out from this text?
Setting expectations prepares you for absorbing and understanding new material.
Questions to Ask While You’re Reading
Who are the main characters, and what do they want?
What's happening in the story or text right now?
How does this part of the story or text connect to what I already know?
Are there any words or ideas I don't understand? Can I use context to figure out what they mean?
Why did the author include this detail or event?
How does the author feel about the subject?
Are there any language techniques being used (like metaphor, for example)?
What’s the main idea of this part?
What do I think will happen next?
Questions to Ask After You’ve Finished Reading
What was the main message or theme of the text?
Did the text meet my expectations? Why or why not?
How did the characters change throughout the story?
What were the key events, and how did they influence the outcome?
What is my personal response? Did the text make me think or feel differently about something?
What questions do I still have about the text or topic?
How does this text relate to other things I have read or experienced?
What is the significance of the ending? Was it satisfying or effective?
By adopting these habits, you'll start to break through that glass ceiling and find yourself achieving higher grades in English. Happy reading, and remember to keep practising these techniques to become a skilled reader!
To explore more ways to enhance your reading practice, check out my effective strategies for developing a reading habit.
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