Taking a look at Cliff’s Notes or reading about the book online can be a good way to get a good summary of the reading to help you get through it more easily, but be aware some teachers do frown on anything like this and may give a lower grade or even nothing when they notice you were using it. Just don’t forget to go back and read through more closely.
Always try reading poetry out loud. Reading The Odyssey becomes a much more awesome experience when you invoke the muse aloud.
In school, having looked up an unfamiliar word or concept will always win you bonus points. It’s a good thing to get in the habit of doing.
Don’t underline or highlight too much, and definitely don’t highlight random passages because you think it’s expected. It won’t help you to go back through and study if you’ve just highlighted randomly, and it’ll make your text a lot more difficult to go back through. Make a character or plot map to help you follow along with your reading and to help you study later. This really helps with with visual learners.
Don’t write whether or not you liked the story, or whether you thought it was “boring. " Instead, focus on how it made you feel. Your first response might be, “I didn’t like this story, because Juliet dies at the end,” but think about why you feel that way. Why would it have been better if she had lived? Would it have? What might Shakespeare have been trying to say? Why did he kill her off? This is a much more interesting reaction now.
Try talking to yourself out loud if you don’t have anyone to talk with. Just the act of speaking can help you learn.
Don’t ask questions that can be answered with a “yes” or a “no. " Learning to ask “how” is a helpful way of coming up with big discussion questions. These encourage deeper thinking.
