Post #12

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.” -H.P. Lovecraft

Chapter eight, was by far the most interesting chapter, I thought. I was able to read it within two hours, which means it was just like a novel you can't put down. On of the facts within it, which struck me the most was the idea that speed reading does not improve your comprehension. Thinking about it now, it makes complete sense. When you are speed reading you are focused on reading at a faster rate instead of the content. But years (and actually minutes) ago, I would consider myself a fast reader. When I was younger, I would be able to whip through those little kid chapter books no problem, while all the other kids were still reading their phonics books. This was something I took pride in, and still sort of do. Of course, a chapter book and a college textbook are two completely different things and the levels of comprehension needed are differing. 

In terms of comprehension, when I was younger I did understand the chapter books and was a well-advanced reader. Going to SACS we had an Accelerated Readers (AR) program. Each student was given the opportunity to go onto computers and test on a book they just read for AR points, which they would be rewarded based on the difficulty and number of questions answered correctly on the book. These points could then be turned in for prizes at the end of the quarter. The weird thing is, because I am a fast reader, my comprehension was supposed to go down, but I did score perfect on a very large amount of the books. 

Another real life example of the reading comprehension, is a few years back my father had purchased a book which was to help him read faster. The textbook mentions these sort of books and how they are a waste of money. But, he is a remarkably slow reader and I do not blame him for trying anything to improve on his weakness. And so I took a look at the book, and it lays out the road to improvement fairly simply. You start by reading a while with having a finger follow each word you read, dragging the finger underneath it. After a long while at this, then you move onto just placing your finger on the side of the page to signify which line of the book you are on. I do not understand the science behind it, if any, but as a child I thought it would work. 

And so thinking back to the self-help book, I decided to try it on the college textbook today. At one point I was having trouble focusing so I used my fore-finger to guide along with each word and it actually did help regain my focus. Whether that focus was on making sure my finger stayed with the right word or actually on the content, I'm not sure.