How We Teach Our Students to Read

How we teach our students to read is a method that is time-tested and effective. Unfortunately, it's also a company secret.

Thankfully, we use more than one method and we're more than willing to share so that our readers can improve their reading skills on their own and at any reading level.

• Read a lot. This is one of the tips that we give our students on their first day with us. Reading is almost like a sport in that the more you do it, the better you'll be at it. 
• Read what you love whenever possible. Sure, you're going to have to read some potentially boring (but still rewarding) books at school, but in your free time you can read whatever you want. 
• That being said, step out of your comfort zone sometimes. If all you read are mystery books, try reading historical fiction once in a while. If all you read is non-fiction, try science fiction! 
• Make reading an adventure. Reading transports you places in your mind that you may never otherwise be able to go to. Reading can take you to France in 1863 or Egypt during Cleopatra's rule, New York City one hundred years from now or 65 million years ago right before everything changed. Reading can allow you to visualize the rise and fall of empires, the birth and death of the most influential people ever to have lived, and the greatest changes ever to have taken place on this planet. You can go anywhere in time and space. Isn't that amazing?
• Discuss what you reading. Asking yourself or being asked questions about what you read helps you develop critical thinking skills.
• Write about what you read. Whether it's a journal entry describing what you read, a book review, a character analysis, an essay, or an alternative ending, writing about what you read will help you find new levels of meaning within any text.