Over the course of this semester I have learned how to become an active reader. Before this year I never really had to annotate the things that I was reading and now that I have started to annotate I can see that it really helps. Annotating really helped me with engaging with the text and seeing things that I would miss if I was not being an active reader. While I am reading I annotate words that I may not be familiar with or important details in the text. In Gilroy’s article she talks about reading intensive from start to end, by doing this it helped me immensely. Putting in the extra time to read carefully allowed me to stay more engaged with the text and have conversations with myself about what I just read. Marking up the margins is also a strategy that I have learned. By marking up the margins it allows me to go back when I am done with my reading to go back and find important parts of the article rather than having to go look back and read the text again. Another way that active reading has increased my reading skills is now I am starting to ask questions when I read. Asking questions to myself such as “what is the meaning behind this” or “why would the author out this here” help me to think critically while I am reading. By becoming an active reader I can see that it has helped improve my writing as well, I use things that I pick up on when I am reading and add it to my writing.
