Why you should read your English early and how to remember them
Each year level is usually prescribed a book or text in high school, which will be studied throughout the year.
Even though the holidays are a time for fun, one of the best things you can do (especially in years 10, 11 and 12) in helping you prepare for the new school year is to read your prescribed English text before school resumes.
These texts can be hard
So why? There are many reasons to get ahead of your English text nice and early during the school holidays. Often English texts can be long and complicated. They are full of many hidden messages that need to be pulled apart and reflected on. By starting the text early, you can take your time and start getting your head around the different messages in the text.
Reduce your stress
In addition, waiting to read the text until school starts can often put on added workload and stress when added to your other school work and commitments. It is also common for many schools and teachers to have expected you to have read the text before school starts so that they can start work on the text straight away. So by getting onto it early, you will thank yourself later!
How to remember them after you finished reading
So how do you remember the text? While you begin to read the text over the holidays, one of the best resources to help you throughout the semester is to do chapter summaries! Chapter summaries are short paragraphs you create that summarise the text’s key points. These are helpful when looking back to undertake your essays and assignments about the text. It also helps consolidate your knowledge, ensuring you can summarise the most important parts of the text. This will then translate well once you get to your assignments.
Google and research can assist you to enhance your notes as well- you have time throughout the holidays to use additional resources to delve deeper into your text!
Quotes
Another key thing is keeping a document of all the key quotes you find in the text. Essays and assignments are always best supported with evidence from the text, such as quotes. So keeping a note of all the key quotes that relate to the text’s main themes is a helpful tool going forward. Don’t just highlight them in your book and never go back. That doesn’t help, and it wastes your precious time. Instead, make a quote document. In your quote document, write down a description of how you interpret that quote and why it is important, explaining how it relates to the main themes. Create subheadings and add your quotes to each relevant theme to prepare for your SAC’s and exams. This way, they are conveniently laid out for you. If you already work with one of our English tutors, ask them, and they will be able to help you build a comprehensive list.
Don’t overwhelm yourself
No one is expecting you to read the book in one night. The best tip is to read one chapter at a time. Or set yourself a certain amount of pages to read per day. Then make sure you set some time aside to compile your chapter summaries! For example, you may choose to read one chapter and then spend 20 minutes writing a summary and adding any relevant quotes you found.
Getting ahead of the English text, is the most stress relieving thing you can do to lighten your workload once the year starts! This advice can also translate to any other texts of study you have – whether it be a play or movie. You can also get ahead of the game by watching/reading these and summarising them.
Good luck and happy reading!
If you would like some extra help unpacking and studying your English texts reach out today on 0409 083 909 or click the button below to make an enquiry.
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