Encourage active reading strategies

No matter how engaging the material, everyone “spaces out” sometimes while reading. But if your child is trying to read something for school, she really has to find a way to stay focused. So for your child’s next reading assignment, ask her to take “notes in the margin” while she reads. These notes should be short (fewer than 10 words per note), and she should aim for about one note per page. The note could be a trigger to help her remember something, a short summary, a question, a new vocab word, or her own opinion on what she’s reading – even if she disagrees with what the author is saying! By thinking about what she’s reading and actively engaging with the text, your child is significantly more likely to not only remember what she’s read but also understand it on a deeper level.