Crucial reading skills
By Marian Dent, Dean, Pericles American Business & Legal Education Project I just read a book by Ruth Ann McKinney about reading comprehension for law students. The book used the mnemonic: EMPOWER. It struck me that, with slight adjustments, the pneumonic can apply equally well to helping students read for standardized tests. E in Empower stands for “enthusiasm”. Most of us like reading for pleasure, but for some reason we turn off when reading passages for standardized tests. We are bored, and that boredom results in less comprehension. Try, instead, to treat every comprehension passage as a chance to learn something new. Try to approach the passage with an interested and enthused attitude, and you will understand and remember much more of what you have read. M stands for Monitor for…