Determine the most important ideas or themes: 

Good readers identify key ideas or themes as they read, and they can distinguish between important and unimportant information.

Knowing the purpose for reading will help you to determine what is important.  Are you reading for pleasure, to learn specific fact, to finish a homework assignment or for research on a presentation?   What and why you are reading will help determine what information you glean from the material.  We do not read a book for the pleasure in the same way that we read a text book.  

• Once you know why you're reading, you can make decisions about what information or ideas are the most critical to understanding the overall meaning of the text.
• Knowing the purpose for reading will help determine what's important when you read.  It affects how carefully you read and will help to determine what you feel is important as your read.
• In nonfiction texts, often information will be boxed or boldfaced.  This will help you to know the information is important.  The labeling under pictures is often important, too.

   

  Excerpted from 7 Keys to Comprehension:  How to Help Your Kids Read It and Get It! by:  Susan Zimmerman and Chryse Hutchins