Have a Positive Attitude Toward Reading A) No matter what you read, you probably want the activity to be pleasant, efficient, and rewarding. All this can h appen if you are a confident reader. Confident reading requires a positive attitude. Confident readers make an effort to enjoy reading. They do not indulge in negative thinking about the difficulty with assignments. They approach e ach reading task expecting to read with understanding and to use the information they gain from r ea d ing. B) Expectations are also a part of attitude. Did you know that many psychologists have found that people tend to live up , or down, to others' expectations of them? Jaime Escalante, a Los Angeles school-teacher, had to prepare his students for a test that would determine their e ligibility for college. These students had a history of failure. Their parents and former teachers had given up on them. As a result, the students had given up on themselves. But this teacher was different. He believed that his students could suc c eed despite their past failures. He believed that nothing stood in their way but their own negative attitudes, which had caused them to stop trying.“If you be l ieve in yourself and are willing to do the work," he told them,“you can make it, but it won't be easy" C) Escalante was a very inspiring teacher, willing to work after hours and on weekends with any student who was serious about learning. With each succes s 一 a good grade on a test or a correctly solved problem in a class activity 一 the studen t s s teadi ly improved. They spent weeks preparing for the t est. The night before, their teacher told them to ge t a good n i ght's sl e ep and to remember to be l i e ve in themselves. They had p r epared s ufficiently , and their study would p ay off . . All the students passed, setting a school record. D) Expec t ations count. It helps if teachers and importa n t others believe in your ability to s u cce e d .But even if you do not have s u pp ort from others, you can sill have high expectatio n s for y ourself . Your first step toward improvement, in c olle ge reading or in anything else, is to believe that you can do it. E) Negative thinking about reading can become a habit. To break the habit, you first have to recognize your negative thoughts about reading in general, about a specific reading assig n ment, or about your ability to read. Then you must work to eliminate those negative thoughts by counteracting them with more positive ones. Soon positive thinking will become a habit, one that is productive instead of self-defeating. F) To dev e lop a positive attitude toward reading, try the following tips that have worked for many students and professionals: G)● Think positively about yourself. Decide that you will read to the best of your ability and that you will revi ew as often as needed to keep information fresh in your mind. H)● Think po s itively about the reading. Expect to find something in the reading that inter e sts you. Try to relat e what you read to your own experience. Seek out information that you can use. Each time you read, make an effort to find out at least one thing that you did not know. I)● Think of reading as a t w o- w ay process. At least two p e ople are involved in reading 一 you and the writer. Imagine that when you read, you are having a conversation with the writer . The writer is explaining something to you that he or she thinks you should know. Formulate questions in your mind before you read and during reading. Look for answers to your questions. Try to anticipate what a writer will say next just as you would if the two of you were conversing. J)●Accept your limitations but make a commitment to improve. If you know that your reading skills need improving , accept that it will take time and effort. Belie v e that you can improve and seek all the help you can get. This may mean hiring a tutor, spending time in a learning lab, or forming a study group with one or more classmat e s. Then make a commitment to do the work necessary to reach your goal. K)● Control your inner dialogue. All of us keep up an ongoing dialogue with ourselves. This little voice in our mind comments on everything we do or think. If your dialogue is negative , you may be saying to yourself as you read, “This is boring” or "I hate this course" or “I'm no good at reading.” Become aware of your inner voice and how it e ither encourages or discourages you. When you have a negative thought about reading, counteract it with a positive one. Say to yourself something like, “I want to learn what this author is telling me” or “I am working to improve my skills" or “I'm sure I will find something to interest me in this topic.” Choose a paragraph letter from the text to match the following statements. 1 One s hould have high self-expectation, which is a first step toward success. 2 The students improved gradua l ly with the help of Jaime Escalante. 3 Confident readers take a positive attitude toward reading. 4 Keeping counteracting the negative thoughts can help us develop a habit of positive thinking. 5 You take a positive attitude towards reading by making connections between what a writer says and what you know. 6 Jaime Escalante believed that it was the students' negative attitudes that blocked their way to success. 7 When reading positively, you are not on the receiving end only and may ask questions. 8 Making your inner dialogue positive is a workable tip to develop a positive attitude toward reading. 9 Jaime Escalante didn't give up on those students who had been given up on by their parents and former teachers. 10 Your reading skills will not be improved overnight.