Importance of reading comprehension
Lomax, Debrae

>>SPEAKER: Can you tell us your name and what your story is about?

>>DEBRAE: My name is Dabrae Lomax and my story is about the importance of reading and not only just reading but reading comprehension. That was something that my father drilled into my head and it's just carried on through my children and my grandchildren because it's just not important to just read but you need to be able to understand and retain what you've read. So I remember when my kids were growing up we would go to the library and get the books and of course they would have a certain time to sit down and read. Well I would also read the books and I would ask them, "Ok, now what did you read about?" And they really couldn't tell me. So then that raised a flag and I got to thinking, "Well what do I need to do to help with this?" Because I felt like in the early years if they were not retaining and comprehending what they read then that was just going to carry on as they went through school and college and I see big problems. What we would do is we would read in sections and we'd take a chapter at a time, they'd read it and I'd read it and then I'd ask questions. I encouraged my children to use that same procedure or routine as they're going through and something else I encouraged them to do is to read more because that would help with your reading comprehension. I've been told by my little daughter who graduated from the University of Illinois in education and that little exercise that we would do when she was young has really helped her. It helped her to get through college. Again, like I said, it's not important to just read but it' important to remember what you've read. And that's it.