Got Chunking Yet

There are two elements to speed reading that are under your control. Practice for just 15 minutes daily for 21 days will absolutely double your speed and even increase your comprehension about 5%.To triple your reading speed and better ? requires easy additional strategies.Field-of-Vision.

Our forward facing field of view is 180 degrees wide. Some animals can use all 360 degrees of their Field-of-Vision.We have all been trained since the 3rd grade ? to read using our narrow ? hard focus of only 12 degrees wide. This hard ?focus is technically called Foveal-Vision and permits us to see up to six-letters or one-word wide. It makes us reading-snailers.We come equipped with another kind of sight called peripheral-vision, and it uses a soft-focus, a widening of our vision up to thirty-six letters (six-words), wide.

Guess which one produces speed reading?.Compare our field-of-vision for ordinary reading (snailing), just 12 degrees wide, containing six-letters ? to peripheral vision, with its up to 72 degrees wide.Speed Reading uses both foveal (hard-focus), vision and peripheral (soft-focus) vision, to read up to six-words within our field-of-vision. Makes all the difference.Chunking.When we group words together, section (unite, link), a series of words in a sentence ? we are chunking.

A synonym is a block, pile or hunk of information, verses reading one-word-at-a-time, which is the way we were all taught.Think of it as combining small units (a single-word), into coordinated units. When you chunk ? you create more digestible sections of words (phrases), for improved meaning (comprehension).

You understand the writers ideas, and his/her point-of-view - instead of merely isolated words.You get the context, comprehension, and fluency of a sentence, instead of a broken-up, distorted, hard-to-understand version. Here's the kicker ? chunking (using your peripheral-vision), in your field-of-vision, permits you to quickly locate and easily scan the page for improved comprehension and memory. You test better.

How do we learn to chunk?.First, change your Eye-Pattern-Movements ? we call it Specific-Guidance verses Random-Spacing. When you choose to use your soft-focus and peripheral-vision, it requires a mental-decision; you break up sentences, paragraphs and pages into chunks of words.

#1, is called Indenting. Draw a line down the left and right sides of the page you are reading, to separate the first two-words and the final two-words from the rest of the sentences.You focus on the upper-halves of the chunks of words in the middle, and let your peripheral-vision pick up the indented words on your lateral-left and lateral-right.The result is you are training your eyes to chunk, use soft-focus and your peripheral-vision. The secret is how you chunk in your field-of-vision, using your Pacer (Rastermaster, Pen or Computer Cursor), and the Pattern-Movements of your eyes.

You do not have be a reading specialist to use indenting, or to switch to soft-focus from your 3rd grade hard-narrow, foveal-vision. All it takes is practice to start reading from the third word in from the left, instead of the first, and to stop reading two-words from the end-of-the-sentence.Just let the indenting lines guide you and quit over-thinking the process. All you do is use your Pacer to underline the words-of-the-sentence. It works because our eyes are Motion-Detectors, and must following a moving-object.

Key point: your eyes are playing catch-up with the movements of your Pacer, which always moves about double the speed of your snailing. In the first 15 minutes of practicing with your Pacer, you will speed up with good comprehension to up to 75% of your initial snailing-reading-speed.Triple-Chunking.Take your pen and draw two-lines down the page in dividing the text into three separate chunks.

Don't analyze it, it is baby-easy and does not require a ruler, approximately chunk the sentences on the page into three-groups or sections of words.Now when you practice speed reading, you always imagine each sentence as if it were grouped into three-phrases. You still focus on the upper-halves of the words you are reading, and ignore looking at the beam or trace-mark of your Pacer.The beam or trace-mark is picked up by your peripheral-vision because it is an instinct of motion-detection ? the way our eyes came hardwired.Practice 15 minutes daily triple-chunking, and after 21 days, you will triple your reading speed, with an increase of up to 10% in comprehension and long-term memory.Double Chunking.

Take your pen and divide the page into approximate two-equal sections. Come on, it is baby-stuff by now. You are grouping the sentences into two sections, and mentally reading as if each sentence consists of two-phrases.Snailing is reading one-word at-a-time. Speed Reading is chunking words for ease of context, comprehension and fluency. Double-chunking is an improvement on both Indenting and Triple-Chunking because you are learning to make less eye-fixation-pauses per sentence, in your field-of-vision.

Each practice gives you greater mastery over your eye-pattern-movements, and eliminates your 3rd grade training of reading just one-word-at-a-time.Single-Chunking.Practice this one and you are a certified SuperStar. By the time you reach Single-Chunking you have triple your reading speed, and doubled your memory.

Over 90% of graduates stop before Single-Chunking because they can read and remember three-books, articles and reports in the time their peers can hardly finish one. We know you are capable of greater cognitive personal-growth.Single-chunking is mentally underlining with your Pacer beam or trace-mark using your soft-focus and peripheral-vision ? but without dividing the sentences.You are fully capable of moving your head-and-eyes gently left-to-right as you scan the sentences, and absorb the gist of the ideas.

No chunking lines are necessary.Here is the difference ? your move across the sentences left-to-right, but move to the next sentence right-to-left ? Diagonally. You are reading forward of course - as your eyes are creating a simple kind of eye-pattern-movement of chunking the words.Once more: you reading one-sentence as a single group of words (single-chunking), and the following-sentence moving right-to-left ? with your eyes moving to the front of the second-sentence and scanning. The secret is the slanting, diagonal line.Now you are ready to read the third-sentence, and your eyes single-chunk left-to- right, and then move Diagonally (slanting), ? right-to-left.

Now do it again ? Finnagin ? down the page.Practice all of the above, and finally choose the specific chunking style you find the the most comfortable.See ya,.copyright © 2006
H. Bernard Wechsler
www.

speedlearning.org
hbw@speedlearning.org.

By: H. Bernard Wechsler