Thursday, July 24, 2008 Tomas teaches speed reading By Linette C. Ramos Sun.Star Staff Reporter
A SPEED reading class could have been just another activity that college students would be forced to attend.
But not at the University of Cebu (UC), where some 40 students voluntarily attended and looked forward to a one-hour speed reading lecture early yesterday morning.
After all, it was a break from their regular teachers and an experience limited only to a few students—a session with Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña as their teacher.
Facilitate
Chinimie Recta, an education freshman, said she was not keen on attending the lecture but when she learned that the mayor will be facilitating, she signed up for the early morning class to meet the mayor.
“I was amazed, it’s the first time I saw the mayor. Lingaw kaayo siya mutudlo kay pakataw-on gyud ka ug maayo sad kaayo siya mag-English (He will really make you laugh.). What he taught us will be really helpful,” Recta said after the 8 a.m. lecture.
The UC campus on Sanciangko St. is where the mayor has been spending his first working hour since Monday, teaching 40 students techniques in speed reading and
comprehension.
Criminology
Like most teachers, Osmeña comes to class prepared with handouts and exercises. And he arrives on time, the students said.
Yesterday, he taught nursing, engineering, education and criminology students, and some teachers how to read and comprehend faster by counting “one-two-three” aloud while reading.
By disturbing the connection between the eyes and the ears, one can comprehend better and faster, the mayor shared.
“We were taught in school that if you can’t hear what you’re reading, you can’t comprehend and I think that’s a big mistake and a bad habit... For 10 minutes a day, practice saying something aloud while reading something else and you will learn to read faster... Disturb the connection between your eyes and ears and do not hear what you’re reading,” Osmeña told the students.
A memory exercise also amused the students, with the mayor asking them to come up with images that they can associate with words and numbers for easier and better recall.
“I hope this will be helpful to you. I’m just doing this as a hobby. I don’t get paid for this. I just want to see if this will work for you. I’ve been asking the public schools to do this 20 years ago but they’re hard- headed so I said I’ll just do it myself,” he said of the modules that he studied himself when he was still in school.
Apart from the reading techniques they learned, education students Merlisa Borja and Stephanie Tulod were grateful for the insights of the mayor, which they said were inspiring.
They were overwhelmed, they said, because it was a rare opportunity for them to interact with the mayor.
“If you want to be competitive, think like a winner. You have to be a winner to have the competitive edge. And that’s what I’m going to give you today, to learn to read fast. You have to hang on to that because it’s going to help make you a winner. It’s important,” he said.
Lloyd Cleland, an information technology student, said he hopes the lecture can also be given to students from other schools because the techniques will be helpful to students.
“It made me realize that I have very poor reading habits and that there’s something we can do to improve our reading skills,” he told Sun.Star Cebu.
