Final answer:
Active reading strategies are the best approach to understanding and retaining information from a text, involving questioning the text, annotating, reflecting, analyzing, and making connections within and beyond the text.
Step-by-step explanation:
Strategies that help a reader understand what he or she has read include active reading strategies. Active reading involves engagement with the text through questioning, evaluating the logic of an argument, and connecting with the material on a deeper level.
When employing active reading strategies, a reader will ask critical questions about the text, such as whether it is fair, provides credible evidence, or makes plausible sense. The reader may annotate, reflect, and analyze as they read, actively building informational bridges within the text and across other related materials. Active reading is favored over passive reading, where one might simply skim through text without truly engaging or retaining the information presented.
To read actively and critically, one has to go beyond mere comprehension and work on developing a context, learning the background, and recognizing rhetorical strategies. This involves reading texts more than once and engaging with them thoroughly to support learning outcomes like developing flexible strategies for reading and rereading.