Teaching College-Level Reading
In 2008/2009, Rivier faculty from nearly every discipline on campus gathered during two events to discuss ways to promote college-level reading skills, exploring the obstacles students face and the solutions faculty might pursue.
Many students…
- may not value reading—their world is dominated by visual media
- thus, may not read what’s assigned
- may not read all that’s assigned
- may not have pre-reading strategies
- thus, may not begin by noting how their prior thinking and experience may connect to a text, increasing its relevance
- may not look up unfamiliar terms
- may not step back, as a habit, to see format/organization and thus use that awareness to comprehend a text’s orientation and aims
- may not easily summarize a text’s main idea/thesis
- may not easily restate the logic of a text—the “line of development” of its central claims
- may not easily make connections between grouped readings
- may be inclined to substitute what they generally think a text should be saying for what it actually says
- Tend to move quickly away from text specifics to thoughts on a topic, whether speaking or writing.
Therefore, faculty could:
(in general...)
- communicate a message that students are indeed entering a different culture and have to adapt to its valued ways of knowing and communicating
- repeatedly communicate this idea in first-year courses
(in large-course settings...)
- specify reading-based homework tasks
- consider very focused reading quizzes as an assessment option
- when possible, integrate commentaries by other writers on a particular course reading, thereby giving models of how others read texts
- integrate online discussion boards related to readings, framing specific reading tasks (find thesis; predict author's next study, etc.)
- model in-class conventional “moves” expert readers make in the field, and progressively give over that role to students
- consider the benefit of open book exams
- establish voluntary study groups
(in smaller seminar settings...)
- consider selecting shorter, more difficult readings, with essential questions to match
- divide up different reading tasks among students, in-class and out
- integrate a reading journal, following a format that requires engagement with texts (typing up quotations that capture three key ideas; pairing quotations from two different readings to find connections/contrasts)
- establish a routine summary assignment for all major readings (see Writing Center resource)
- consider the benefit of students reading aloud in class
- integrate online discussion boards related to readings, framing specific reading tasks (find thesis; predict author's next study, etc.)
- during class, model conventional “moves” expert readers make, and progressively give over that role to students
- establish voluntary study groups.
Additional resources:
A summary of Chapter 8 from John Bean's Engaging Ideas
A handout for students on being a critical reader
The following web resources may also help you to develop critical reading strategies in students:
http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/xla/ela15d2.html
http://mwp01.mwp.hawaii.edu/resources/wm10.htm
www.indiana.edu/~reading/ieo/digests/d105.html
www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/reading-and-researching/critical-reading
www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/graphic_org/sq3r/
http://teachers.teach-nology.com/web_tools/graphic_org/
www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/sq3r.html