How to: Read
Students don’t really know how to read actively and for understanding; they don’t do it and what they do read tends to be extremely short. Most people read, then their mind wanders, but they keep “reading” because their eyes are continuing to see the words, then the mind realizes it’s wandered, so they have to go back and re-read. Students often report that they have trouble reading more than a few pages because their minds wander. Faculty can help students get the most out of reading assignments by encouraging them to practice active reading strategies, such as previewing, outlining, annotating, reading aloud and, especially, paraphrasing.
Students transitioning from high school to college reading may be familiar with thinking about what a text is about (“what is the main idea?”) but might not be used to making connections with what they’ve been learning in the class so far, or where a text is situated in a broader critical discussion. Faculty are encouraged to actively teach students how to read, since they actually haven’t been taught since their very early grades. It’s gotten taken for granted. Below are some tips to share.
Tips for Students
- Preview: Look at headers and subheaders, boldface and italics, graphics and images. Predict: What do you think this text is going to be about?
- Purpose for reading: What questions do you hope this reading will answer? Consider writing these questions and your answers by the heading. What questions you ask will depend on the class but some ideas for things to think about while reading include:
- What do you think this writer’s main argument is?
- What evidence is used to support it?
- Did this author achieve their goal? Are you convinced? Why or why not?
- What remaining questions do you have and/or what do you want to know more about after analyzing this reading?
- Annotate while reading: Ideally, annotation should happen by hand as it’s better for memory, but you can also do this with your whole class digitally using Hypothes.is or Perusal in Canvas. Using color coding or symbols, make notes to yourself in the text, underline and write in the margins. It doesn’t matter what specific symbols or colors you use, but an example could look like:
| * | important |
| ! | surprising |
| ♡ | loved or enjoyed this |
| ? | confused by or have a question about this |
- Paraphrase: For anything using language that you find particularly difficult to understand, try writing out what you think the text is saying in your own words (this doesn’t need to be in full sentences). “Using your own words is one of the best ways to make remembering what you read easier.” New Science of Learning, p76
- Read it out loud: You’d be surprised what you hear!
- Bullet point summary and questions: When you’re finished reading the text, make notes to yourself that summarize the main takeaways in your own words, and any questions the text brought up for you. If you didn’t annotate anything while reading, see if you can come up with 3-5 questions. Bonus: you can ask these in class!
- Set a timer and put the phone away: It’s too easy to keep checking your phone, but it takes a lot of effort to get your mind back on what you were reading when you do. It’s more efficient to just keep reading for a set period of time (try to practice increasing time lengths until you can get to 20 or, better, 30 minutes) and then take a real break that you can enjoy.
Resources
- Reading Strategies, University Learning Center
- How to read in college, Swarthmore College
- Reading in College, University of Wisconsin
- 10 Strategies to Improve Reading Comprehension, Purdue Global
- Reading Strategies for College Students, The Learning Scientist