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3. Building Successful Reading Strategies for Print and Digital Material (Chapter 8)

Learning Objective
  • Students should learn active reading strategies to interact and engage with academic writing.
Important Steps in Teaching 
  • Model Each Step:  Demonstrate each step and ideally use the course text.
  • Guided Practice:  Have worksheets that guide students through the steps in SQ3R.  Practice together in class so that you know each students understands and can confidently perform the steps. 
  • Independent Practice:  Have students practice on their own (the Reading Mastery Student Sheets are designed for this). 
  • Assessment: Include a quiz over the steps of the method itself.  
Day 1

Studying vs. Learning
  • Think, Pair, Share Question: What’s the difference between studying and learning? Once opening up to the larger class, write the pairs responses on the board.
  • Share the definitions below and ask what they notice. They might say that studying is one way to learn.
    • To Learn – to gain knowledge or skill by studying, practicing, being taught, or experiencing something.
    • To Study – to read, memorize facts, attend school, etc., in order to learn about a subject.
  • Ask them if they have ever studied something but didn’t really learn it to the point that they would remember it after a test. Hopefully they will say yes and then explain that when you memorize facts or read passively about a subject it can be more surface or simple learning (easy to forget). Have students open their textbook and show them Bloom’s levels of learning on the backside of the cover. Explain how there are deeper or higher levels of learning- Apply, Analyze, Evaluate and Create. These are levels of learning many instructors expect students to be learning at because they result in better comprehension, longer lasting retention or remembering the information. Our goal with using strategies for studying such as reading and note-taking is truly learn the material which results in higher test scores and better class participation.
Study Cycle
  • Introduce a larger picture to frame their learning in their classes entitled The Study Cycle.
  • Activity: Have students get into groups and discuss how they might put the following steps in an order that they think would be effective for “studying?”
    • Assess your learning (are your methods effective?)
    • Preview chapter (skim; come up with questions you would like the lecture to answer for you)
    • Study (interact with the material – organize, concept map, summarize, re-read, fill in notes, etc.)
    • Review notes taken in class (fill in gaps; note questions)
    • Attend class (answer/ask questions & take meaningful notes)
  • Ask the groups to write what they think on the white board (Assess, Preview, Attend, Review, Study).
  • Show a video explaining The Study Cycle or go through the process yourself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlZMBsMZnoI 6 min or min https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snmF5kv4sMQ&spfreload=10. 3.31 min
  •  Provide a handout http://students.lsu.edu/sites/default/files/TheStudyCycle_OLD.pdf as a reference.
  •  Ask the question “How many people have ever seen a movie more than once? Did you notice that the second time you saw it, you noticed things that you didn’t even know were there the first time?” Explain how repetition is one of the keys to the study cycle. Reviewing is like watching the movie the second time. Your brain will see things that it didn’t see before.
  • Math & Science: Refer to or provide the handout http://www.barbaraoakley.com/pdf/10rulesofstudying.pdf that has similar concepts to the study cycle but is written with studying math and science in mind. 
Reading Strategies - SQ3R
  • Share the following student quote “I do the reading, but when I get to the test I don’t really remember it. I know I’ve read it, but don’t remember it when it counts, so I know I’m not getting a lot out of my reading.” –Travis 
  • Ask the question: How is it that students can spend hours reading a textbook yet not learn much if anything at all? This will hopefully lead into a short discussion about the challenges while reading passively.  Then introduce the need to have a strategy - SQ3R. 
  • Here is a little background information about SQ3R.  It is a reading method ideally suited for use with college textbooks for the reason that college textbooks, in particular, are densely packed with information and we tend not to fully comprehend, nor retain the information if we approach reading them the same way as we do novels or short pieces of text. 
  • This method has been around for about 60 years.  It was developed by Francis Pleasant Robinson, and published in his 1946 book, Effective Study.  It is the gold standard being taught at nearly every college, even prestigious Ivy League colleges because it increases students comprehension while reading textbooks. 
Scan
  • “Laundry” Reading Activity (Click here for original source): Read the following paragraph (without the title) and tell students you’ll be asking them three questions afterwards.
    • "The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange items into different groups. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities that is the next step; otherwise, you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo things. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important, but complications can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. At first, the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but, then, one can never tell. After the procedure is completed, one arranges the materials into different groups again. Then they can be put into their appropriate places. Eventually they will be used once more, and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated. However, that is part of life (Bransford, pp. 134-135)
  • Ask students to answer the following questions. Likely they will have no idea. If someone happens to figure out the task, ask them to keep it to themselves
    1. What specific task is this passage about?
    2. Where can you go if you lack the facilities?
    3. How can a mistake be expensive?
  • Read the paragraph and ask them “what was the difference?” Discuss the importance of having context before diving into reading and how this is vital for our brains. Share that research has found our brain is much more efficient at learning when it has the big picture and then acquires details to fill that big picture. (Klinger & Vaughn, 1999). This is why scanning is part of SQ3R which is taught on nearly every college campus including Ivy League schools like Harvard.
  • Explain how to scan a chapter before reading. It is similar to scanning a magazine and you should look at the following.
    • Section headings
    • Boldface print
    • Italicized words
    • Charts or graphs
    • First line of every paragraph (if a novel)
Question
  • Tell students “You need to give yourself a reason to read. Just like a four year old does not like hearing, “You have to,” neither does your brain. So you need to come up with questions that you want the reading to answer for you. Then you’ve tapped into your genuine curiosity and are much more motivated to read.”
  • Why ask Questions?  You'll read more carefully when you have questions.  A good example is google.  Everyone loves to google questions that they have and then look for the answers. Our brains want structure "boxes in our brain" ready for information to be organized in them if we have asked questions ahead of time.  
  • Provide an example for how this might look while reading a textbook. “Let’s say you’re reading a general chemistry textbook about acids and bases. The terms strong acid and weak acid are in bold font. Your question might be “What is the difference between strong acids and weak acids?”
  • Go through the process
    • Develop questions for your reading based on the Scan
    • You can develop your own questions. The common questions you can ask are: Who, What When, Where, Why. So how do you do this? Find the chapter headings and turn them into questions using the 5 w’s.
    • Modeling and guided practice: “Let’s try it in our textbook: Chapter 8 page 192
    • Heading: Discovering Your Learning Style
    •  Your question can be: How do I Discover my learning style? What is my learning style? Where do I discover my learning style? Why do I need to discover my learning style? You can use questions from the text. In this chapter they are all in purple…. See all those questions?
    • End with explaining how scanning and questioning which can take 10 minutes is well worth their time even if they do not read. Ask the question “How many of you have had the experience when you come to class and the information is going from the PowerPoint slides onto your notes without passing through your brain? That is a wasted hour and we want to make every hour count. If you’ve done scanning and questioning, you have the skeleton of the information you need so that during lecture you can put all the necessary meat on those bones. Show an image of a skeleton.
    • You’ll be listening for the answers to your questions and be more likely to ask a question yourself.
Read
  • Explain that in SQ3R, they read with a purpose….. to answer their questions.  With the visualization of "boxes in our brain," explain that you'll read to fill those boxes.  This also helps to maintain interest if the reading is dry (less likely to be distracted or fall asleep). Tell them you’ll have more tips for reading next class.
  • This step can be combined beautifully with other active reading comprehension strategies (chunking & annotating).  Tell students to stay tuned until next class. 
Recite
  • Tell them in this step that they should ask themselves: What was this chapter about? and explain it as they might to a grandparent or young niece/nephew.  In this step, we recite aloud what we can remember about the main point and pertinent details.  
  • To explain the reason for doing so, say “In trying to explain concepts in a way that others can understand, you become aware of the gaps in your understanding or of the details that are not entirely clear to you.” This step mimics teaching the material aloud.  We all learn something more effectively when we teach it (research confirms this).

Review
  • Show Herman Ebbinghaus’s forgetting curve and explain how quickly we can forget information without review (e.g. by day 2, you’ve lost 50%-80% of what you learned and by day 30, we retain about 2%-3%.) 
  • Share with students the following formula for reviewing that brain research has shown to be effective:
    • 1st: Within 10 minutes (reciting step and reading the notes)
    • 2nd: Within 24 hours of getting the information - spend 10 minutes reviewing and you will raise the curve almost to 100% again.
    • 3rd : A week later (day 7), it only takes 5 minutes to "reactivate" the same material, and again raise the curve.
    • By day 30, your brain will only need 2-4 minutes to give you the feedback, "yes, I know that..."
  • Use the questions we asked in SQ3R to help you review as well.  
  • Make sure that when you look at your notes and that you will understand what you wrote later. 
Ticket Out the Door/One Minute Paper: Ask students to answer the following questions: What did you learn today? What are you going to do with the new information or understanding?


Day 2

Think Pair Share Question: What are the benefits of SQ3R?  Hopefully, they will talk about the following.
1. Interact with the text several times (repetition increases memory).
2. Practice retrieving information from your memory (this is practice for how you will be tested).
3. Focus on using your own words or summarizing what you’ve read (this is learning)
4. Helps you learn the content
5. Improves your reading skills, summarizing skills (finding the main point and pertinent details) and writing skills (figure out the structure of other writers and adopt in your own writing) 

Chunking & Annotating
  • Introduce how you’ll be exploring strategies to learn what your reading more deeply through chunking and annotating. This is expanding their tools in the “Read” step of SQ3R.  
  • Show the Student Lingo Video “Reading Comprehension Strategies” https://www.studentlingo.com/aims (login in as yourself). Remind students that these videos are available to them to extend their learning in AAA and as an extra credit opportunity.
  • Have students practice chunking and annotating with the practice paragraph in the video. Chunking and Annotating Practice Paragraph.docx
  • Share with students that they can use post-it notes for their chunks and annotations rather than writing on their text. This is a great strategy when they can’t or just do not want to write in their books.  They might use colors such as one for chunking and the other for annotating. 

  • Quiz their comprehension of the difference between chunking and annotating by asking them to write chunking, annotating or both next to the following words/statements.
Chunking, Annotating or Both? 
1. Macro-processing
2. Micro-processing
3. Main point
4. Look for shift in focus/purpose
5. Include personal reactions
6. Underline/highlight (but don’t just highlight)
7. No “one right way” to do it
8. Bracket/label with a short name
9. Details
10. Big pictures
11. Conversation with the author

Go over the answers.
1. Macro-processing - CHUNKING
2. Micro-processing - ANNOTATION
3. Main point- CHUNKING
4. Look for shift in focus/purpose - CHUNKING
5. Include personal reactions- ANNOTATION
6. Underline/highlight (but don’t just highlight)
7. No “one right way” to do it - BOTH
8. Bracket/label with a short name - CHUNKING
9. Details - ANNOTATION
10. Big picture - CHUNKING
11. Conversation with the author - ANNOTATION


Active Reading Apps
Ticket Out the Door/One Minute Paper: Ask students to answer the following questions: What did you learn today? What does it mean for you? What are you going to do with the new information or understanding?

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