|
Reading
Strategies
Quick
Tips
- Don't waste
your time. There's no point in reading if you do it mechanically
without learning. If you're not getting anything out of it,
quit reading! (And try some of the activities below.)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Activities
Some
activities to modify SQ3R, or make it your own, including:
And finally, a
few very specific activities:
Activity:
Jump-Start Reading a New Book |
| Materials: |
A new
text book |
| Action: |
Check
your book over. Try to figure out what it's going to be about, what
major elements will be covered.
The basic principle here is not to just
dive in, but to test the water a little first. |
| Results: |
- You
have a better knowledge of what to expect.
- You've
taken the first step toward pre-reading the material.
- You may
find out there's a glossary of terms, or a
table of verbs, or an exhaustive timeline in the appendix, which
could make your life, and studying, a lot easier.
|
Activity:
Find your Reading Rate |
| Materials: |
-Chapter,
article, or other assigned reading
-Clock |
| Action: |
a.
Break the text into several sections.
b. Set a goal of a couple of the sections.
c. Estimate how long you think it will take to read
these sections.
d. Note the time when you begin to read.
e. Read the sections.
f. Note the time when you finish reading the sections. |
| Calculation
of Reading Rate: |
1.
Subtract your beginning time (d) from your end time
(f).
2. Note how many pages, paragraphs, or lines you read.
3. Divide the length by the time. This is your
reading rate.
Example:
30 paragraphs in 20 minutes = 1.5 paragraphs/min |
| "And
Repeat": |
Repeat
this procedure to discover your rate reading different
materials, i.e.
-difficult reading,
-reading from different classes,
-reading that is fun.
See
also how your rate differs depending on the conditions
you're reading under (environment, amount of sleep, whether
you ate right before hand, etc.) |
| Result: |
Greater
control over your reading. When you know your reading
rate, you will be able to
- better
estimate how long it will take you to read a given text,
- know
what your optimal reading conditions are, and
- know
when you are not performing up to your abilities in your
reading rate, and decide to take a break until you are
better able to do the reading.
|
| The
Next Step: |
Work
to improve your reading rate. Here are a few
suggestions:
If you have a
problem with backtracking, put an index card on the line above where
you're reading.
Trace your finger underlining the words as your
read, focusing on the material at hand. Move as quickly as you
can without losing comprehension.
Check
out the suggestions on this website about improving
reading speed: http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/suggest.html
|
| Activity:
SQ3R |
| Materials: |
A
text you must read thoroughly; SQ3R works particularly
well for books with many subject headings, such as books for
sciences, math, and social sciences. |
| Action: |
a.
Survey: Look the text over. Note the
subject headings, words in bold, key points, outlines,
graphs, questions at the end, etc. This should be
quick, and will just give you a simple idea as to what the
text talks about.
b.
Question: Ask questions about the text.
For each subject heading, and sub-headings, ask a
question. It can be as simple as turning the subject
heading into a question. For example, "The Origin
of Language" could be turned into "How did
language originate?" or "When did language
originate?" Write these questions down.
c.
Read: Now, finally, read through the
material. Only it won't be nearly as boring as it
usually is. Because you used the first two steps to
pique your interest about the material. Now, you want
to know the answers to your questions. So find them,
and write them down, too.
d.
Recite: Once you've finished reading, you're
not done yet. You need to solidify the information in
your mind. Read through your questions and
answers. Check if you've left anything important out
of your notes. Then read your questions, and answers,
ALOUD. Quiz yourself, using your original questions,
OUT LOUD. Listening to yourself say it will help you
figure out if you really know what your talking about.
e.
Review: Don't let your knowledge fall out
now! You've done so much work this far, so don't
forget this last step. In order to cement the material
in your long-term memory, review the material again a day or
two later, and then a week or so after that, etc. Keep
quizzing yourself. If a month later you can still
recite all the answers to your questions, you've retained
all of what was important in your reading! Good Job!
|
| Result: |
Greater retention
of reading material. Instead of feeling like you've
been reading and reading for hours, and not remembering a
thing, you'll remember a whole lot! In turn, you'll be
better prepared to hear about the material in lecture, and
study for the exam, and take the exam!
|
Activity:
Pre-Reading, or How to read when you don't have time |
| Materials: |
A text
which you are just beginning to read, or which you must read
more quickly than usual. |
| Actions: |
a.
Read the
introduction and conclusion. Of the book, or of each chapter, or of
each section.
b. Read the
opening and/or closing paragraphs of each chapter.
c. Read any
summaries provided by the author(s).
d. Read the
first and last sentence of each paragraph.
|
| Results: |
- A quick perusal of the text, so you
can go back and read it through with some idea of what the author is
talking about.
- Only
a cursory idea of what the text is talking about,
without the specific details that come from thorough
reading.
- Lower
retention if reading ends with this step, because very
little of the information will be solidified in the
long-term memory.
|
| Activity:
A Guessing Game |
| Materials: |
A text
you must read thoroughly, which does not work well for the
above version of SQ3R because it does not have a lot of (or
any!) subject headings, words in bold, or graphics, etc. |
| Action: |
a.
Glance over the material. Put in your own headings
when you think the author is onto a new point. (This
should look approximately like an encyclopedia article, with
a few words in the margin every couple of paragraphs.)
b.
Read. As you're reading, check if you were right in
what you guessed the author was talking about. See if
they surprise you, or if you were dead on. Have fun,
make it into a game!
c.
If you weren't right, modify the heading accordingly.
|
| Results: |
- You're
more interested in your reading because you're always
trying to figure out if you guessed right.
- You
have notes throughout your reading (i.e. your own
subject headings) that cue you in to what the author is
talking about, so you can quickly find what you're
looking for when you look back.
|
| Activity:
Have a conversation with your books |
| Materials: |
A text
which you need to read. |
| Actions: |
a. Ask lots of
questions of the text. Pretend you're having a conversation with
the author(s). What would you like to know? If you don't really
care, pretend you do. Or think of what you could ask that wouldn't
make you look/feel too stupid in front of them. Or what would make
you feel stupid, but you'd like to know anyway.
b. WRITE the questions
down, and search for the answers while reading.
|
| Examples: |
- "Does
Descartes really believe in God?"
- "What is
an example of this from my life?"
- "How does
what the author says mimic or differ from my experience?"
- or, the
time-honored "What is your point?"
- You can also
use chapter headings to formulate questions.
|
| Results: |
You will
be more interested and involved in the text as you read it,
just like you are much more interested and involved in a
conversation when you are talking and asking questions, as
opposed to when someone is constantly talking AT you.
|
| Reading
the Night Before the Exam |
|
Break the
material down into parts. Figure out what you already have a grasp
on, and what is least likely to be on the test. Throw these out (of
your agenda, not literally). Then decide how long you are going to
take to get through the rest. For each section, skim first, look for
key concepts, ask yourself the "who, what, when, where, and
how?" Recite what you have learned in order to retain the
material. When your time limit is up, move on to the next section.
|
|
