Academic Reading Process Step II

While You are Reading

Building on last week’s post – ways to prepare for effective reading - there are quite a number of things you can do while you are reading to increase concentration, comprehension and retention.

You probably already do several of them:

• Monitor your comprehension
• Reread if necessary
• Read out loud

Here are some other things you can try:

• Recitation (post 9-15-2010)
• Annotation or margin notes (post 9-30-2010)
• Visualize what you are reading (if the subject works for this!)
• Associate what you are reading with what you already know
• Think about how what you are reading fits into the overall picture of the chapter or subject

If you find you do not understand, you can try:

• Review the overall organization of the chapter or book
• Reread the previous paragraphs
• Review the meaning of important words
• Skim the material first to get the “gist” and then reread in more detail

Next blog: Some quick review strategies after you have read

Academic Reading Process: Step I

 Before You Read

There are several things you can do before you start to read that will greatly enhance your comprehension and retention.  Here are some ideas:

·       *   Preview the assignment, chapter, book, journal article.  Look at the learning objectives, major heading and subheadings, bold print words, pictures, charts, graphs, etc.  Be doing this you will get an overview of the entire scope of the information you are going to read.  Then, as you read, you will be able to see how all of the information fits together.

·         * Think about what you already know about this subject.  The more you know about something, the easier it is to learn new material.  So prepare you memory to latch on to the new information.

·         * If you don't know anything about what you are reading, previewing will help you start to build background knowledge.  You can also take a few minutes and look on the Internet for some basic information.

·         * Plan to remember what you are reading.  I know this sounds simple, but how many times do you sit down to read and your main thought is just to get it over with?  Have a positive attitude!

·         * Make a reading plan.  Don't try to squeeze a long chapter into a short period of time.  Decide how many sections of the material you will be able to read and comprehend in the allotted time and read that.  If you finish and have a few minutes left, review what you read instead of forging ahead.

·         * Eliminate distractions.  Turn off the TV, email, IM, your cell phone, all those things that will break your concentration.  You can re-connect with everyone in a hour.

·         * Take some breaks.  Don't try to read for several straight hours.  You do need to give you brain a break and get refreshed.  Just remember - the break is a few minutes, not several hours or days!

Next week we will look at some strategies you can do while you are reading that will help with concentration, comprehension and retention.  Until then, keep reading!

Strategic Reading

The most successful readers use a variety of strategies to help themselves understand and remember what they are reading.  This is particularly true of academic reading.  Here are some strategies that you will find helpful and easy to add to your reading:

Preview - Before you start to read, look over the assignment to get the big picture. 

• ·         What is it about? 
• ·         How is it organized? 
• ·         Are there any interesting pictures? 
• ·         Look at the bold print words - do you understand them? Are they defined somewhere?   
•           Read any learning objectives at the beginning of the chapter for guidance about what you are to    learn.

 Monitor your comprehension - As you read, be aware of your attention and understanding.  If either one lags, reread or take a step back and see where the information you are reading fits into the overall topic of the assignment.

Visualize - Can you picture what you are reading?  This will depend on the topic, of course.  But, can you see a picture of what the author is describing?

Recite - Stop after each paragraph or section and restate what you just read in your own words.  Can you do that?  If yes, continue on.  If no, go back and reread and try again.

Review - This small step will make a huge difference.  After you are done reading, take a few more minutes to think about what you have read.

For the next three postings I will go into more detail about the Three-step Academic Reading Process and different strategies you can do at the different stages.

Until then....Happy Reading!

Distributed Practice

It takes repeated exposure in a variety of formats for information to become firmly implanted in your long-term memory.    This is why cramming for hours the night before an exam does not work.  To truly learn information, you should:

• ·         Review often
• ·         Use a variety of study strategies

Distributed Practice means that you are spreading out your studying and reviewing over an extended period of time.   This is above and beyond the regular reading and lecture note review that happens on a class by class basis.  If there is something that you are finding difficult, or if there is a large amount of information to learn, the best thing you can do is spread the learning out over time.

For example, you might make study cards for your Spanish class, and review them 20 minutes at least 5-6 days per week.   If History is the class you are struggling in, you could use the same time frame and:

• ·         make and review study cards for that class,
• ·         make a review chart and use recitation to remember what goes in each category,
• ·         take one topic a day from your notes and review that using recitation, or
• ·         outline or write the information in the learning objectives from the beginning of each chapter and then recite.

The possibilities are endless.  The important thing is that you are reviewing for about 20 minutes almost every day of the week during the semester.  AGAIN, above and beyond your regular reading and reviewing!