Critical Reading - They don ’ t read do they? Sandra Sinfield - LDU – LearnHigher CETL and LDHEN London Met 2007

London Met – reading reading Why students are not reading What ’ s it for – why do we want our students to read? Range of practical activities to encourage reading – thinking - writing

Why some don ’ t read Lack cultural capital Lack of academic capital Studying seen as part time Students read less than they did Sheer amount of information … Shift to modularity – more reading expected of less inducted students with less time Subjects seen as vocational rather than academic Effect of HE policy and practice

What ’ s it for? Quantity? The ability to find difficult sources? The discovery of obscure texts? Reading for meaning? Reading for critical engagement?

What we can do Make explicit what we mean by taken for granted practices  Independent learner  Reading list  Read around the subject  Read and make notes

Activity Brainstorm: Why do we read? How do we know what to read? How can we read effectively? How much should we read? Discuss with group – acknowledge reading is difficult – but gets easier with practice

Read in the curriculum Embed opportunities for students to develop academic practices in the curriculum: Acknowledge time constraints: specify … photocopy … Make space for reading and reading related activities:

Model it! Model reading yourself – breaking text into chunks – use of skim and scan & in depth Discuss your reading – it can be difficult for everyone! Split students into pairs/groups – give a text to read in class Textmapping can help:

Support it Make a meal of reading use your QOOQRRR Q – Question – novice, initiate O – Overview 1 – of course O – Overview 2 – of text Q – Question – why am I reading this now? R – read actively and interactively R – re-read and make notes R – review

Active, interactive & critical reading strategy Activity: For EACH significant section: What is this paragraph about? Where is the writer coming from? Who would agree/disagree with this position? What is the argument? Who would dis/agree? What is the evidence? Is it valid? How do you know? Annotations – marginalia - short notes. TIP : index cards of all sources – re-cycle reading

Link to writing: We feel that students ‘ cannot write ’ because they do not read! Hence increase in plagiarism? Possibly link reading strategy to writing strategy ‘ The paragraph as dialogue ’

Writing questions: What is this paragraph about? What exactly is that? What is your argument? (Tell me more) What is the evidence (for & against)? What does it mean? How does this relate back to the question as a whole?

Make reading necessary Read this & come to seminar with: Three words that describe how it made you feel A bare bones summary (25 words) A visual summary An object that represents something from the text – to discuss One question that you would ask the author A one minute presentation Value the effort that is put in when it is.

Emergency tactic: When half of them have not read the set text: Get everyone to select one sentence from the text that they have found meaningful (a main point or an idea with which to argue) Get them to write this on a post-it or on the whiteboard and say why they chose it. The ones who did read should be able to make an informed choice – others have to busk it … An interesting discussion ensues!! Maybe they all read next time.

Research If you want to participate in the Learn Higher CETL research into reading and notemaking Or share your reading/notemaking resources and strategies Contact Sandra Sinfield for more information.