1. Chapter 1: Strategies for Learning From Textbooks
From this chapter, you’ll learn
about SQ3R, a tested and flexible system for reading textbooks.
the importance of “reading flexibility.”
how reading rate should be adjusted to text and purpose.
how the Web can be used to improve comprehension.
how to adapt your print reading strategies to word on a screen.
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved Slide 1

2. Using SQ3R: A System for Studying
SQ3R stands for
Survey the chapter to get an overview.
Question to focus concentration.
Read to answer the questions.
Recall to test your understanding.
Review to see how all the pieces fit together.
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved Slide 2

3. Survey to Get an Overview
To survey, read the following:
Title and introductory material
Headings and opening sentences of chapter sections
Visual aids such as pictures, charts, graphs, tables, and highlighted words
End-of-chapter summaries and questions
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved Slide 3

4. Survey Goals The Four Goals of a Survey Are
1. to get a general overview of the material.
2. to get a sense of the writer’s style and the text’s level of difficulty.
3. to get a sense of what’s important.
4. to identify breaks in the chapter and get a sense of how each part contributes to the larger whole, e.g., Does each part focus on a particular group or move forward in time?
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5. Check Your Understanding
What are the three goals of a survey?
(1) Get a general overview (2) get a sense of the difficulty and style (3) get a sense of what’s important (4) identify natural chapter divisions
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6. Step 2: Ask Questions for Focus
Using questions to guide your reading can help you
remain mentally active while reading.
maintain your level of concentration.
keep you alert to key passages in the chapter.
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7. How to Form Questions Your questions can be based on
headings, key words, pictures, or graphics in the chapter.
comparisons to other writers on the same subject.
your own personal experience.
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8. Check Your Understanding
Why Raise Questions While You Read?
To maintain focus on concentration and keep you alert to key passages in the chapter that answer the questions based on headings and other chapter clues.
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9. Step 3: Read in Chunks When you read a textbook, remember to
read it in chunks of no more than 10 or 15 pages.
write while you read.
periodically paraphrase, or sum up in your own words, what you have just read.
vary your assignments whenever you are studying for an extended period of time.
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10. Write while Reading Writing while reading is critical because
it helps you
remember what you read.
check your comprehension.
maintain concentration.
You will remember more of what you read, you can monitor, or check, your comprehension and stay focused.
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11. Write while Reading Use any or all of these writing strategies:
Underline key words in sentences.
Use boxes, stars, and circles to highlight key names and dates.
Take marginal notes, jotting down central points.
Mark important passages with double bars, stars, or asterisks.
Identify, perhaps with a “P,” ideas for papers.
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved Slide 11

12. Check Your Understanding
Writing while reading takes a good deal of time, so why do it? 12
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13. Step 4: Recall after Completing a Chapter Section
Recalling right after reading can be done in
a number of ways. You can
mentally recite the general point and a few
details.
2. write out answers to questions you posed
during your survey.
3. cover up and try to recall parts of your
outline.
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14. Step 4: Recall after Completing a Chapter Section
You can also
1. make rough diagrams or drawings.
2. ask a classmate to quiz you on the material.
3. write a brief summary.
4. use any other method you can think of to
see how much you remember.
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved Slide 14

15. A Word to the Wise
© Ulrich Flemming
The rate of forgetting is fastest right after you finish reading. Recalling by repeating what you just read in your own words slows down the rate of forgetting so you forget less.
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved Slide 15

16. More Words to the Wise As soon as you start a study session,
© Ulrich Flemming
As soon as you start a study session,
identify how many pages you plan to read.
This is particularly important if you are reading a long chapter.
Chopping the chapter into several ten- or fifteen-page assignments will make it seem more manageable, and you won’t give up on it.
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17. Step 5: Review Right After Completing the Chapter
The review step of SQ3R
takes place right after you finish the entire assignment.
focuses on how parts of a text fit together to develop a general point.
should either confirm or force you to revise some of your initial predictions about a chapter or article.
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18. Reviewing after reading
helps anchor new information in your memory.
gives you a sense of what passages might need a second reading.
lets you focus more on the overall objective, or point, of the material.
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19. Methods for Chapter Review
Look at all the major headings and try to recall the general point introduced.
Work with a friend who asks you questions about the headings.
Use the headings to make an outline and write down what you remember about each one.
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20. Check Your Understanding
Why Should You Review After Reading?
Reviewing anchors new information in memory; allows you to focus on the most important points; tells you what passages need a second reading.
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21. Create Diagrams that Highlight Relationships Among Parts of the Chapter
The unfair taxation imposed by the British
The rise of the merchant middle class in the colonies
The forced quartering of British soldiers in American homes and inns
Three central factors aroused American fury against British rule and contributed to the Revolutionary War
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22. A Word to the Wise Few strategies for reading—and for that matter for
© Ulrich Flemming
Few strategies for reading—and for that matter for
life—apply to every single situation. Adapt your
reading strategies to the material.
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved Slide 22

23. Get into the habit of paraphrasing key points.
And Most Importantly
© Ulrich Flemming
Get into the habit of paraphrasing key points.
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24. Paraphrasing and Reading
Definition of Paraphrasing:
Using your own words to express the author’s ideas.
Unbreakable Rule of Paraphrasing:
Change the language. Don’t change the meaning.
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25. Check Your Understanding: Which Paraphrase is More Accurate?
Original Statement: According to a 2007 study, adult men seem to enjoy spending time with their parents; adult women, however, seem more inclined to equate time spent with parents as a chore or a duty performed out of family devotion rather than pleasure.
Paraphrase 1: One 2007 study suggests a difference in how men and women view being with their parents: Men apparently enjoy it, while women seem to think of it as a family responsibility.
Paraphrase 2: According to research, men really enjoy being with their parents, but women do not. They prefer spending time with their husband and children.
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26. Paraphrase 1 is a better answer because
it changes the language but not the meaning.
it doesn’t eliminate anything said in the original.
it doesn’t add any information not included in the original.
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27. Check Your Understanding: What’s wrong with paraphrase 2?
Paraphrase 2 is inaccurate because it
leaves out key information: The conclusion about men and women is the result of a single study performed in 2007.
alters the meaning along with the language.
It suggests that the conclusion applies to all women.
It invents a detail about women preferring to spend time with their own families rather than with their parents.
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28. In Summary A good paraphrase should
retain the original meaning while changing the language.
include all the information in the original.
not add any new information to the original.
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29. A Word on Multi-Tasking
© Ulrich Flemming
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved Slide 29

30. Don’t Do It While Studying!
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31. Reading Rate and Reading Flexibility
Make it a point to vary your reading
rate depending on
the difficulty of the material.
your level of familiarity with the author’s ideas.
your purpose in reading.
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32. Reading Rate and Reading Flexibility
For a survey, feel free to skim at high rates of speed like words per minute.
For understanding easy-to-read and moderately familiar material, slow down to words per minute.
For pages of moderate difficulty, maintain
a speed of
For hard-to-read and unfamiliar material, slow down to around words per minute.
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33. What’s the moral of this story?
There’s an old joke that goes like this: “I took a speed reading course and read War and Peace. It involves Russia.” War and Peace is set in Russia. It is around 900 pages long. What point did Allen want to make about speed reading?
Fast reading is not always desirable. It can leave the reader knowing almost nothing except the most obvious of details. The joke is attributed
to Woody Allen.
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34. The more you know about a subject, the easier it will be to understand what you read, so get into the habit of using the Web for background knowledge.
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved Slide 34

35. To get the get the most out of the Web, you need a good search term?
A good search term should 1. be influenced by the headings in the text. 2. be specific enough to exclude topics unrelated to the chapter content. 3. be a phrase rather than a single word.
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36. Picking the Right Search Term
Imagine that you are surveying a chapter about the history of the Supreme Court, and you run across the heading “The Origins of Judicial Review.” If you want some background knowledge about that topic, which of these search terms would be more useful to you?
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37. Picking the Right Search Term
1. History of the Supreme Court 2. Judicial Review 3. Supreme Court and Judicial Review
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38. Focusing Your Search Term
Although you could probably get back- ground knowledge for the chapter with all three choices, the fastest would be the “Supreme Court and Judicial Review.”
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39. Focusing Your Search Term
The “History of the Supreme Court” would take you in
too many irrelevant directions. You want to know about
judicial review in relation to the Supreme Court, not all
about the Supreme Court past and present. This search
term would give you too many sites you couldn’t use.
“Judicial Review” would get you right to a definition of
the term. However, given that you are reading a chapter
on how the Supreme Court evolved, or developed, you
want to know how judicial review came into being as
part of the Supreme Court’s history.
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved Slide 39

40. Just So You Know
© Ulrich Flemming
Judicial Review is the right of the Supreme Court to review and, if need be, challenge existing legislation created at the state or federal level. It also means that the Supreme Court has the right to review decisions made by the president. The Supreme Court’s right to judicial review came into being as a consequence of the case Marbury v. Madison (1803), which set a powerful legal precedent, or pattern, for future decisions.
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41. Not all Websites are Equal
Particularly when you are in pursuit of general background knowledge, you want a website that
has an informative rather than a persuasive purpose.
is not heavily biased in favor of one point of view.
provides information about the person or group in charge of the website.
provides links to sources or studies cited.
doesn’t use photos that reveal bias for or against some person or issue.
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42. If you are reading on a digital device rather than a print textbook, keep the following in mind:
Slow down rather than speeding up.
Read from left to right as you would with print, letting your eyes go to the end of the line.
Browsing and selective reading are fine for online shopping and social media. They don’t work well for textbook reading.
Monitor your comprehension as carefully as you would with print.
Use every highlighting or note-taking feature available on your smart phone, courseware, or e-book.
Click on hypertext—text that leads to other Web pages—only if you absolutely need more information to understand what you are reading.
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43. Finishing Up: Strategies for Learning From Textbooks
You’ve previewed the major concepts and skills introduced in Chapter 1. Take this quick quiz to test your mastery of those skills and concepts, and you are ready to read the chapter.
© Ulrich Flemming
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved Slide 43

44. Finishing Up: Strategies for Learning From Textbooks
See how well you can describe each of the steps in SQ3R. S Q R
Survey headings, introductory materials, highlighted terms and visual aids to an overview of the chapter and determine its length and degree of difficulty. (2) Pose questions based on the title, headings, and introductory material. The purpose of the questions is to keep readers focused while reading. (3) Read the chapter in chunks, taking care to write while reading. (4) Recall after each chapter section to see how much you can remember. (5) Review to get a sense of how the parts of the chapter relate and to revise initial predictions about the chapter’s contents.
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved Slide 44

45. Finishing Up: Strategies for Learning From Textbooks
6. What factors should decide the rate
at which you read?
What is reading flexibility?
8. What’s the core rule of paraphrasing?
9. What are the three characteristics of a useful search term?
6. The difficulty level of the material and the reader’s familiarity with the subject matter. 7. The reader’s willingness to shift strategies with the material.
8. Changes the words not the meaning. 9. It’s specific, related to the chapter’s purpose and headings and usually a phrase rather than a single word.
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved Slide 45

46. Finishing Up: Strategies for Learning From Textbooks
True or False. When reading on a screen, you can read more quickly than you do when reading print on paper.
10. Just the opposite and that tendency to speed up while reading on a screen may be why comprehension scores tend to drop with longer passages read on the screen.
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved Slide 46

47. Brain Teaser Challenge
© Ulrich Flemming
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved Slide 47

48. Brain Teaser Challenge: There’s no right or wrong answer to this question, only answers that do or do not make a connection: How does this line from a poem by Emily Dickinson relate or connect to the subject of concentrating while reading?
“I’ve known her—from an ample nation— choose one—Then—close the valves of her attention—like stone.”
The lines are quoted in Winifred Gallagher’s really useful little book on being focused and attentive, Rapt. Gallagher uses the lines to reinforce her point that any important work requires undistracted focus and attention. I like to think that the tips on these Power Points offer suggestions for creating that kind of focused attention, where the rest of the world fades out and the valves of attention are shut down to everything except the task at hand.
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved Slide 48