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

2. 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

3. 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

4. What ’ s it for? Quantity? The ability to find difficult sources? The discovery of obscure texts? Reading for meaning? Reading for critical engagement? http://www.publishinghub.net/

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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:

8. 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: http://www.textmapping.org/using.html http://www.textmapping.org/using.html

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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 ’

12. 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?

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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 s.sinfield@londonmet.ac.uk for more information. s.sinfield@londonmet.ac.uk