Strategies
of Reading
1.
Previewing: Learning about a text before really
reading it.
Previewing
enables readers to get a sense of what the text is about and how it is
organized before reading it closely. This simple strategy includes seeing what
you can learn from the headnotes or other introductory material, skimming to
get an overview of the content and organization, and identifying the rhetorical
situation.
2.
Contextualizing: Placing a text in its historical,
biographical, and cultural contexts.
When
you read a text, you read it through the lens of your own experience. Your
understanding of the words on the page and their significance is informed by
what you have come to know and value from living in a particular time and
place. But the texts you read were all written in the past, sometimes in a
radically different time and place. To read critically, you need to
contextualize, to recognize the differences between your contemporary values
and attitudes and those represented in the text.
3.
Questioning
to understand and remember: Asking
questions about the content.
As
students, you are accustomed (I hope) to teachers asking you questions about
your reading. These questions are designed to help you understand a reading and
respond to it more fully, and often this technique works. When you need to
understand and use new information though it is most beneficial if you write
the questions, as you read the text for the first time. With this strategy, you
can write questions any time, but in difficult academic readings, you will
understand the material better and remember it longer if you write a question
for every paragraph or brief section. Each question should focus on a main
idea, not on illustrations or details, and each should be expressed in your own
words, not just copied from parts of the paragraph.
4.
Reflecting
on challenges to your beliefs and values: Examining your personal responses.
The
reading that you do for this class might challenge your attitudes, your
unconsciously held beliefs, or your positions on current issues. As you read a
text for the first time, mark an X in the margin at each point where you feel a
personal challenge to your attitudes, beliefs, or status. Make a brief note in
the margin about what you feel or about what in the text created the challenge.
Now look again at the places you marked in the text where you felt personally
challenged. What patterns do you see?
5.
Outlining
and summarizing: Identifying
the main ideas and restating them in your own words.
Outlining
and summarizing are especially helpful strategies for understanding the content
and structure of a reading selection. Whereas outlining reveals the basic
structure of the text, summarizing synopsizes a selection's main argument in
brief. Outlining may be part of the annotating process, or it may be done
separately (as it is in this class). The key to both outlining and summarizing
is being able to distinguish between the main ideas and the supporting ideas
and examples. The main ideas form the backbone, the strand that holds the
various parts and pieces of the text together. Outlining the main ideas helps
you to discover this structure. When you make an outline, don't use the text's
exact words.Summarizing begins with outlining, but instead of merely listing
the main ideas, a summary recomposes them to form a new text. Whereas outlining
depends on a close analysis of each paragraph, summarizing also requires
creative synthesis. Putting ideas together again -- in your own words and in a
condensed form -- shows how reading critically can lead to deeper understanding
of any text.
6.
Evaluating
an argument: Testing the
logic of a text as well as its credibility and emotional impact.
All
writers make assertions that they want you to accept as true. As a critical
reader, you should not accept anything on face value but to recognize every
assertion as an argument that must be carefully evaluated. An argument has two
essential parts: a claim and support. The claim asserts a conclusion -- an
idea, an opinion, a judgment, or a point of view -- that the writer wants you
to accept. The support includes reasons (shared beliefs, assumptions, and
values) and evidence (facts, examples, statistics, and authorities) that give
readers the basis for accepting the conclusion. When you assess an argument,
you are concerned with the process of reasoning as well as its truthfulness
(these are not the same thing). At the most basic level, in order for an argument
to be acceptable, the support must be appropriate to the claim and the
statements must be consistent with one another.
7.
Comparing
and contrasting related readings: Exploring likenesses and differences between texts to
understand them better.
Many
of the authors we read are concerned with the same issues or questions, but
approach how to discuss them in different ways. Fitting a text into an ongoing
dialectic helps increase understanding of why an author approached a particular
issue or question in the way he or she did.
BEFORE
READING
Ø Set a Purpose for Reading
Think
if you will you be reading to find out what happens in a story or to learn
specific information.
Ø Preview the Text
Look
at the title, pictures, captions under pictures, headings, bold-faced print and
other graphics.
Ø Activate Background Knowledge
Think
about what you already know about the content of what you will read.
Ø Predict
Think
what might happen in the story, what words may be used, or what information the
text might contain
DURING
READING
Ø Cross-check
Check
one cue with another. Ask yourself, "Does this word look right, sound
right, and make sense?"
Ø Reread
When
problems occur, return to the beginning of a sentence or paragraph and read it
again.
Ø Predict and Confirm
Ask
yourself, "What word do I expect to see?", "What do I think will
happen next?", "Did that make sense?", or "Am I finding the
answers to my questions about this topic?"
Ø Skip, Read On, and Go Back
Sometimes
you can skip an unfamiliar word and read to the end of the sentence or
paragraph, thinking about what would make sense. Then, using the context, go
back and reread to try to determine the word.
Ø Connect Background Knowledge to the
Information in the Text
Think
about what you already know about the subject and the kind of material you are
reading. Think about how the information is similar to what you already know
about the topic, event, or person. If you have many questions about the topic
or the kind of book, you may need to ask someone for help.
Ø Think About Explicit and Implicit Information
Think
about what information is given directly. Also think about what you know from
reading that is not directly stated in words such as how a character's actions
show feelings or why things may have happened based on the clues the author
gave.
Ø Stop and Review
If
you are reading a longer text, stop and think about what has happened in the
story so far or what information has been given.
AFTER
READING
Ø Retell and Summarize
Tell
someone or write what happened in the story, including characters, plot, and
important events. If you read a nonfiction piece, review what information was
presented.
Ø Use a Graphic Organizer
Use
a story map, biography wheel, Venn diagram, or other way to show what was included
in what you read. (You may need to check with your teacher for suggestions.)
Ø Draw Conclusions
Think
about what predictions you made before and during reading. Look back and think
about what you have read. Consider how the information read relates to what you
already knew about the topic. Were your questions answered? Do you have more
questions about the subject?
Ø Reread
Reread
the text or a section of the text to help you understand it better.
Ø Discuss and Respond
Talk
with someone about what you have read. Ask each other questions. Look back at
the book to defend your opinions.
Ø Write to Support Understanding
Write
about what you have read, telling what it made you think of or what you
learned.
