presentation on critical reading

2. What do you do when you are assigned
a reading for class?

3. Embrace Reading
How does it help?
• Acquire knowledge
• Develop an understanding of the material
• Introduced to new ideas and terms
• Gain more exposure to class material
• Get ideas for major assignments and projects
• Critically think and process information

4. Find and Understand the purpose
• Reading before class
• Introduce ideas, concepts, and formulas
• Ground the lectures
• Gain the basics of the class lecture
• Reading after class
• Clarify concepts and look for connections to lecture material
• Reinforce class time

5. Before Reading
Preview the material and prepare questions
• The preface or introduction, will help you understand what the text is
about
• Observe the Table of Contents, chapter summaries, and section
headings
• Develop questions about the material
• General or specific

6. Read with focus
Engage with the text
• Mark up key aspects of the text
• Definitions, examples, connections
• Highlight and underline things that stick out
• Formulas, definitions, main ideas
• Key concepts
• Take notes while reading
• Works well with especially dense material

8. Read with focus
Clarify confusing material
• Carefully reread any material you find confusing
• Write questions
• Look up definitions
• Glossaries
• Footnotes
• Ask a classmate or instructor for help
• Build a foundation of knowledge

9. Develop a system for your own
reading!

10. Develop a system for your own reading!
• Think about what you
want to get out of the
reading
• Keep the amount of
symbols minimal
• Adjust your system to
what you are reading
• Example: If there is a list
of terms for each
chapter, then you
probably don’t need to
highlight them

11. After Reading
Revisit the material
• Write your own summaries
• Create questions and try to answer them
• Reread important sections
• Look for where emphasis is placed
• Identify bold or italicized words
• Rewrite your margin notes into a notebook

12. After Reading
Discuss the material
• Connect with professor or TA
• Look for common questions and points of confusion
• Summarize the material to someone unfamiliar with the text
• Turn to your peers for added clarification
• Utilize Drop-In tutoring or SI-PASS

13. After Reading
Reread with supplemental sources
• Review sections that are confusing
• Search YouTube
• May contain summaries or explanations of the text you need to
read
• Look for supplemental readings to help clarify
• Example: Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and
Cultural Theory

14. Critical Reading: Beyond
Textbooks

15. Assignment Prompts
Figuring out what you need to do
• When you get the prompt
• Read it completely!
• Underline keypoints and requirements
• Ask Questions

16. Assignment Prompts: Breaking Down the
Assignment
• Figure out the background information that contextualizes the
task you're being asked to do
• Understand what you’re being asked to do
• Determine the technical guidelines
• Due dates
• Expected length
• Style guidelines

17. Assignment Prompts: Additional Questions
to Consider
• Are there any guiding questions that should be included in the
assignment?
• What is the purpose of the assignment?
• Is there a style that the field uses that you could incorporate into
your assignment?
• Academic papers
• Lab reports