2. A Plan for Active Reading
• What is active reading?
• Active reading will
• increase focus and concentration
• promote greater understanding of what you read
• prepare you to study for tests and exams
• Four steps in active reading:
• Previewing
• Marking
• Reading with concentration
• Reviewing
3. Your Turn
Which of these four steps do you
always, sometimes, or never do? Do
any of them seem unnecessary? If
so, why?
4. Strategies for Reading Textbooks
• Math texts
• Include more symbols, formulas and proofs than words
• Complete assigned textbook exercises
• Don’t memorize but understand the steps to solving a
problem
• Science texts
• Important to understand concepts/terms
• Underline/highlight or outline chapters
• Social science and humanities texts
• Filled with terms/jargon unique to a particular field of study
• Expand viewpoints in ongoing debates/controversies
• Supplementary material
• Enriches your understanding of the textbook
5. Your Turn
What is your favorite text in one of your
current courses? Why? Which is your
least favorite text? Why?
6. Your Turn
Are you ever tempted not to buy a
textbook for one of your courses?
Why? What can you do as an
alternative? How important do you
think textbooks are in your courses? In
what other ways can you access the
information you want and need to
learn?
7. Monitoring Your Reading
• Important to monitor comprehension
• “Do I understand this?”
• Checking comprehension
• Recite the material aloud to yourself or a group
• Ask: What are the key ideas? What will I see on the
test?
• Guess what information will be presented in the next
section
8. Your Turn
How do you monitor your own reading
comprehension? On the basis of the
material, what are some strategies you
could use to ensure you understand
what you are reading?
9. Improving Your Reading
• Developing your vocabulary
• Write down unfamiliar terms
• Consider the context
• Analyze the term to discover the root of the word
• If English is not your first language
• Read slowly and more than once
• Look up every word you don’t know
• Practice thinking, writing, and speaking in English
• Take advantage of your college’s helping services
10. Tech Tip: Embrace the E-book
• The pros and cons of a digital reader
• Pros
• Portable
• Holds a range of media
• Saves trees
• Can buy books online from anywhere, even internationally
• Can type notes, highlight passages, copy and paste selections
• Cons
• Expensive
• Can break if you drop it
• Harder to flip through the pages
• Textbooks not widely available yet
