Orientation

Welcome to the online student orientation

This orientation is also available as

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Table of Contents

• The Pathway to Success in Your College Course
• Time Management
• Study Environment
• Learning Styles
  • Learning Styles Activities
• Reading Skills & Strategies
• Note Taking
• Memory Techniques
• Preparing For and Taking Tests
• Computer Basics
• Distanct Learner Handbook
  

Reading Skills and Strategies (top)

You may be saying to yourself, "I learned to read in first grade! Why do I need to think about reading strategies in college?"

Yes, you can read the words in your textbooks, but how good is your comprehension of their meaning?

How often have you read a chapter, or even part of a chapter, in a textbook and then thought, "What did I just read?" Could you answer questions about the content without referring back to the pages?

And slowing your reading speed does not necessarily increase your comprehension. It only means that it takes you longer to read the assignment.

Experiment on reading:

Dr. Perry (psychologist), Director of the Harvard Reading-Study Center, gave 1500 first year students a thirty-page chapter from a history book to read, with the explanation that in about twenty minutes they would be stopped and asked to identify the important details and to write an essay on what they had read.

The class scored well on a multiple-choice test on detail, but only FIFTEEN STUDENTS of 1500 (1%) were able to write a short statement on what the chapter was all about in terms of its basic theme. Why? Only fifteen readers had thought of reading the last paragraph marked "Summary" or of skimming down the descriptive flags in the margin.

This demonstration of "OBEDIENT PURPOSELESSNESS" is evidence of "an enormous amount of wasted effort" in freshmen study. Dr. Perry suggested that students ask themselves WHAT IT IS THEY WANT TO GET OUT OF A READING ASSIGNMENT, THEN LOOK AROUND FOR THOSE POINTS. Students should "talk to themselves" while reading, asking "is this the point I'm looking for?"

Source: A Harvard Report on Reading Improvement at http://www.dartmouth.edu/admin/acskills/lsg/harvard.html

Would you have been

• one of the 1% who skimmed the thirty pages to get the main idea and the important points or
• one of the 99% who started reading page 1, continued to page 2, and so on until time was called?

Good reading skills are essential to your success in your college-level classes. Here are a couple of reasons why:

• In high school, you may have been able to get good grades without reading much of the text. Now that you’re in college, professors will expect you to read the textbook and they may test you on information not discussed in class but covered in the reading. In fact, many professors test on assigned readings as a check to make sure students are using their texts.
• The average freshman is assigned over 250 pages of reading each week, so clearly you’re going to need to keep up with your reading assignments. If you do not read during week one, that means that you will need to read 500 pages the next week—just to stay caught up! If you choose not to read during the second week either . . . well, you can see how the work can just snowball.

Go to http://www.ablongman.com/textbooktips/index.html for quick and easy tips to improve your reading:

• Click on "No Dorothy, You're Not in High School Any More" (Be Responsible for Your Reading) for an explanation of why reading your textbook is so important as well as hints for how to read your textbook.
• Select "Keep Up With Your Reading" (Training Schedule) for tips on staying on track. Be sure to examine the sample schedule.
• Refer to "Do You Need Me to Draw You a Picture?" (Read Everything in the Text) for further information.

Another resource for improving your reading comprehension is at http://www.marin.cc.ca.us/%7Edon/Study/7read.html. These are the main ideas:

• Develop a broad background.
• Know the structure of paragraphs.
• Identify the type of reasoning.
• Anticipate and predict.
• Look for the method of organization.
• Create motivation and interest.
• Pay attention to supporting cues.
• Highlight, summarize and review.
• Build a good vocabulary.
• Use a systematic reading technique like SQR3.
• Monitor effectiveness.

In order to know what you need to do, you must identify where you are. Here's how you can check your reading skills:

1. Go to the Learning Resources site at http://literacynet.org/cnnsf/home.html.
2. Click on the Current Story button.
3. Select Story.
4. Read the story.
5. After reading the story, click on Multiple Choice from the choices at the left side of the screen and answer the questions.

How did you do?  If you missed any questions in the different areas listed below, you may want to spend some time honing your reading skills.

• Vocabulary 10 questions
• Word Selection 5 questions
• Multiple Choice 5 questions
• Sequencing 5 questions
• Conclusions 4 questions

Improving your reading skills and applying reading strategies

A good reader:

• seizes the main ideas.
• thinks about what the author is saying
• is active, not passive.
• concentrates on what is being read.
• remembers as much as possible.
• applies what is being read to personal experience.

Go to http://www.how-to-study.com/Improving%20Reading%20Skills.htm for more on reading skills.

SQ3R is one recommended method for improving your reading comprehension. The letters in the name stand for these five steps:

1. Survey: Before you read, scan the titles, headings, pictures, and summaries. Consider using the heading and subheadings as an outline for notes as you read.
2. Question: Ask yourself questions based on Step 1 and look for answers as you complete Step 3. For example, if a subheading is entitled "Basic Concepts of Reading," change it to read, "What are the Basic Concepts of Reading?"
3. Read: Read and take notes.
4. Recall: Without referring to the book or your notes, think about what you have read. See if your questions were answered. Could you explain the content to someone else? Try putting major concepts in your own words.
5. Review: Look at your questions, answers, notes and book to see how well you did recall. Observe carefully the points stated incorrectly or omitted. Fix carefully in mind the logical sequence of the entire idea, concepts, or problem. Finish up with a mental picture of the WHOLE.

Another method is PQR3, which stands for

1. Preview: Preview what you are going to read.
2. Question: Question what you are going to learn after the preview.
3. Read: Read the assignment.
4. Recite: Stop every once in a while, look up from the book, and put in your own words what you have just read.
5. Review: After you have finished, review the main points.

(Sounds similar to SQ3R, doesn't it?) Go to http://www.how-to-study.com/pqr.htm to learn more about this method.

There is even a related study method known as M.U.R.D.E.R, which stands for

1. Mood: Set a positive mood for yourself to study in.
2. Understand: Mark any information you don't understand in a particular unit and keep a focus on one unit or a manageable group of exercise.
3. Recall: After studying the unit, stop and put what you have learned into your own words.
4. Digest: Go back to what you did not understand and reconsider the information. Contact external expert sources (e.g., other books or an instructor) if you still cannot understand it.
5. Expand: In this step, ask three kinds of questions concerning the studied material:
   • If I could speak to the author, what questions would I ask or what criticism would I offer?
   • How could I apply this material to what I am interested in?
   • How could I make this information interesting and understandable to other students?
6. Review: Go over the material you've covered. Review what strategies helped you understand and/or retain information in the past and apply these to your current studies.

Check this system out at http://www.studygs.net/murder.htm. Are you beginning to see similarities among the various systems?

If you search the Internet, you will find an abundance of sites dealing with reading strategies. Some are good; others are not so good. The sites listed below are a good place to start.

• Read efficiently by reading intelligently at http://www.mindtools.com/rdstratg.html.
• Make your textbook work for you at http://www.ablongman.com/textbooktips/index.html.
• Make sense of reading strategies at http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/1411/9169.
• Vary your reading strategies by subject at http://www.utexas.edu/student/utlc/handouts/553.html

As you visit the various web sites (http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/stdyhlp.html, http://www.studygs.net/, and http://www.how-to-study.com/, for example), you might notice distinctions being made based on the type of material being read; i.e., a strategy for reading novels, how to read a difficult book, skimming and scanning scientific material, how to read essays you must analyze. This emphasizes the fact that how you read should depend on what you are reading and your purpose for reading it.

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