Critical Reading Strategies
Sponsored by The Center for Teaching and Learning at UIS /
What is PRO?
♠Prepare to read (pre-reading)
♠Read Actively
♠Organize to Learn
Part 1: Pre-reading Strategies
♠Concentrate
- When is the best time during the day for you to read and study?
- Where is the best place for you to read and study?
♠Preview
- Title
- What does each word in the title mean?
- What does the phrase mean as a whole?
- Author information
- Who is the author ?
- When did s/he write the piece?
- Headings, Notes, Pictures, or Side Panels
♠Use Prior Knowledge
- How do you relate to the piece you’ve previewed?
- Are there any similarities between you and the author or any of the characters?
- Have you read or heard any of the information elsewhere before?
♠Ask pre-reading questions and make predictions
- What do you want to learn?
- What can you predict the author will discuss?
♠Choose a reading strategy
- What is the purpose in reading this text?
- What is the level of difficulty?
- How will I actively read the text?
Part 2: Reading Actively
♠Reading Actively means annotating and making connections between the material and what you already know or have experienced
♠Becoming an Active Reader
- Devote time to fully focus on comprehending the text
- Apply strategies that will swiftly engage you with a text and keep your concentration
♠Be aware of the environmental factors that enhance and hurt concentration
♠Be realistic about how long reading certain texts will take and set aside time for that reading
♠Plan to keep a Reading Log for every class with required reading
♠Keep a Reading Log
♠Orient yourself to the text
♠Create a Discussion Web
♠What Are You Looking For?
- Note the subject matter and author’s purpose
- Recognize the organization of the text, structure and genre
- Determine the context of the text
- Find the connections to the course
- Decide your purpose and goal
♠Remaining Active
- Interact with the author as you read
- Try to figure out the author’s stance
- Monitor your comprehension and act when your concentration flags
♠Dealing with Demanding Texts
- Identify the major problem and resolution
- Research the subject matter
- Look up unknown words
- Ask your instructor, peers, family, and friends for help
Part 3: Organizing to Learn
♠Apply Post-Reading tips
- Decide if you achieved your goals for reading
- Discuss the accuracy of your predictions
- Summarize major ideas
- Research additional information
- Distinguish between relevant and irrelevant ideas
- Paraphrase relevant details
- Reflect and personalize the text
♠Create a Semantic Map
- Helps the reader to identify important ideas
- Shows how the ideas fit together
- Uses comprehension/concentration skills and evolves in a note taking form
- Represents visually the content of your reading
- Three Components of SM
- Core question or concept
- Strands
- Supports
♠Form a Discussion Group
- Brings out new ideas you’d previously not considered
- Takes existing ideas or concepts about the reading and expands upon them
- Allows your interpretations to be challenged and will fill in some of your “blind spots” regarding what you just read
♠Mark Your Text
- Read first and then mark selectively
- Box transitions and number important ideas
- Circle specialized vocabulary
- Jot down main ideas in the margin
- Write questions as you read
- Make brief summaries at the end of each section
♠Outline what you read
- Place major/general points to the left
- Indent each more specific point to the right
♠Chart what you read
- Organize categories into columns
- Record information into the appropriate category
- Tracks conversations and dialogues
- Reduces amount of writing
- Provides easy review
♠Apply Post-Reading Tips
- Decide if you achieved your goals for reading
- Discuss the accuracy of your predictions
- Summarize major ideas
- Research additional information
- Distinguish between relevant and irrelevant ideas
- Paraphrase relevant details
- Reflect and personalize the text
Last Edited 6/30/2008Page 1 of 2