INTR 101 04 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