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Summary |
There are a variety of goals and objectives involved in active reading. They may vary according to discipline or your major study area. You may be concerned with active reading based on how you will be evaluated in the course, and how adept you are at that form of evaluation. For example, some students handle multiple choice and fact-based examinations very well, but are not particularly comfortable with essay formats.
Take a minute to examine the objectives of courses you are taking, or any form of learning in which you may be involved. For example, do you need to be able to recall a lot of definitions or facts? Are you concerned with solving problems? Have you been asked to analyze a text? By thinking about your objectives, and then identifying strategies you might use to accomplish those objectives, you can begin to develop an approach to active reading that suits your personal needs and requirements as well as the requirements of the learning situation.
An exercise that may help you become a more active reader is to make a list of active reading objectives and strategies as they relate specifically to your current reading assignments. Use the following worksheet to guide you through this exercise:
Activity 13:Download the worksheet from the link below and follow the instruction to complete the activity. The worksheet is available in four different file formats to accomodate different computer configurations. Please choose the file format most likely to work with your computer system.
Active Reading Worksheet
(Word file)Active Reading Worksheet
(rtf file)Active Reading Worksheet
(html file)Active Reading Worksheet
(pdf file)
Deena: I can see how active reading can be applied to many things we do.
Brian: It can especially be applied to our individual and group research projects.
Deena: Our data collection?
Jose: Our analysis.
Sage: Our report!
Brian: All of it.
Jose: I was also thinking that it would help us to become better critical thinkers on a daily basis.
Sage: Is that sort of like being aware of multiple possibilities?
Brian: And not just to accept everything we read as absolute.
Heather: Not only what we read, but what we hear too.
Deena: I think it can also make a difference in the way we write.
Heather: Yeah, particularly if our audience is an active reader.
Jose: Wow! That's a really good point, Heather.
Brian: Speaking of questioning things, where did you get this information about active reading anyway?
Heather: I sort of put it together from several sources. I picked
out what I thought was the best information. If anyone has some good
Web sites or resources, let me know.
Activity 14:
What additional resources can you think of where you can learn more about improving your skills as an active reader?
Jose: A concept map of the skills that seem to relate
to active reading would be useful.
Sage: Good idea. At least we can list the ones we know of at the moment.
Jose: I think Heather should write these down on the whiteboard so we can see them.
Heather: Agreed.
Deena: The first one that I remember is notetaking.
Sage: I also wrote down active listening.
Jose: How about interviewing? Since we are, in a sense, conducting interviews.
Deena: Okay. Remember, we are brainstorming here so that's another one. Brian, we haven't heard from you.
Brian: Time management. You have to be able to read your syllabus and schedule and make some decisions.
Jose: These active reading techniques could almost be appropriate for anything we do that involves reading.
Deena: You may be right. There could be many other links. And they may be different for each of us. The result is what's important, since it is something useful for the group.
Brian: I have just one more question. What do you do with the notes you take?
Deena: I put them in my notebook along with the notes I took in class. If
I'm not clear on something that I read, I try to ask the instructor about it.
That way I have a better handle on things that will probably be on an exam.
Take a minute and think about a situation where you can use active reading skills. Use the "My Notes" tool to describe the situation.
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