Chapter 5: Active Reading Strategies

1. Chapter 5: Active Reading Strategies College Reading and Study Skills Ninth Edition by Kathleen T. McWhorter

2. Objectives: • This chapter will demonstrate techniques to help you decide what to learn in a textbook chapter. • You will learn to preread before reading, to discover what you already know about the topic, and to define your purposes for reading. • You will learn to monitor and strengthen your comprehension as you read. • LEARNING PRINCIPLE: We all remember what we intend to remember.

3. How to Preread 1. Read the title and subtitle. 2. Read the introduction or first paragraph. 3. Read each major heading. 4. Read the first sentence under each heading. 5. Note any typographical and graphical aids. 6. Read the last paragraph or summary. 7. Read quickly any end-of-article or end-of-chapter material.

4. Why Prereading Works • It helps you get interested in and involved with what you will read by activating your thinking. • It provides you with a mental outline of the material you are going to read. • It lets you apply several principles of learning. You identify what is important, thus establishing an intent to remember. • It functions as rehearsal that enhances recall because it provides repetition of the most important points.

5. Making Predictions • Making predictions is a way to expand and broaden your thinking beyond the Knowledge and Comprehension levels. • Predicting forces you to apply your knowledge to new situations (Application, Analysis, and Synthesis). • Efficient readers make predictions about organization and content. • As efficient readers read, they confirm, reject, or revise their initial predictions.

6. How to Discover What You Already Know 1. Ask questions and try to answer them. 2. Relate the topic to your own experience. 3. Free-associate everything that comes to mind.

7. Define Your Purpose for Reading Develop Guide Questions: • Who? • What? • When? • Where? • Why? • How?

8. Checking Your Comprehension • Recognize Comprehension Signals • Evaluate Your Comprehension 1. Set checkpoints. 2. Use your guide questions. 3. Ask connection questions. 4. Use internal dialogue. See Figure 5.4 in your book for positive and negative comprehension signals.

9. How to Strengthen Your Comprehension • Analyze the time and place in which you are reading. • Rephrase each paragraph in your own words. • Read aloud sentences or sections that are particularly difficult. • Reread difficult or complicated sections. • Slow down your reading rate.

10. How to Strengthen Your Comprehension • Write guide questions next to headings. • Write a brief outline of major points. • Highlight key ideas. • Write notes in the margins. • Determine whether you lack background knowledge.

11. Summary Questions • What is prereading? • How do you preread? • Why is it helpful to make predictions about materials you are preparing to read? • Why is discovering what you already know valuable to do before reading? • How can you define a purpose for reading? • How can you keep track of comprehension while reading?

12. Take a Reading Road Trip! Take a trip to NEW ORLEANS and visit the Active Reading module on your CD-ROM.