Helping students become better readers (Freshman Seminar Faculty Discussion, 2008)
Contributor: C. Yarnoff, The Writing Program, csy771@northwestern.edu
Posted: 2008
At a meeting of freshman seminar faculty, there was lively discussion of the relationship between reading and writing. Everyone agrees that it’s impossible to write clearly about material you’ve read if you can’t read it completely and accurately first. Thus, helping students learn to read critically and accurately is a first step in helping them become better writers.
Various instructors suggest the following activities to help students become better readers:
==> Ask students to submit summaries of an assigned reading when class is due. One instructor took a class in which the professor required 150 word summaries and strictly adhered to the word limit. This not only helped students with the reading but also with writing concisely.
==> Ask students to identify what point the writer is making, how the writer makes his/her point, and whether the argument is convincing.
==> Ask students to bring a short written response to the reading and then reading those aloud at the beginning of the class. These are ungraded, unless someone fails to do one. Reading them aloud helps students distinguish a good response from a poor one and also stimulates the discussion.
==> Have students write a blog entry on the reading. Blogs can be added to any Course Management site.
==> Ask students to summarize the reading and then identify the gaps. When these are read aloud, students feel really good about finding that they have identified some of the same gaps as their peers did.
==> Take a whole class period to read through a difficult reading with the class. This can show them that more is expected of them in reading as they become more advanced in a subject.
