Active reading activities أنشطة القراءة الفعالة

[ESAL SPIRIT]

ACTIVE READING ACTIVITIES

Reading is an inherently passive process. Therefore you should attempt to build active reading activities into each reading session. Get the big picture first, so the details will have a structure and categories to fit into. To focus your reading, find out what you do not remember. Active reading helps to keep your mind focused on the material and stops it from wandering. Steps in building active reading activities are as follows:


Figure out what is important. The most important thing to know is what you want to know after reading the text. Once you know this you can examine the text to see whether it is going to move you towards your goal. Consider material that is emphasized by size or other graphical techniques (e.g., boldface, italics) or position (e.g., beginning or end of a section). Sometimes the introduction or concluding paragraph will highlight the key points. Texts might even include objectives, study questions, terms, etc. Ask yourself about the level of detail needed for mastery, keeping in mind that you probably only need to know the main ideas and supporting points.


Read what's important. Get the big picture first! Do not try to learn detailed information yet. When you are reading it is often useful to highlight, underline and annotate the text as you go on. This emphasizes information in your mind, and helps you to review important points after you have finished studying the text. Where you only need the shallowest knowledge of the subject, you can skim the material. Here you read only chapter headings, introductions and summaries. If you need a moderate level of information on a subject, then you can scan the text. Here you read the chapter introductions and summaries in detail, and may speed-read the contents of the chapters, picking out and understanding key words and concepts. At this level of looking at the document it is worth paying attention to diagrams and graphs. Only when you need detailed knowledge of a subject is it worth studying the text. Here it is best to skim the material first to get an overview of the subject. Once you have done this you can read it in detail while seeing how the information presented relates to the overall structure of the subject.


Review from memory. Using a concept map, write down everything you can remember without looking back at the text. If you can not remember at least 80% of the key points you have covered, you read too much before reviewing. Do not think that the material that you forgot will magically reappear on the exam when you really need it -- it won't!


Repeat the above steps as many times as necessary, going for greater detail each time. Stop when you can recall the key points.