Teaching students how to read texts perceptively is an important goal of ISUComm and is essential to students’ academic progress in this university. As the semester unfolds, students’ critical reading skills usually improve. However, given the range of previous reading experience with which students enter the course, teaching them how to read well can sometimes be a challenging task—for both new and experienced instructors.
Anticipate a range of reading levels in an ISUComm Foundation Courses classes. To help students particularly with longer, “denser” readings, use the jigsaw activity demonstrated in TA Orientation to divide the reading into sections for which a few students are responsible. Then, reconfigure the class so that students are in groups with students representing each section, so everyone gets the important ideas.
The following guidelines will help your students get the most out of their readings:
Modeling. Show students how perceptive readers read a text; specifically, teach students to do the following sequence of tasks:
- make marginal or journal notations of questions, responses, paraphrases (this is more effective than a rote activity such as highlighting because students must think critically in order to pose a question or reword a main idea)
- through class discussion and note-taking, draw inferences and conclusions from the text
- summarize and paraphrase information in the text
- analyze a text rhetorically (e.g., show how authors structure ideas, use language in a certain way, and select details and evidence for a particular audience and purpose)
If students see the connection between readings and class assignments, they’ll take the assigned readings more seriously, and class discussions will be more lively and productive.
Reading–Composing Connections. Develop close ties between the reading assignments and the class assignments; for example, the readings can be used as
- models for writing (e.g., demonstrating a genre or writing techniques such as paragraphing, cueing devices, or sentence construction)
- a source of ideas or information for students’ own assignments
- the subject of a response, analysis, evaluation, or counterargument
Directly state the connection between the reading assignments and the class assignments. For instance, you might point out that just as the class has analyzed an essay’s language and organization rhetorically, they will be using similar skills to compose a rhetorical analysis for their upcoming assignment.
The amount of reading you assign during the semester will depend, of course, on the types of assignments you give and the essays you choose. Keep in mind, however, that sometimes “less is more,” that an in-depth reading of fewer texts may be better than racing through a long reading list, regardless of how indispensable or intellectually stimulating those readings might seem.
See pp. 35–36 in the Student Guide for information directed to students about reading.