Deep reading strategies

If you read several thick books from the list of references at once, you can suddenly realize that the authors and their ideas are confused in the head. It's good when the reader notices his misunderstanding. This is the first step to start reading well, without wasting time. But often there is an illusion of complete understanding of what has been read. An example is the story told by the American professor, philosopher and popularizer of reading Mortimer Adler.

The meaning is hidden behind the words

One day Adler asked students to read a philosophical treatise by Thomas Aquinas on human passions, and in the next class he asked them to tell what the book was about. Students answered without hesitation that the primary passion is love, and all other feelings follow it in a certain order.

But when Adler asked for clarification: “What does this mean? What did Saint Thomas mean?” the students could not answer. Then the professor began to ask leading questions. How do hate and anger, hope and fear depend on love? Have the students themselves experienced the variability of love? Do they see analogies with the theories they learned about in the parallel course? nine0003

The students started thinking about these questions only when they heard them from the teacher. When reading, they perceived the philosophical treatise only at the level of content, but not of meaning. The students did not connect it with other knowledge or with personal experience, although they were sure that they had learned what they read. This is the illusion of understanding.

Special strategies for semantic reading have been developed to delve deeper into the text. Semantic reading is a deep penetration into the text with simultaneous analysis. nine0003

The reader must understand the main ideas, figure out what tasks the author set himself and whether they solved them, understand the author's attitude to the subject and form his own attitude. Does he agree with the author? If not, why not? Is it due to incorrect facts or interpretation of information?

Three stages of working on a text

Modern teachers believe that for a deep and complete understanding of the text, you need to learn how to work with it in three stages: before, during reading and after it. nine0003

Preparing to read

First, it is important to understand the nature of the text, guess what the author's intention was, and set yourself reading goals.

How does it work? Here a schoolboy / student takes a book or a scientific article, looks through the title, a list of keywords (scrolls through the book in search of the most frequently repeated words), content, introduction and asks himself the questions: “What is it about?”, “What new can I learn from it ?”, “What goals did the author set for himself?”, “Is this a completely unfamiliar topic for me, or do I already know something?” nine0003

Until the book is read, the answers to these questions will be only hypotheses, but depending on them, the reader will be able to choose the appropriate reading strategy. This will help determine the goals: is he going to deal with a new problem? Will it expand the knowledge already gained? Or look for a new look at old questions?

While reading

When reading a book, it is best to stick to your goals. The already chosen strategy will help with this. It is important not just to "run" through the text, but to constantly ask yourself relevant questions, controlling the process. nine0003

1. Is there information in the book that does not agree with what I already know?
2. What main ideas does the author want to convey?
3. Are there any contradictions in the text?
4. Is there enough information here or is the author silent about something?
5. Does it make sense to turn to other sources?

After reading

Summarizing the information read and the critical attitude of the reader to the text is formed not only in the process of reading, but also after. Serious materials need to be considered. In order for new information and conclusions to firmly settle in the memory, they need to be “sorted out”. nine0003

Special techniques help to maintain a high level of self-control: a plan of questions, notes, writing out new terms in a glossary, visualization of basic information in the form of tables, charts or mind maps.

Some experienced readers intuitively find suitable semantic reading techniques.

Even banal underlining in a book, notes in the margins, or writing out abstracts in a mini-summary are quite effective techniques. If a teenager does not yet have their own such techniques, this is an excellent opportunity to try one of the modern complex reading strategies. nine0003

Strategies for meaningful reading

Ideally, the basic strategies for meaningful reading should be taught in school, but in reality, few people get advanced reading skills in school. Fortunately, they can be developed independently. There are many strategies for reading educational literature - you can choose the right one from them.

1. Highlighting keywords

Even if you limit yourself to this technique, you can get many more benefits from reading.

It is necessary to highlight key words: underline and write them out, and also explain the meanings. This applies not only to new terms, but also to already known ones. The main thing is that they form the semantic basis of the text. Highlighting keywords will help build a full-fledged "dialogue" with the text. nine0003

It happens that the author puts a different meaning into a term already familiar to us. Or uses another word to refer to the process known to us. All this can be misleading. Such a phenomenon is not uncommon if the reader and the author are separated by several generations or even eras.

Compilation of the author's glossary (dictionary of terms) greatly facilitates the task of reading several books that have something in common in meaning. Different authors may describe similar phenomena using different terminology. You can notice the similarities and differences in their views only if you fully understand the meaning of the words. nine0003

2. Asking questions

Asking questions to yourself is both a basic technique and a strategy. It will help to identify the main ideas of the text and its semantic connections, find out the position of the author and critically evaluate the facts described in the text.

The question is the first step towards self-control (“Do I understand the text or not?”) and an impulse to reflection. This technique will help you concentrate.

If the reader cannot answer the question "What is the main idea?", then you will have to re-read the "foggy" piece. nine0003

Experienced readers of educational and scientific texts have developed the skill of asking questions to the point of automatism. Teenagers will have to develop it by training. First you need to make a list of questions by opening a new book. And after reading each completed semantic passage, stop and look for answers.

3. Information visualization

Not all scientific texts are perfect. Delving into a lengthy, heavy text is a grueling task. Visualization techniques help to sort out information: drawing up tables, diagrams, mental maps, drawing clusters. nine0003

For example, the facts mentioned in the book can be represented as a pyramid. At the top there will be key information, in the middle - working (operational) facts, and at the base - important details.

4. SQ4R strategy

This is a complex, multi-stage strategy. The name is an abbreviation of the English words survey, question, read, recite, review and reflection (“assessment, question, reading, presentation, repetition and reflection”). The strategy is great for preparing for exams based on scientific literature. nine0003

First, you need to quickly evaluate the book - "go over" the content, introduction and conclusion in order to understand the main topic. Next, a list of questions is compiled: what exactly do you want to learn from the book.

If the reader is looking for specific information for their project or research, the questions are usually known. In other cases, you can reformulate the headings and subheadings of the book itself into questions. This will make it easier to highlight the main idea of ​​each section.

It is best to read the text slowly and carefully, trying to find answers to the questions posed. nine0003

It is useful to highlight the most important paragraphs and sentences that contain answers. After each section, briefly retell to yourself or write down the answers found from memory. After reading the book to the end, the reader can once again go through the most important marked places to check himself.

In the end, it is interesting to evaluate the main ideas of the author. Are they justified enough? Do you see errors in reasoning, distortion of facts, similarities or differences with other positions on this topic? Do you agree with the author? Justify your answers. nine0003

5. INSERT strategy, or "Reading with notes"

Another effective technique for diving into books or articles by different authors on the same subject. While reading, right in the margins, you can make short special marks according to this system:

V - “I already know”;

+ - "new information";

- - "I thought differently";

? - "I have questions, I need to know more";

! - "there are controversial points. " nine0003

Then you have to make a table of five columns in a notebook or in electronic form. Each column is assigned to one of these symbols, and then the content of the marks from the book is written into them. As the table is filled in, new information will accumulate, and the reader will have the opportunity to better control and remember it.

Any strategy can, if desired, be improved for yourself or assemble your own strategy from different techniques.

Source:

ChTD online edition

Photo: Collection/iStock

Effective strategies for working with text in the classroom at school

The ultimate goal of teaching Russian is practical literacy and language competence. The basis of the content of literature as an academic subject is reading and textual study of works of art.

Work with the text as the main didactic unit allows schoolchildren to combine the activities of developing practical skills of literate writing and speech development. nine0144