teaching critical reading

teaching critical reading:

in the sciences, social sciences and humanities

WORKSHOPS ON TEACHING SPRING 2012

GSI Teaching & Resource Center 301 Sproul Hall http://gsi.berkeley.edu gsi@berkeley.edu

teaching critical reading

Danielle Champney, Ph.D. Candidate, Math Education Ben Krupicka, Ph.D. Candidate, Political Science Kim Starr-Reid, Ph.D., Comparative Literature

teaching critical reading

What assumptions or expectations do students hold or techniques do they use that hinder their ability to read effectively
and critically?

workshop objectives

Understand some of our students assumptions and attitudes

about reading
Address reading as a set of skills to develop

Consider what makes a typical kind of reading for your field

difficult for students

Develop in-class and homework strategies to get students past

difficulties with texts in your field

critical reading strategies

Critical reading is interactive

The challenge of genres Setting goals and expectations

The importance of modeling

an interactive skill
Top-down processing
Students

use the knowledge they have to understand the text.

Create and encourage active

engagement with the text

reading difficult genres

Different texts require different

reading strategies and orientations

Think about the different textual

forms in your field:

textbook, journal

article, historical source, newspaper/magazine article, lab report, novel, poem, etc.

learning goals and expectations

Students need to know the purpose

of the reading
How does the reading connect to

the courses overall learning goals?

modeling critical reading

Demonstrate critical reading in

section
Revisit and review reading

strategies throughout the semester

teaching critical reading

Select a sample text from your packet Form small groups of 3-4 people that

have chosen the same text Develop an in-class activity and homework assignment you could use to help your students develop their critical reading skills

further resources

http://gsi.berkeley.edu
Teaching Guide for GSIssection on teaching critical reading
Conferences, workshops, seminars, instituteshandouts from previous workshops on teaching

Teaching Critical Reading in the Sciences, Social Sciences, and Humanities

February 9, 2012 110 Sproul Hall 12:00 1:30 How do you read? Why teach critical reading strategies? Key Themes: Interactive Genres Goals and Expectations Modeling Workshop Activity Q&A Evaluations

Resources for Teaching Critical Reading Teaching Critical Reading. In Teaching Guide for Graduate Student Instructors. http://gsi.berkeley.edu/teachingguide/reading/index.html Guiding and Motivating Students http://gsi.berkeley.edu/teachingguide/reading/guiding.htm Critical Reading in the Social Sciences http://gsi.berkeley.edu/teachingguide/reading/socialsciences.html Critical Reading in the Humanities http://gsi.berkeley.edu/teachingguide/reading/humanities.html Critical Reading in the Natural Sciences http://gsi.berkeley.edu/teachingguide/reading/naturalsciences.html Developing a Reading Heuristic or Guide for Students http://gsi.berkeley.edu/teachingguide/reading/heuristic.htm Creative Approaches to Teaching Critical Reading Skills: What Award-Winning GSIs Have Done http://gsi.berkeley.edu/teachingguide/reading/tea-essays.htm Learning Strategies Database: Reading Strategies http://www.muskingum.edu/~cal/database/content/anthropology2.html Bean, John C. Helping Difficult Students Read Difficult Texts. Chapter 9 in Engaging Ideas: The Professors Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. Second edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, John Wiley & Sons, 2011.

Critical Reading Strategies Group Activity 1. The purpose of this activity is for you to analyze a common kind of reading that is close to your teaching field for difficulties students might initially have with it, and to design a class activity that will address those difficulties. Then add instructions for students to use when they read this kind of text on their own outside of class. 2. In your handout packet, please find three examples of course texts and choose one that may be similar to those assigned in a course from your discipline. The three textual genres are: Textbook Academic Journal Article (Biology) Literary Text Alternatively, think of a kind of text your students are having trouble with this semester. If you have an example with you, take it out for analysis. 3. Cluster with two or three other people who have selected a similar type of text. 4. Look closely at the text. Identify things about this reading that could be difficult for students.

5. For the provided examples, here are the learning objectives of the reading assignment: Textbook Learning Objective: Students will understand the core concepts and problems discussed in this chapter and begin using the chapters language and vocabulary. Journal Article (Biology) Learning Objective: Students will be able to explain the purposes of the parts of the article (format), identify the main finding, and list questions they have about terms or unknown concepts. Literary Text Learning Objective: Students will understand the satiric persona in Gullivers Travels and articulate in their own words the criticisms of European modernity that the book packs. Notice that these objectives include both content students should gain and skills they should develop as readers. These objectives are not the only ones possible; they are examples of learning objectives for early in a semester. If you are using your own example, write down what you want (or what the faculty member in charge wants) students to gain from itlearning objectives for content and for skill. If this hasnt been made clear yet, try to make it clear from the students

perspective.

6. Create a plan or list of steps you would want to take with your students to achieve your learning objectives, both immediately and in the long term. As well as activities to model in class, consider handouts to use as guides for their independent reading. Before the reading assignment . . .

After student have completed the reading assignment . . .

To support students ongoing success with later reading assignments . . .