Understand the Reading Process

The most recent research on college reading is fairly conclusive.   Having a discipline expert preview discipline-specific vocabulary (and thus concepts) as a pre-reading activity enhances comprehension more effectively than all other traditional reading strategies combined.   Nothing else compares, not taking meaning from context, not SQ3R, not independently researching the topic and increasing one's own background knowledge independently. 

Understanding what we do about the reading process, this makes perfect sense.  A reader brings their own background knowledge into their reading of a text.  This background knowledge is often referred to as 'scaffolding'.  But more than a structural outline of facts, concepts and ideas, this background knowledge is a cultural understanding of the community for whom (and by whom) the text is produced.   It is this background cultural knowledge, more than any other factor, that determines how much success the student will have in comprehending the text appropriately.  In order to understand the literal meaning of a text, students need to know that individual words can refer to whole discipline-specific concepts.  In order to make inferences appropriately, students need to understand some of the basic ways that knowledge is constructed in the discipline; Sociologists might look for patterns in social behavior whereas psychologists might be more apt to look more traditional aspects of the experimental scientific method.

Try the CLOZE exercise for a discipline you are unfamiliar with.  The CLOZE exercise does not test your ability to discern meaning from context.  Instead, it tests your ability to use knowledge of the discipline's concepts, ways of knowing, and language style to predict meaning.   Even expert readers, with Ph.D.'s in their own discipline, will struggle with a text from a discipline less familiar to them.

Understand How College Reading is Unique

College reading is very different from the kinds of reading students have been asked to do in K-12.   Bellevue Community College offers multiple classes on college reading which can help students gain expertise more quickly.   Students who have tested into ENGL 101 can take ENGL 180.  Students testing at pre-college levels can take ENGL 089.

In college, students must read to learn.  Students are required to use their assigned reading as a primary source for their own learning.  Not only are they are expected to independently comprehend texts at both literal and inferential levels, they are also expected to be able to discover connections between reading and life, other texts and disciplinary concepts.   They are expected to synthesize information from multiple sources to draw conclusions that go beyond those found in individual sources.

In college, students must read critically.  As emerging scholars students are asked to co-construct and contest meaning as they engage with texts.  They should be able to analyze the ways in which a text's organizational structure supports or confounds its meaning or purpose, evaluate the kind, breadth, and appropriateness of evidence used to support the writer’s reasoning and identify the reader's own social and cultural points of view and biases that influence perceptions of and responses to a text.

In college, students must negotiate large volumes of text.  To do this they must be able to use textual cues to identify genre-types and then use knowledge of a particular genre to make choices about priorities and reading approaches.  They must be able to adjust their reading techniques to meet the specific reading task, taking special note of vocabulary in traditional textbooks, for example, but using context to help negotiate meaning in more literary texts.

Learn Some Discrete Skills That Help Comprehension and Speed

Discrete reading skills include such things as identifying major arguments and supporting detail, paraphrasing, summarizing, using textual features to skim and scan, building vocabulary from context, and questioning. The BCC Reading Lab supports classes by teaching the relationship between speed reading, vocabulary, and comprehension; students then achieve skills in finding main ideas, literal, and inferential meaning. The lab is linked to developmental English courses and to English 106 for 1-2 credits. Students may enroll in English 080 for independent credit (non-class linked) under the supervision of a “Teacher-of Record” working in the lab. A student must complete 22 units of work for 1 credit or 44 units for 2 credits.

More Information on College Reading

http://www.academic.marist.edu/alcuin/ssk/habits.html