Active Reading Article

Q: Briefly discuss how you might teach or convey the ideas in "Active Reading" to a developmental reading writing class.  How would you help students to understand these processes and strategies? And how might we use writing to practice some of these readings processes and strategies?

The author of "Active Reading" states that readers engage in activities before, during and after reading. Before reading, there is the act of selecting the text itself. Readers choose texts based to gain information, for finding personal identity, for integration and social interaction and for entertainment. With that in mind, I would teach this portion by giving students some choice in what they can read for the class. In order to allow students to find personal identity and provide them with some social interaction, the students can post a personal narrative to a blog, for example, such as Tumblr. Perhaps I would require students to find a text they personally enjoy and write a paper on it. Another idea for interaction would be the use of discussion forums and having students read and comment on each other's blogs, much like we do in this class.

During reading, the author of "Active Reading" proposes three different activities: the construction of a contextual frame/anticipation, ongoing inferences while reading, and focusing and reflecting. As a class, students can pull out words from the text that provide imagery or thoughts for them and share what those words are and images those words invoke.

After reading, the author posits that readers reflect, activate new reading, and discuss with others.  I would encourage students to find additional readings that interest them based on an earlier work because, as the author suggests, "reading breeds reading". Van Woerkum provides several suggestions to activate the reader more, including using language that evokes pictures via trigger words, adding questions into the text, comparing and contrasting viewpoints from the readings, use language that students use within their communities and stimulating the reader by suggesting useful sources for additional information on a given topic/theme.

In terms of getting students to understand these processes, I would try to understand the students' current basis of reading and writing abilities and their knowledge base. I would then try out of some of the strategies above and ask students to reflect on them. Did they help? What was the process like? Did students find they were more engaged and in control of their own learning?

In terms of writing, the author suggests understanding how active readers read and then writing in a way that connects with the reader's likely constructs and experiences. This information may be helpful in imparting to the students in the class. One way to do this is perhaps for the instructor to share his/her own experiences and schema so that students, when they are constructing and sharing their blog posts, to engage their instructor and understand what their instructor is looking for in quality, well-formed responses.