Active Reading & Annotating Texts

Introduction

In this section, you will learn more about active reading in order to become engaged with your texts. This will help with reading speed, comprehension, and the number of times you read. Ultimately, this will help with avoiding "cram" sessions and actually learning the material.

Active Versus Passive Reading Activity

Complete this worksheet to find-out if you are an "active" or "passive" reader:

Journal

After completing the above worksheet, answer the following questions:

1. Are you an active or passive reader?

2. What strategies from the lists in the worksheet you completed above would you like to incorporate into your reading habits?

Active Learning

Before getting into active reading, let's take a step back and figure-out what "active learning" is in general.

There are two parts to the definition of “learning.” First, learning is changing. For instance, if you are sitting in class listening to your instructor lecture about a subject, but you do not apply or use the information in any way, have you learned it? This leads to another aspect to what learning is, which is to be active in the process.

The difference between passive and active learning is key to college success. When you are passive with learning, you are not engaged with the material. You are going through the motions of studying without making an effort to absorb and add the information into your life. When students are passively learning, they are usually sitting in class bored with eyes glazed-over or reading without a purpose. It sort-of seems like a waste of time when they could instead be active with the material by asking questions, checking for understanding, and making connections with prior knowledge—prior knowledge is information from a person’s past experiences. Students who are active learners have less stress with academics since they do not rely on cramming information due to already have learned it.

Active Learning on Your Own

Many instructors conduct their classes mainly through lectures. One reason is that the lecture is an efficient way for the instructor to control the content, organization, and pace of a presentation, particularly in a large group. However, there are drawbacks to this “information-transfer” approach, where the instructor does all the talking and the students quietly listen: student have a hard time paying attention from start to finish; the mind wanders.

While instructors typically speak 100–200 words per minute, students hear only 50–100 of them. Moreover, studies show that students retain 70 percent of what they hear during the first ten minutes of class and only 20 percent of what they hear during the last ten minutes of class.

Thus, it is especially important for students in lecture-based courses to engage in active learning outside of the classroom. How can these learning activities be active? The following are very effective strategies to help you be more engaged with, and get more out of, the learning you do outside the classroom:

• Write in your books: You can underline and circle key terms, or write questions and comments in the margins of their books. The writing serves as a visual aid for studying and makes it easier for you to remember what you’ve read or what you’d like to discuss in class. If you are borrowing a book or want to keep it unmarked so you can resell it later, try writing key words and notes on Post-its and sticking them on the relevant pages.

• Annotate a text: Annotations typically mean writing a brief summary of a text and recording the works-cited information (title, author, publisher, etc.). This is a great way to “digest” and evaluate the sources you’re collecting for a research paper, but it’s also invaluable for shorter assignments and texts, since it requires you to actively think and write about what you read. The activity, below, will give you practice annotating texts.

• Create mind maps: Mind maps are effective visuals tools for students, as they highlight the main points of readings or lessons. Think of a mind map as an outline with more graphics than words. For example, if a student were reading an article about America’s First Ladies, she might write, “First Ladies” in a large circle in the center of a piece of paper. Connected to the middle circle would be lines or arrows leading to smaller circles with visual representations of the women discussed in the article. Then, these circles might branch out to even smaller circles containing the attributes of each of these women.

Journal

1. What is the definition of active learning?

2. Do you feel like you are currently an active learner? Explain.

3. How would you, personally, practice active learning…

   • While reading a text?

   • During a class lecture?

   • During a conversation?

   • Watching an informative video?

4. Review the process you used to complete this Journal by thinking about what the questions are asking you to do. How are these questions examples of active learning? How can you transfer this to other learning situations where there are not journal or comprehension questions?

Active Reading

Active reading simply means reading something with a determination to understand and evaluate it for its relevance to your needs. Simply reading and re-reading the material isn't an effective way to understand and learn. Actively and critically engaging with the content can ultimately save you time.

Try these techniques to make your reading active:

• Before you read, preview the text. As noted earlier, reading introductory paragraphs and headings can help you begin to figure out the author’s main point and identify what important topics will be covered. However, surveying does not stop there. Look over sidebars, photographs, and any other text or graphic features that catch your eye. Skim a few paragraphs. Preview any boldfaced or italicized vocabulary terms. This will help you form a first impression of the material and give you an idea of what it is about before even having read it word for word, which will cut down on the amount of times you will read a text.

• Brainstorm questions about the text. What do you expect to learn from the reading? You may find that some questions come to mind immediately based on your initial survey or based on previous readings and class discussions. If not, try using headings and subheadings in the text to formulate questions.

• As you read, notice whether your first impressions of the text were correct. Are the author’s main points and overall approach about the same as what you predicted—or does the text contain a few surprises? Also, look for answers to your earlier questions and begin forming new questions. Continue to revise your impressions and questions as you read.

• While you are reading, pause occasionally to recite or record important points. It is best to do this at the end of each section or when there is an obvious shift in the writer’s train of thought. Put the book aside for a moment and recite aloud the main points of the section or any important answers you found there. You might also record ideas by jotting down a few brief notes in addition to, or instead of, reciting aloud. Either way, the physical act of articulating information makes you more likely to remember it.

• After you have completed the reading, take some time to review the material more thoroughly. If the textbook includes review questions or your instructor has provided a study guide, use these tools to guide your review. You will want to record information in a more detailed format than you used during reading, such as in an outline or a list.

• As you review the material, reflect on what you learned. Did anything surprise you, upset you, or make you think? Did you find yourself strongly agreeing or disagreeing with any points in the text? What topics would you like to explore further? Jot down your reflections in your notes.

• Connect what you read to what you already know. Look for ways the reading supports, extends, or challenges concepts you have learned elsewhere.

• Relate the reading to your own life. What statements, people, or situations relate to your personal experiences?

• Visualize. For both fiction and nonfiction texts, try to picture what is described. Visualizing is especially helpful when you are reading a narrative text, such as a novel or a historical account, or when you read expository text that describes a process, such as how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

• Pay attention to graphics as well as text. Photographs, diagrams, flow charts, tables, and other graphics can help make abstract ideas more concrete and understandable.

• Understand the text in context. Understanding context means thinking about who wrote the text, when and where it was written, the author’s purpose for writing it, and what assumptions or agendas influenced the author’s ideas. For instance, two writers might both address the subject of health care reform, but if one article is an opinion piece and one is a news story, the context is different.

• Plan to talk or write about what you read. Jot down a few questions or comments in your notebook so you can bring them up in class. (This also gives you a source of topic ideas for papers and presentations later in the semester.) Discuss the reading on a class discussion board or blog about it.

By actively and independently reading text, students simultaneously can build their word identification, fluency, vocabulary, and text-dependent comprehension skills.

How to Annotate

Annotating is any action that deliberately interacts with a text to enhance the reader's understanding of, recall of, and reaction to the text. Sometimes called "close reading," annotating usually involves highlighting or underlining key pieces of text and making notes in the margins of the text.

By annotating a text, you will ensure that you understand what is happening in a text after you've read it. As you annotate, you should note:

• The author's main points

• Shifts in the message or perspective of the text

• Key areas of focus,

• Your own thoughts as you read.

However, annotating isn't just for people who feel challenged when reading academic texts. Even if you regularly understand and remember what you read, annotating will help you:

• Summarize a text

• Highlight important pieces of information

• Ultimately prepare yourself for discussion and writing prompts that your instructor may give you.

Annotating means you are doing the hard work while you read, allowing you to reference your previous work and have a clear jumping-off point for future work. Score!

This handout provides a method for annotating a text as well as an example:

Key Takeaways

• Active learning strategies help with comprehension and efficient, less stress studying.

• Active reading is one form of active learning that helps cut-down on reading time and increase understanding.

• Annotating a text is just one way to practice active learning.