SQ3R: Question Focus for Reading Assignment

We are learning about two processes at the same time, and it can become confusing. Let me try to make the two processes clear by making a simple, visual concept map. The first process is the Reading Process. This is the sequence of stages in your completion of a class reading assignment. Visually it is Reading Assignment = Pre-Reading> During Reading> After Reading These are the three stages in any “reading for learning” task.

The second process under discussion is the Reading Strategy called SQ3R. It also has a sequence of stages that can be represented visually SQ3R = Survey> Question> Read> Recite> Review The stages of SQ3R fit into the stages of the Reading Process Pre-Reading = Survey> Question During Reading = Read> Recite After Reading = Review

This power point presentation is focused on the second stage of the SQ3R process: QUESTION. This stage is implemented with or immediately following your Survey activities in preparation for your “read to study” or “read to learn” assignment. Students often express frustration about reading college textbooks in that they lose concentration while reading. Actually, this loss of concentration- reading the same paragraph several times because of a “space out” or a wandering mind is not unusual.

Even successful students find it difficult to maintain concentration when working with difficult text presenting new concepts and new terminology that must be absorbed into long term memory. The reading problem loss of concentration can be reduced (not totally resolved) by posing focused questions prior to reading. As the student reads through the text, she is specifically looking for answers to the questions, keeping the mind sharp, active, and on the task. Even if the question posed at the beginning is not answered in the text, the focused concentration enables the student to note the key ideas and major support details on the topic in the text.

The questions come from several sources. For example, most college textbooks have questions presented by the author of the text at the end of the chapter or sometimes at the beginning of the chapter. Review those questions after the Survey activities and before beginning to read the assignment. A focused student might even copy the questions onto a notebook, leaving space to jot in an answer when found in the text. Extra effort brings extra learning and extra rewards.

Another source of questions is the text headings and sub-headings. For example, if surveying text in a Personal Health textbook, a section with the heading “Vitamins Promote Healthier Bodies” might result in a question like “What vitamins promote physical health?” The student will be looking for answers when engaged in the Reading stage. Using the same heading from the Personal Health book might result in a question like “How do vitamins promote physical health?” Both questions come from the same heading, but the second is more dynamic. Merely naming the vitamins is not as powerful a learning step as understanding how the vitamins promote health in the body.

A third source of questions before reading is the technical terms, bold print concepts, and graphic information presented by the textbook. For example in our survey practice with “Water on the Earth”, we encountered the terms “weathering” and “erosion”. We could focus a question, “What are the definitions of ‘weathering’ and ‘erosion’?” But again, a more dynamic question that results in stronger learning might be “How do ‘weathering’ and ‘erosion’ shape the earth?”

A final source of questions is the students own curiosity and creativity. Generate your own questions and begin reading and searching for answers.

This is a good point to open the document file “SQ3R Questions” in this module. It lists seven questions found at the end of the essay “Water on the Earth” that we have already surveyed. Take a minute or two to review the questions. I selected several that might be used as focus questions before beginning the reading stage of SQ3R. In addition to the questions I selected, can you think of a question that might be answered in the essay? Jot it down!