Critical Reading and Annotating English B60 Critical Reading and Annotating

What is “deep learning”? “To take a deep approach means to take control of your own education, to decide that you want to understand, to create something new, to search for the meaning that lies behind the text, to realize that words on a page are mere symbols, and that behind those symbols lies a meaning that has a connection with a thousand other aspects of your life and with your own personal development” (38). Ken Bain, Vice President of Academic Affairs at the University of the District of Columbia, from What the Best College Students Do

You, too, can become a “deep learner”! Deep learning is about investment in your education and reading beyond the end goal of the exam or essay. Read to learn, not to achieve a grade or score. If you want to get the most out of a text, how should you approach the reading?

Environment There’s no right place to be a critical reader, but here is some food for thought. Quiet places with few distractions are usually best. “Numerous experiments have found that with the exception of a very few routine tasks that we’ve done repeatedly over many years, the human brain can’t really perform two tasks simultaneously” (Bain 248). If you feel that you are unable to focus in a quiet environment, keep this in mind: “You must be honest with yourself…and distinguish between what you want to do and what really works” (Bain 249).

Time You’ve got busy lives with lots of obligations in addition to your school work: you’ll need to prioritize activities and keep a schedule. I would recommend working backwards; start with the big picture of the entire semester. How many classes are you taking? What are the big events in those classes (exams, presentations, papers, etc.)?

Scheduling Once you have the big dates in place, you can work on a weekly schedule. Here are some items to include on your calendar Do you work outside of school? How many hours per week? Do you have family obligations? Are there times, for example, you will be watching children and therefore unable to do school work? Don’t forget to budget adequate time for everyday tasks like eating, sleeping, and exercising You can get blank calendars at BC’s habits of mind website: http://www.bakersfieldcollege.edu/habits-of-mind/

How much time should it really take? For every hour of class, you’ll be expected to spend 2 hours outside of class on class related work. Since our class meets 4 hours per week, you should spend 8 hours OUTSIDE of class on work for our class.

Work smart, not hard We all have moments like these: What do you do to combat this?

What is Critical Reading? To read critically means to delve into the text to look for a deeper meaning. It means to go beyond the literal to the interpretive and the evaluative.

Literal, Interpretive, and Evaluative

How to Read Critically? Annotate (take notes while you read) Look up and write down the definition of new vocabulary terms. Ask questions in the margins. Make predictions about what you think will happen next. Make connections to other parts of the text, other texts, or yourself. Identify main idea and supporting points.

Highlighting Highlighting can be tricky… …so have a purpose in mind when you highlight.

Why Read Critically? How does reading critically benefit you? It helps you not do this: It also helps keep your mind focused on the text rather than on your love life, your grocery list, your bank balance…

Keeps you focused When you read actively and critically, you will Better understand what you read Better remember what you read Move learning from short to long term memory Make better connections between ideas (synthesize) Be a better critical thinker Have notes and pre-writing for assignments already done!

Practice Look back at your diagnostic essays. What were some of the reasons you gave for coming to college? Now share your response with a partner.

Preparing to Read On a clean sheet of paper, answer the following questions. Look at the title of the article: “How to Fail at College and Life”. What expectations does it raise? Look at the author? What do you know about this person, if anything? Read only the first paragraph. Based on this, what do you anticipate is the purpose of the piece?

Pre-Reading Questions continued: What are your expectations for this text? What do you imagine is the purpose of the author? Who do you think is the intended audience?

Active Reading Strategies Now read the text using the active reading strategies we discussed earlier. This includes Looking up new vocabulary Asking questions Making connections Identifying main idea and support

Specifically look for… Identify the subject, purpose, and audience of the article. Answer these questions on your sheet of paper: What is the controlling idea of the piece? This is its thesis statement. How does he support or develop that thesis? What techniques does he use? What does the author want to accomplish by writing the piece? Does he want to entertain us? Inform us? Persuade us? Who is the author writing to, specifically? Men? Women? Age? Race? Socioeconomic status? Education level? This is the audience?

When you are finished Pair up with a classmate. Compare notes on thesis, support, purpose and audience. Are your answers similar? Different? Be prepared to share your answers with the class.