“IN THE CASE OF GOOD BOOKS, THE POINT IS NOT HOW MANY OF THEM YOU CAN GET THROUGH, BUT RATHER HOW MANY CAN GET THROUGH TO YOU.” –MORTIMER ADLER Active Reading Skills for Semi-Active Readers Who Need to Read More Actively
Activate Background Knowledge What do you know about the topic already? Where and from whom have you heard about the issue(s) before?
Visualize Create images in your mind of the characters or people, events, and settings to help you understand what’s happening.
Connect What sorts of ways can you personally connect with the material? Think of personal experiences; books you have read or movies you have seen; where you have encountered similar issues before?
Predict Anticipate key ideas and predict what might happen. Stop frequently when you are reading. Summarize to confirm or reject predictions, and combine ideas you identified while predicting. Remember, it’s better to predict and be incorrect than not to predict at all!
Question Question what is happening while you read. Investigating reasons behind events and characters’ actions can help you better understand what you are reading. It’s not enough to write that you don’t understand. Be specific about what it is that you find confusing. Don’t hesitate to re-read parts that are challenging or confusing. Note these parts by marking them.
Infer Take what the text tells you and put it together with what you already know to form an opinion about it. This is called making an inference, and it helps you understand what the writer is implying rather than what he/she may be stating specifically.
Analyze State “claims” about the text that can be supported by textual evidence (i.e. quotes and specifics from the story). Original and insightful ideas are the key to analysis and they will be the basis for our evaluations and discussions/writing.
Evaluate Form and share opinions about what you read, both while you’re reading and after you’ve finished. Develop your own ideas about characters and people, settings, events, etc. Back-up and defend your evaluations.