1. Active Vs. Passive Reading
Theresa Davis, M. Ed, Instructor

2. Active Reader Before Reading
Active, Mature, Efficient Textbook readers:
Know their purpose for reading
Activate prior knowledge of topic
Choose appropriate reading strategies
Focus attention on reading to be done
Survey the text and write questions
Ask: What do I already know?
Ask: What do I want to learn?

3. Passive Reader Before reading
Read without considering how to approach the text
Do not know why they are reading the text

4. Active Reader During Reading
Focus on constructing meaning from text
Find something of interest in the topic
Use prior knowledge to predict and anticipate what will come next
Think about the text while they read
Monitor their comprehension regularly
Organize information into pieces
Question text’s assumptions
Active Reader During Reading

5. Active Reader During reading
Regularly use fix-up strategies when they do not understand
Read in meaningful word groupings
Make decisions about meanings without being certain
Rely on context clues to figure out meanings of words
Develop concept maps showing relationships - visualize concepts

6. Active Reader During Reading
Underline, mark and circle main ideas
Take notes in their notebook
Ask: What am I learning?
Ask: Where am I confused?

7. Passive reader During Reading
Read to get it done
Start reading without looking at titles and subtitles
Read without understanding text
Do not realize they aren’t understanding text
Read one word at a time and fixate on each word
Read without thinking about definitions of unfamiliar words

8. Passive reader During Reading
Unable to decide on meaning unless meaning is very clear
Do not monitor their comprehension
Seldom use fix-up strategies when comprehension fails
Do not ask questions regarding how much they are comprehending
Do not know what to do when comprehension is lost

9. Passive Reader During Reading
Do not write in the text or take notes in their notebook
Can’t wait to finish

10. Active Reader After Reading
Reflect on what was read - process ideas
Evaluate text and own comprehension
Summarize major concepts
Organize ideas for future study

11. Passive Reader After Reading
Stop reading without further thinking
Do not know what they have read
Do not follow up with a comprehension self-check
Do not identify and organize main ideas for future study

12. Reading Myth One
MYTH 1: I HAVE TO READ EVERY WORD
Many of the words used in writing grammatically correct sentences actually convey no meaning. If, in reading, you exert as much effort in conceptualizing these meaningless words as you do important ones, you limit not only your reading speed but your comprehension as well.

13. Reading Myth TWO
MYTH 2: READING ONCE IS ENOUGH
Many students automatically regress or reread doggedly with a self-punishing attitude. ("I didn't get a thing out of that paragraph the first time, so if I punish myself by rereading it maybe I will this time.")
This is the hardest way to do it.

14. Reading Myth Three
READING MYTH 3: IT IS SINFUL TO SKIP PASSAGES IN READING
The idea that you cannot skip but have to read every page is old-fashioned.
Children, however, are still taught to feel guilty if they find a novel dull and out it down before finishing it.
I once had a student who felt she could not have books in her home unless she had read every one of them from cover to cover.
No wonder many people dislike reading.

15. Reading Myth Four
READING MYTH 4: I CANNOT READ VERY FAST, I MUST SLOW DOWN AND READ EVERY WORD.
If you find yourself in need of a pusher, use a 3x5 card as a pacer, or use your hand, or your finger.
However, there is one caution you should observe if you try this.
Be sure that your hand or finger or card is used to push, not merely to follow your eyes.

16. Reading Myth Five
READING MYTH 5: THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT MY EYES THAT KEEPS ME FROM READING FAST
This belief is nonsense, assuming that you have good vision or wear glasses that correct your eye problems.
Of course, if you cannot focus your eyes at the reading distance, you will have trouble learning to skim and scan.
Furthermore, if you have developed the habit of focusing your eyes too narrowly and looking at word parts, it will be harder for you to learn to sweep down a page of type rapidly.
Usually it is your brain, not your eyes, that slows you down in reading. Your eyes are capable of taking in more words than your brain is used to processing.
If you sound out words as you read, you will probably read very slowly and have difficulty in skimming and scanning until you break this habit.

17. Understand purposes for reading and the reading process
Many people--students and faculty alike--assume that when they encounter a text, they simply sit down and read it.
Yet different types of texts call for different reading strategies. We should not assume that our students know this or have been taught this; in fact, many studies show that reading comprehension strategies are not extensively taught in secondary schools.

18. Understand purposes for reading and the reading process
Students often have difficulties reading and retaining information from textbooks because they fail to recognize both the intent of the text and the purpose of their reading.
It's like walking into a house for the first time without the benefit of a light or an idea of the floor plan.
Newcomers could just bumble around in the dark until they found a doorway and would move from room to room with no clear idea of where they had been or were going.

19. Understand purposes for reading and the reading process
We can "hand students a flashlight" by helping them identify the purpose of the text and understand the stages of an effective reading process.

20. Understand purposes for reading and the reading process
Our learning goals for this module are:
Students will recognize purpose-driven approaches to reading.
Students will learn about three stages of the reading process.

21. Understand purposes for reading and the reading process
Have you thought about your reading process? If so, how would you describe it? Has your process worked well for you, or are there parts you would change?
Many college students would define their reading process something like this: find the reading assignment on the syllabus, locate the textbook and open to the appropriate page, use a yellow highlighter to mark passages that might be important to remember for the test, read to the end of the assignment, close the book, take a coffee
break.
While this is certainly a process, it’s not particularly effective for comprehension and retention of ideas.

22. Understand purposes for reading and the reading process
Understanding the PURPOSES FOR READING
There are three primary purposes for reading, and each one is identified by different motivations, activities and strategies.