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Reading an academic paper on active reading, what have I learned?

The paper is titled “using student-constructed questions to encourage active reading” It was published in 1984 by the Author Ernest Baljthy. (Bajthy, 1984) This paper seemed to be aimed at teachers who want to encourage their students to open their minds and think about questioning pieces of text to help them remember what they are studying. Although it seems to be aimed at teachers, I think students can also learn from it. At first glance, I wasn’t sure how to condense the information in the text, but then I put into practice some active reading skills I have learned, I skimmed over the main bulk of the text, and then I looked out for text that would be relevant to this assignment. After deciphering this paper, I have learned to approach my reading with a more critical eye, If I question what I am reading and take notes, I will learn more from the text. Teaching yourself to self-question will make you become an independent learner. This paper spoke a lot about how teachers could use different methods to encourage students to come up with questions on various pieces of text. Classroom discussions can be a great way to brainstorm, you can always learn from others and maybe others can learn from you. I have always enjoyed reading for personal use, so it is going to be strange implementing these new tools when I am reading for college, but I am happy to have picked up some great ideas to get me started on active reading.

Active reading is a great asset to have to help you study, active reading involves skimming paragraphs, taking notes, making questions and answers, and paying attention to different headings and formatting. Active reading means reading something, then figuring out the relevant parts that you need. (Critical reading techniques)

Tips for active reading are:

1. Highlighting/underlining keywords and important information. You need to be selective – don’t overdo it.
2. Use post-it notes to explain in detail more important content
3. Ask questions like Who is the intended audience? Who wrote it? Will it help me with other material I have studied? Why do you think it was written? Is it from a bigger piece of text?
4. Testing yourself by reading for twenty minutes putting the book away and marking down key points from memory.
5. Look out for words like 'most importantly', 'in contrast', 'on the other hand'.
6. Make a recording of yourself to listen to later.

I have picked up some great tips from my active reading prescribed readings. it is interesting to know that you can always learn new things, I know I will definitely use some of the tips like testing yourself, or I might even try making a recording and listening back.  Asking yourself questions will be a brilliant resource because it will make you think more about your answers. At first, I struggled with this assignment but after watching our college videos on active reading I managed to get the hang of it.

Bibliography

Bajthy, E. (1984). "Using student-constructed questions to encourage active reading". Journal of reading.

Critical reading techniques. (n.d.). Retrieved from The open university: https://help.open.ac.uk/active-reading

 Original post: Active reading (jennyidmblog.blogspot.com)