The Harriet W. Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning

Critical Reading

Promoting Effective Course Reading

A disconnect occasionally emerges between students' reading strategy and the styles of reading that are most helpful for their success in your class. This disconnect may manifest in lower levels of course participation and/or less evidence of content mastery in course assessments.

The following suggestions, which draw from recent scholarship on effective interventions that promote student success with reading, may aid in providing students with the guidance necessary to be effective readers in your course.

Note: This advice will be helpful to all students struggling with reading skills. Some notes may be particularly useful for English Language Learners to advance their proficiency. Also be mindful of individual student needs which may warrant accommodation in partnership with Student Accessibility Services.

Sources

Bean, J. C. (2001). Engaging ideas: The professor's guide to integrating writing, critical thinking, and active learning in the classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Heiner, C. E., Banet, A. I., & Wieman, C. (2014). Preparing students for class: How to get 80% of students reading the textbook before class. American Journal of Physics, 82(10), 989-996.

Hora, M. T., & Oleson, A. K. (2017). Examining study habits in undergraduate STEM courses from a situative perspective. International Journal of STEM Education, 4(1), 1-19.

Lang, J. (2016). Small teaching: Everyday lessons from the science of learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Wohl, H., & Fine, G. A. (2017). The active skim: Efficient reading as a moral challenge in graduate education. Teaching Sociology, 45(3), 220-227.