Monday, September 3, 2012

Active Reading in the Classroom


To teach or convey the ideas in “Active Reading” to a developmental reading/writing class in regards to pre-writing I would distribute an essay of several pages to the students.  Then I would have them skim the text by having them read the title, biography of the author and the first and last paragraphs.  I would go through each item one by one and then have the students do a brainstorming activity by writing a list of ideas.  Then I would ask the students what they think the essay is about.  I would explain to the students that these pre-reading activities are good habits to get into before they begin reading an essay more actively.  I think by facilitating students in these processes it will help them make inferences about the texts before they read them more deeply and also help them in the selection process of future texts.

During reading I would ask students to draw stars next to passages that they think are important in the reading and ask them to take a minute to imagine a picture of the idea they just read in their mind.  I think this will help them remember important topics within the essay.  I would also ask students to try reading at different paces.  Reading a little faster through portions of the text that they feel are not as important and slowing down when they feel sections need more attention.  I would also ask them to stop and reflect on passages that they feel are of importance.

After reading I would have a whole class discussion on the reading.  I would follow that up by having students do a free writing exercise.      

                                 

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