Introduction
What does it mean to actively read a text? We ask our students to do it and show them that active reading involves annotating—which requires them to slow down and engage a text one manageable bite at a time by writing comments and questions in a text’s margins.
But what is really happening when students put their words, their understanding and questions next to the words and ideas of the printed text? What happens in these initial student attempts to use their own language and ideas and prior knowledge to grapple with the language and the ideas and forms presented by the author? I’ll tell you what is happening. Your students are actively and boldly engaging in a conversation WITH a text—which is a really big deal.
Think about it. Students are used to having conversations ABOUT texts in class. However, as active readers, they are empowered to sustain conversations WITH texts. Their margin notes document the questions and comments they use to challenge and engage and understand a text. But this back-and-forth between the author’s words and their words, the author’s ideas and their newly contextualized and ever-evolving understanding of those ideas, this back-and-forth is better characterized as a negotiation. Readers actively negotiate meaning with a text. Your students, as active readers, are empowered to negotiate meaning with a text. Wow.
We agreed that we want our students to see themselves as autonomous agents of academia. So maybe inviting students to view themselves as negotiators of meaning and participants in important conversations may help them gain that type of confidence. When a student reader successfully negotiates meaning with a text, the value of their language, experiences, and prior knowledge are affirmed. Today we will start talking about how to help students develop this empowering view of their tasks and capabilities as researching readers and writers.
We know a great deal about what good readers do when they read. We will revisit the following list of vetted strategies from time to time to consider which ones you may want to more explicitly promote in your learning environments:
• Good readers are active readers.
• From the outset they have clear goals in mind for their reading. They constantly evaluate whether the text, and their reading of it, is meeting their goals.
• Good readers typically look over the text before they read, noting such things as the structure of the text and text sections that might be most relevant to their reading goals.
• As they read, good readers frequently make predictions about what is to come.
• They read selectively, continually making decisions about their reading - what to read carefully, what to read quickly, what not to read, what to reread, and so on.
• Good readers construct, revise, and question the meanings they make as they read.
• Good readers try to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words and concepts in the text, and they deal with inconsistencies or gaps as needed.
• They draw from, compare, and integrate their prior knowledge with material in the text.
• They think about the authors of the text, their style, beliefs, intentions, historical milieu, and so on.
• They monitor their understanding of the text, making adjustments in their reading as necessary.
• They evaluate the text's quality and value, and react to the text in a range of ways, both intellectually and emotionally.
• Good readers read different kinds of text differently.
• When reading narrative, good readers attend closely to the setting and characters.
• When reading expository text, these readers frequently construct and revise summaries of what they have read.
• For good readers, text processing occurs not only during "reading" as we have traditionally defined it, but also during short breaks taken during reading, even after the "reading" itself has commenced, even after the "reading" has ceased.
• Comprehension is a consuming, continuous, and complex activity, but one that, for good readers, is both satisfying and productive.
Block, C. C., & Pressley, M. (2001). Comprehension instruction: Research-based best practices. New York: Guilford.
Pressley, M. , & Afflerbach, P. (1995). Verbal protocols of reading: The nature of constructively responsive reading. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Learning Outcomes for this Module
Participants will improve reading comprehension through the use of text annotation.
Optional Readings
Study Strategies: A Simple Guide to Text Annotation (Links to an external site.)
Effective Practices for Developing Reading Comprehension (Links to an external site.)