Reading Strategies Answers Ch 10 Lesson 3 History

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of this chapter, you volition be able to:

• Explain how reading in college is different from reading in high school.
• Identify common types of reading tasks assigned in a higher class.
• Draw the purpose and instructor expectations of academic reading.
• Identify effective reading strategies for academic texts using the SQ3R System.
• Explore the Anatomy of a Textbook.
• Develop strategies to aid you read finer.
• Explore strategies for approaching specialized texts, such as math, sciences, and specialized platforms, such as online text.
• Identify vocabulary-edifice techniques to strengthen your reading comprehension.

Highschool Vs. College Reading Expectations

Think back to a high schoolhouse history or literature form. Those were probably the classes in which you had the virtually reading. You would be assigned a chapter, or a few pages in a chapter, with the expectation that yous would be discussing the reading assignment in form. In grade, the teacher would guide yous and your classmates through a review of your reading and enquire questions to keep the discussion moving. The teacher normally was a key part of how you lot learned from your reading.

If y'all have been abroad from schoolhouse for some time, information technology'southward likely that your reading has been fairly casual. While time spent with a mag or newspaper can be important, it'south not the sort of concentrated reading you will do in higher. And no 1 volition ask you to write in response to a magazine slice you've read or quiz y'all about a newspaper article.

In college, reading is much different. You will be expected to read much more. For each hour you spend in the classroom, yous will be expected to spend two or more than additional hours studying betwixt classes, and virtually of that will be reading. Assignments will be longer (a couple of chapters is common, compared with peradventure but a few pages in loftier school) and much more than difficult. Higher textbook authors write using many technical terms and include circuitous ideas. Many college authors include research, and some textbooks are written in a manner you may notice very dry. Y'all will too have to read from a variety of sources: your textbook, ancillary materials, master sources, academic journals,  periodicals, and online postings. Your assignments in literature courses will be consummate books, peradventure with convoluted plots and unusual wording or dialects, and they may have so many characters you'll experience like y'all need a scorecard to keep them directly.

In college, well-nigh instructors practice non spend much time reviewing the reading consignment in class. Rather, they expect that yous take washed the assignment before coming to class and sympathise the textile. The class lecture or discussion is oft based on that expectation. Tests, too, are based on that expectation. This is why active reading is so important—it's up to you lot to practise the reading and embrace what y'all read.

Types of College Reading Materials

As a college student, you will eventually choose a major or focus of study. In your commencement year or then, though, you lot'll probably have to consummate "core" or required classes in unlike subjects. For case, even if you programme to major in English, you may even so have to accept at to the lowest degree i science, history, and math form. These different bookish disciplines (and the instructors who teach them) can vary greatly in terms of the materials that students are assigned to read. Non all college reading is the same. And so, what types can you expect to see?

Textbooks

Probably the virtually familiar reading fabric in college is thetextbook. These are academic books, usually focused on one subject area, and their primary purpose is to brainwash readers on a particular subject—"Principles of Algebra," for example, or "Introduction to Concern." It's not uncommon for instructors to use one textbook as the principal text for an entire grade. Instructors typically assign chapters equally readings and may include whatever word issues or questions in the textbook, too.

Articles

Instructors may too assignbookish manufactures or news articles. Bookish articles are written past people who specialize in a particular field or subject area, while news articles may be from recent newspapers and magazines. For case, in a science class, you may be asked to read an academic article on the benefits of rainforest preservation, whereas in a authorities course, you may be asked to read an article summarizing a recent presidential debate. Instructors may accept yous read the articles online or they may distribute copies in form or electronically.

The chief departure between news and academic articles is the intended audience of the publication. News manufactures are mass media: They are written for a wide audience, and they are published in magazines and newspapers that are mostly available for buy at grocery stores or bookstores. They may also be available online. Academic articles, on the other paw, are ordinarily published in scholarly journals with fairly minor circulations.  While you won't be able to purchase private journal issues from Barnes and Noble, public and schoolhouse libraries practice make these journal issues and individual articles bachelor.  It's common to access bookish articles through online databases hosted past libraries.

Literature and Nonfiction Books

Instructors employ literature and nonfiction books in their classes to teach students about different genres, events, fourth dimension periods, and perspectives. For example, a history instructor might inquire yous to read the diary of a girl who lived during the Great Low so yous can larn what life was like dorsum then. In an English language class, your instructor might assign a series of short stories written during the 1960s past dissimilar American authors, so yous tin compare styles and thematic concerns.

Literature includes short stories, novels or novellas, graphic novels, drama, and poesy. Nonfiction works include creative nonfiction—narrative stories told from existent life—as well as history, biography, and reference materials. Textbooks and scholarly articles are specific types of nonfiction; frequently their purpose is to instruct, whereas other forms of nonfiction be written to inform, to persuade, or to entertain.

Purpose of Academic Reading

Coincidental reading across genres, from books and magazines to newspapers and blogs, is something students should exist encouraged to do in their free fourth dimension because it can exist both educational and fun. In college, however, instructors more often than not expect students to read resources that take particular value in the context of a course. Why is academic reading beneficial?

• Information comes from reputable sources: Web sites and blogs tin can be a source of insight and data, but not all are useful as academic resources. They may be written past people or companies whose main purpose is to share an opinion or sell you something. Academic sources such as textbooks and scholarly journal manufactures, on the other paw, are usually written past experts in the field and have to pass stringent peer review requirements in order to get published.
• Learn how to grade arguments: In most higher classes except for creating writing, when instructors ask you to write a paper, they look it to be argumentative in style. This means that the goal of the paper is to enquiry a topic and develop an argument nearly it using evidence and facts to support your position. Since many college reading assignments (especially journal articles) are written in a like way, yous'll gain feel studying their strategies and learning to emulate them.
• Exposure to different viewpoints: One purpose of assigned bookish readings is to requite students exposure to different viewpoints and ideas. For example, in an ideals class, you lot might be asked to read a series of manufactures written by medical professionals and religious leaders who are pro-life or pro-choice and consider the validity of their arguments. Such experience can help y'all wrestle with ideas and beliefs in new ways and develop a better agreement of how others' views differ from your own.

Active Learning When Reading

Many instructors conduct their classes mainly through lectures. The lecture remains the most pervasive educational activity format beyond the field of higher education. One reason is that the lecture is an efficient manner for the teacher to control the content, organization, and pace of a presentation, particularly in a big group. Even so, there are drawbacks to this "data-transfer" arroyo, where the instructor does all the talking and the students quietly listen: student have a difficult time paying attending from start to finish; the mind wanders. Besides, electric current cognitive science research shows that developed learners need an opportunity to practice newfound skills and newly introduced content. Lectures can set the phase for that interaction or exercise, but lectures alone don't foster student mastery. While instructors typically speak 100–200 words per minute, students hear merely 50–100 of them. Moreover, studies show that students retain 70 percent of what they hear during the commencement ten minutes of class and only 20 pct of what they hear during the final 10 minutes of class.

Thus it is especially of import for students in lecture-based courses to appoint in active learning exterior of the classroom. But it'due south besides true for other kinds of college courses—including the ones that have active learning opportunities in form. Why? Because college students spend more time working (and learning) independently and less time in the classroom with the instructor and peers. Also, much of one'due south coursework consists of reading and writing assignments. How can these learning activities be active? The following are very effective strategies to help you exist more engaged with, and get more out of, the learning you do exterior the classroom:

• Write in your books: You lot can underline and circumvolve key terms, or write questions and comments in the margins of their books. The writing serves equally a visual help for studying and makes it easier for yous to remember what you've read or what you'd like to hash out in grade. If yous are borrowing a book or want to keep information technology unmarked then you tin can resell information technology afterward, try writing key words and notes on Post-its and sticking them on the relevant pages. (Discussed more in Affiliate 12)
• Annotate a text: Annotations typically hateful writing a brief summary of a text and recording the works-cited data (title, writer, publisher, etc.). This is a groovy way to "digest" and evaluate the sources yous're collecting for a research newspaper, but information technology's likewise invaluable for shorter assignments and texts, since it requires y'all to actively recollect and write about what you read. The activity, below, will requite you practice annotating texts. (Discussed more in Chapter 12
• Create mind maps: Listen maps are effective visuals tools for students, as they highlight the main points of readings or lessons. Think of a mind map equally an outline with more than graphics than words. For example, if a student were reading an article near America's First Ladies, she might write, "First Ladies" in a large circle in the center of a piece of paper. Connected to the middle circumvolve would be lines or arrows leading to smaller circles with visual representations of the women discussed in the article. And then, these circles might branch out to even smaller circles containing the attributes of each of these women. (Discussed more than in Chapter 11)

The following video discusses the process of creating mind maps further and shows how they can be a helpful strategy for agile engagement:

In addition to the strategies described in a higher place, the following are boosted ways to engage in active reading and learning:

• Work when you are fully awake, and give yourself enough time to read a text more than in one case.
  

• Read with a pen or highlighter in hand, and underline or highlight significant ideas equally you read.
  

• Collaborate with the ideas in the margins ( summarize ideas; ask questions ; paraphrase difficult sentences; make personal connections ; respond questions asked before; challenge the writer; etc.).
  

• As you read, keep the following in listen:
  • What is the CONTEXT in which this text was written? (This writing contributes to what topic, word, or controversy?  Context is bigger than this i written text.)
  • Who is the intended Audition? (There's ofttimes more than than one intended audience.)
  • What is the author's PURPOSE? To entertain? To explicate? To persuade?  (There'south usually more one purpose, and essays near e'er have an element of persuasion.)
  • How is this writing ORGANIZED? Compare and contrast? Classification? Chronological?  Cause and effect?  (There'southward oft more than than one organizational form.)
  • What is the author's TONE? (What are the emotions behind the words? Are there places where the tone changes or shifts?)
  • What TOOLS does the author utilise to accomplish her/his purpose?  Facts and figures? Direct quotations? Fallacies in logic? Personal experience? Repetition? Sarcasm? Humor? Brevity?
  • What is the author'southward THESIS—the main statement or idea, condensed into one or ii sentences?

• Foster an mental attitude of intellectual curiosity. Yous might not love all of the writing you're asked to read and analyze, but you should have something interesting to say about it, even if that "something" is critical.

Reading Strategies for Academic Texts

Remember from the Active Learning section that effective reading requires more engagement than just reading the words on the page. In order to learn and retain what you read, it's a proficient idea to practise things similar circling key words, writing notes, and reflecting. Actively reading academic texts can exist challenging for students who are used to reading for amusement alone, but practicing the post-obit steps will get you upwardly to speed.

SQ3R

SQ3R is a reading comprehension method named for its v steps: Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review. The method was introduced by Francis Pleasant Robinson, an American education philosopher in his 1946 book Effective Written report.

The method offers an efficient and active approach to reading textbook textile. It was created for college students but is extremely useful in a variety of situations. Classrooms all over the earth have begun using this method to better understand what they're reading.

• Survey –You can gain insight from an academic text before you even begin the reading consignment. For example, if you are assigned a nonfiction volume, read the title, the back of the book, and table of contents. Scanning this information tin can give you an initial thought of what you'll be reading and some useful context for thinking near it. Yous tin also start to make connections between the new reading and cognition you already have, which is some other strategy for retaining information. Survey the document by scanning its contents, gathering the necessary information to focus on topics and help set study goals.
  1. Read the title, introduction, summary or a chapter's first paragraph(s). This helps to orient yourself to how this chapter is organized and to understand the topic'south key points.
  2. Go through each boldface heading and subheading. This will help y'all to create a mental construction the topic.
  3. Check all graphics and captions closely. They're there to emphasize certain points and provide rich boosted data.
  4. Check reading aids and any footnotes. Emphasized text (italics, bold font, etc.) is typically introduced to grab the reader's attention or to provide description.
• Question – During this phase, yous should note any questions on the subjects independent in the document. Information technology is helpful to survey the textbook once again, this time writing downward the questions that you create while scanning each section. You tin can easily discover what questions need to be answered by looking at the Learning Objectives at the kickoff of a chapter, the headings and sub-headings inside the chapter and the Affiliate Summary or Fundamental Points at the end of a affiliate. These questions get written report goals and they will go information you'll actively search later on while going through each section in detail.
  • Write your questions down so you can fill in the answers as you lot read.
  • Make certain to respond the questions in your ain words, rather than copying directly from the text.
• Read – Read each section thoroughly, keeping your questions in mind. Try to find the answers and identify if you demand boosted ones. Listen Mapping tin can probably help to make sense of and correlate all the information.
• Recall/Recite – In the recall (or recite) stage, you should go through what you read and try to answer the questions you lot noted before. Bank check in after every section, chapter or topic to brand sure you sympathize the material and can explain information technology, in your ain words.  It'southward worth taking the time to write a curt summary, even if your instructor doesn't require it. The exercise of jotting down a few sentences or a short paragraph capturing the main ideas of the reading is enormously beneficial: it not only helps you understand and blot what you lot read simply gives you lot ready study and review materials for exams and other writing assignments. Pretend you are responsible for teaching this section to someone else. Can you do it?   Information technology's at this stage that you consolidate noesis, so refrain from moving on until you tin retrieve the core information.
• Review – Reviewing all the collected information is the last step of the process. In this stage, you tin review the collected information, go through any item affiliate, aggrandize your own notes, or talk over the topics with colleagues and other experts. An excellent mode to consolidate information is to present or teach it to someone else. It e'er helps to revisit what you've read for a quick refresher. Before class discussions or tests, it's a good idea to review your questions, summaries and any other notes you have taken.

The following video is a overview of the steps of the SQ3R System.

Anatomy of a Textbook

Skilful textbooks are designed to assist you learn, not simply to present information. They differ from other types of academic publications intended to present research findings, advance new ideas, or deeply examine a specific subject. Textbooks have many features worth exploring because they can help you sympathise your reading improve and learn more effectively. In your textbooks, look for the elements listed in the table below.

Textbook Characteristic	What It Is	Why You lot Might Observe It Helpful
Preface or Introduction	A section at the beginning of a book in which the author or editor outlines its purpose and scope, acknowledges individuals who helped prepare the volume, and peradventure outlines the features of the book.	You will gain perspective on the author's indicate of view, what the author considers of import. If the preface is written with the student in heed, it volition as well give you guidance on how to "use" the textbook and its features.
Foreword	A department at the start of the book, oft written past an adept in the subject field matter (different from the writer) endorsing the writer'due south piece of work and explaining why the work is pregnant.	A foreword will give you lot an idea about what makes this book unlike from others in the field. Information technology may provide hints equally to why your instructor selected the book for your course.
Writer Contour	A short biography of the author illustrating the author's credibility in the subject affair.	This volition help y'all empathise the author's perspective and what the writer considers important.
Table of Contents	A listing of all the chapters in the volume and, in most cases, principal sections inside chapters.	The table of contents is an outline of the entire book. It will be very helpful in establishing links among the text, the course objectives, and the syllabus.
Affiliate Preview or Learning Objectives	A department at the beginning of each affiliate in which the writer outlines what will be covered in the chapter and what the pupil should expect to know or exist able to do at the stop of the chapter.	These sections are invaluable for determining what you should pay special attending to. Be sure to compare these outcomes with the objectives stated in the course syllabus.
Introduction	The get-go paragraph(due south) of a affiliate, which states the affiliate'south objectives and key themes. An introduction is also common at the start of primary affiliate sections.	Introductions to chapters or sections are "must reads" because they give you a route map to the material y'all are about to read, pointing you to what is truly important in the affiliate or section.
Applied Do Elements	Exercises, activities, or drills designed to permit students apply their cognition gained from the reading. Some of these features may be presented via Web sites designed to supplement the text.	These features provide you with a not bad mode to confirm your understanding of the material. If y'all take problem with them, yous should become dorsum and reread the section. They also have the additional benefit of improving your call up of the textile.
Chapter Summary	A department at the end of a chapter that confirms primal ideas presented in the chapter.	It is a good thought to read this section before you read the body of the chapter. It will help you lot strategize nigh where you should invest your reading endeavor.
Review Cloth	A section at the terminate of the chapter that includes additional practical practice exercises, review questions, and suggestions for further reading.	The review questions will help you confirm your understanding of the textile.
Endnotes and Bibliographies	Formal citations of sources used to prepare the text.	These will help you infer the author's biases and are as well valuable if doing further enquiry on the subject area for a paper.

Strategies for Textbook Reading

The SQ3R system provides a proven arroyo to effective learning from texts. Following are some strategies you tin employ to raise your reading even further:

• Pace yourself. Figure out how much fourth dimension you have to consummate the assignment. Divide the assignment into smaller blocks rather than trying to read the entire assignment in one sitting. If you lot have a week to do the consignment, for example, split the work into 5 daily blocks, non seven; that fashion y'all won't be behind if something comes upward to prevent you from doing your work on a given day. If everything works out on schedule, you'll stop upwardly with an actress twenty-four hour period for review.
• Schedule your reading. Set aside blocks of time, preferably at the time of the 24-hour interval when you are most alert, to exercise your reading assignments. Don't just go out them for the cease of the day after completing written and other assignments.
• Become yourself in the right space. Choose to read in a quiet, well-lit space. Your chair should exist comfortable but provide good back up. Libraries were designed for reading—they should be your beginning option! Don't use your bed for reading textbooks; since the fourth dimension you were read bedtime stories, you have probably associated reading in bed with preparation for sleeping. The combination of the cozy bed, comforting memories, and dry out text is sure to invite some shut-eye!
• Avert distractions. Agile reading takes place in your brusque-term retentiveness. Every time you lot move from chore to task, you have to "reboot" your brusque-term memory and y'all lose the continuity of active reading. Multitasking—listening to music or texting on your jail cell while you read—will crusade you to lose your place and strength you to start over once more. Every time y'all lose focus, you lot cut your effectiveness and increase the amount of time you need to complete the assignment.
• Avoid reading fatigue. Work for about fifty minutes, and and so requite yourself a pause for v to x minutes. Put down the book, walk effectually, go a snack, stretch, or do some deep articulatio genus bends. Brusque physical activeness volition practice wonders to help you experience refreshed.
• Read your well-nigh difficult assignments early in your reading time, when yous are freshest.
• Make your reading interesting. Try connecting the material you are reading with your form lectures or with other chapters. Ask yourself where yous disagree with the author. Arroyo finding answers to your questions like an investigative reporter. Carry on a mental chat with the author.
• Highlight your reading fabric. Most readers tend to highlight also much, hiding key ideas in a sea of xanthous lines, making it difficult to selection out the main points when it is fourth dimension to review. When it comes to highlighting, less is more than. Remember critically before you lot highlight. Your choices volition have a big touch on what yous written report and larn for the course. Make it your objective to highlight no more 15-25% of what you read. Use highlighting after you accept read a section to annotation the near important points, key terms, and concepts. You tin't know what the most important thing is unless you've read the whole section, and then don't highlight as you lot read.
• Commentyour reading material. Marker upwardly your book may go confronting what y'all were told in loftier school when the school endemic the books and expected to utilise them year after year. In higher, y'all bought the volume. Get in truly yours. Although some students may tell you that yous can go more cash past selling a used book that is non marked up, this should not be a concern at this time—that's not well-nigh as important equally agreement the reading and doing well in the class!

  The purpose of marking your textbook is to make information technology your personal studying assistant with the primal ideas called out in the text. Use your pencil also to make annotations in the margin. Utilise a symbol similar an exclamation mark (!) or an asterisk (*) to mark an thought that is specially important. Utilize a question mark (?) to indicate something you lot don't understand or are unclear near. Box new words, then write a short definition in the margin. Use "TQ" (for "test question") or some other shorthand or symbol to signal cardinal things that may appear in examination or quiz questions. Write personal notes on items where you disagree with the author. Don't feel you have to use the symbols listed here; create your own if you want, just exist consequent. Your notes won't help you if the get-go question y'all afterward have is "I wonder what I meant past that?"

  Watch the post-obit video on annotating texts:

• Get to Know the Conventions.Bookish texts, similar scientific studies and journal articles, may take sections that are new to you. If y'all're non certain what an "abstract" is, research information technology online or ask your instructor. Understanding the pregnant and purpose of such conventions is not only helpful for reading comprehension but for writing, likewise.
• Look upwardly and Keep Runway of Unfamiliar Terms and Phrases.Accept a expert higher dictionary such as Merriam-Webster handy (or find information technology online) when y'all read circuitous bookish texts, and then y'all tin can look up the meaning of unfamiliar words and terms. Many textbooks also contain glossaries or "key terms" sections at the ends of chapters or the end of the book. If you can't find the words yous're looking for in a standard dictionary, you may demand one especially written for a particular bailiwick. For case, a medical lexicon would be a good resource for a course in anatomy and physiology.If you circle or underline terms and phrases that appear repeatedly, you'll have a visual reminder to review and learn them. Repetition helps to lock in these new words and their meaning get them into long-term retentivity, so the more than you review them the more you'll understand and feel comfortable using them.
• Make Flashcards.If you are studying certain words for a test, or you know that certain phrases will exist used frequently in a course or field, try making flashcards for review. For each cardinal term, write the word on one side of an index card and the definition on the other. Drill yourself, then ask your friends to help quiz y'all.Developing a strong vocabulary is like to most hobbies and activities. Even experts in a field continue to meet and prefer new words. The following video discusses more than strategies for improving vocabulary.

Dealing With Special Texts

While the active reading process outlined before is very useful for most assignments, y'all should consider some boosted strategies for reading assignments in other subjects.

Mathematics Texts

Mathematics present unique challenges in that they typically contain a cracking number of formulas, charts, sample issues, and exercises. Follow these guidelines:

• Do not skip over these special elements every bit you piece of work through the text.
• Read the formulas and make sure you empathize the pregnant of all the factors.
• Substitute actual numbers for the variables and piece of work through the formula.
• Make formulas real by applying them to real-life situations.
• Do all exercises within the assigned text to brand sure yous understand the material.
• Since mathematical learning builds upon prior knowledge, do not continue to the next department until you accept mastered the cloth in the current section.
• Seek assistance from the instructor or didactics banana during office hours if need be.

Scientific Texts

Science occurs through the experimental procedure: posing hypotheses, and and so using experimental data to prove or disprove them. When reading scientific texts, look for hypotheses and list them in the left column of your notes pages. And then brand notes on the proof (or disproof) in the right column. In scientific studies, these are as important as the questions you ask for other texts. Think critically about the hypotheses and the experiments used to prove or disprove them. Call up virtually questions similar these:

• Can the experiment or observation be repeated? Would it reach the same results?
• Why did these results occur? What kinds of changes would touch the results?
• How could you change the experiment pattern or method of ascertainment? How would you mensurate your results?
• What are the conclusions reached most the results? Could the same results be interpreted in a unlike way?

Social Sciences Texts

Social sciences texts, such as those for history, economics, and political science classes, often involve interpretation where the authors' points of view and theories are as important equally the facts they present. Put your critical thinking skills into overdrive when you are reading these texts. As you read, inquire yourself questions such as the post-obit:

• Why is the author using this argument?
• Is it consequent with what we're learning in class?
• Do I agree with this statement?
• Would someone with a different signal of view dispute this argument?
• What key ideas would be used to support a counterargument?

Tape your reflections in the margins and in your notes.

Social science courses frequently crave yous to read primary source documents. Primary sources include documents, letters, diaries, paper reports, financial reports, lab reports, and records that provide firsthand accounts of the events, practices, or conditions yous are studying. Showtime by agreement the author(s) of the document and his or her agenda. Infer their intended audition. What response did the authors hope to become from their audience? Practice you consider this a bias? How does that bias bear upon your thinking most the subject field? Practice you recognize personal biases that affect how yous might translate the certificate?

Foreign Linguistic communication Texts

Reading texts in a strange language is peculiarly challenging, merely it besides provides you with invaluable exercise and many new vocabulary words in your "new" language. Information technology is an endeavor that really pays off. Start by analyzing a short portion of the text (a judgement or 2) to see what you do know. Call up that all languages are built on idioms as much equally on individual words. Do any of the phrase structures look familiar? Can yous infer the significant of the sentences? Exercise they make sense based on the context? If you nonetheless tin can't make out the pregnant, cull one or two words to look up in your dictionary and endeavour again. Expect for longer words, which generally are the nouns and verbs that will give yous meaning sooner. Don't rely on a lexicon (or an online translator); a discussion-for-word translation does not always yield good results. For example, the Spanish phrase "Entre y tome asiento" might correctly exist translated (give-and-take for discussion) as "Between and drink a seat," which means nada, rather than its actual meaning, "Come up in and take a seat."

Reading in a strange language is difficult and tiring work. Make certain you schedule significantly more time than you would normally allocate for reading in your own language and reward yourself with more frequent breaks. Merely don't shy away from doing this work; the all-time way to learn a new language is practise, practice, exercise.

Note to English-linguistic communication learners: You may feel that every volume yous are assigned is in a strange language. If you lot practise struggle with the high reading level required of higher students, bank check for college resources that may be available to ESL (English language as a 2nd language) learners. Never feel that those resources are only for weak students. Every bit a 2d-linguistic communication learner, you possess a rich linguistic experience that many American-built-in students should envy. You but need to account for the difficulties you'll face up and (like anyone learning a new language) practice, exercise, do.

Reading Graphics

You read earlier about noticing graphics in your text every bit a indicate of important ideas. Just information technology is equally important to sympathize what the graphics intend to convey. Textbooks contain tables, charts, maps, diagrams, illustrations, photographs, and the newest form of graphics, Net URLs for accessing text and media material. Many students are tempted to skip over the graphic cloth and focus only on the reading. Don't! Take the time to read and empathise your textbook'southward graphics. They will increase your understanding, and considering they appoint different comprehension processes, they will create dissimilar kinds of memory links to assistance you think the textile.

To get the well-nigh out of graphic material, apply your critical thinking skills and question why each illustration is present and what it ways. Don't just glance at the graphics; accept the time to read the title, caption, and whatever labeling in the analogy. In a chart, read the information labels to empathise what is being shown or compared. Think nearly projecting the data points beyond the scope of the chart; what would happen next? Why?

The table below shows the most common graphic elements and notes what they do best. This noesis may assistance guide your critical analysis of graphic elements.

Table five.ii Mutual Uses of Textbook Graphics

Figure 5.3 Table	Most often used to present raw information. Understand what is being measured. What data points stand out as very high or low? Why? Ask yourself what might cause these measurements to alter.
Figure five.4 Bar Chart	Used to compare quantitative information or show changes in data over fourth dimension. Also can be used to compare a limited number of data serial over time. Often an illustration of data that tin can also be presented in a tabular array.
Figure 5.five Line Chart	Used to illustrate a tendency in a series of data. May be used to compare different series over time.
Figure 5.6 Pie Chart	Used to illustrate the distribution or share of elements as a part of a whole. Ask yourself what result a change in the distribution of factors would take on the whole.
Figure 5.7 Map	Used to illustrate geographic distributions or motility across geographical space. In some cases can be used to testify concentrations of populations or resources. When encountering a map, enquire yourself if changes or comparisons are being illustrated. Understand how those changes or comparisons relate to the cloth in the text.
Figure 5.8 Photograph Wikimedia Eatables – public domain.	Used to represent a person, a condition, or an idea discussed in the text. Sometimes photographs serve mainly to emphasize an of import person or state of affairs, but photographs can likewise be used to make a signal. Ask yourself if the photograph reveals a biased point of view.
Effigy five.9 Illustration	Used to illustrate parts of an item. Invest time in these graphics. They are often used as parts of quizzes or exams. Look carefully at the labels. These are vocabulary words y'all should exist able to define.
Figure 5.10 Flowchart or Diagram	Unremarkably used to illustrate processes. Every bit you look at diagrams, ask yourself, "What happens first? What needs to happen to move to the next step?"

Building Your Vocabulary

Gaining conviction with the unique terminology used in different disciplines can assistance y'all be more than successful in your courses and in college generally. A good vocabulary is essential for success in whatsoever part that involves communication, and simply about every function in life requires good communication skills. We include this department on vocabulary in this chapter on reading because of the connections between vocabulary building and reading. Edifice your vocabulary will brand your reading easier, and reading is the best mode to build your vocabulary.

Learning new words can be fun and does not demand to involve tedious rote memorization of word lists. The offset step, every bit in any other attribute of the learning cycle, is to prepare yourself to learn. Consciously decide that yous desire to meliorate your vocabulary; decide you desire to be a student of words. Piece of work to become more aware of the words effectually yous: the words you hear, the words you read, the words you say, and those you lot write.

In addition to the suggestions described earlier, such every bit looking up unfamiliar words in dictionaries, the following are boosted vocabulary-building techniques for you to try:

• Read everything and read often.Reading frequently both in and out of the classroom will help strengthen your vocabulary. Whenever you read a book, mag, paper, blog, or any other resource, keep a running list of words you lot don't know. Look upwardly the words as you see them and try to incorporate them into your own speaking and writing.
• Be on the scout for new words. Most will come up to you as y'all read, just they may also appear in an instructor's lecture, a class discussion, or a casual conversation with a friend. They may popular upwardly in random places like billboards, menus, or even online ads!
• Write down the new words you run across, along with the sentences in which they were used. Do this in your notes with new words from a class or reading consignment. If a new word does not come from a class, you can write it on only about annihilation, but brand sure y'all write it. Many word lovers conduct a small notepad or a stack of index cards specifically for this purpose.
• Infer the meaning of the give-and-take. The context in which the word is used may give y'all a practiced clue almost its meaning. Practice you recognize a common word root in the word? What practise you think information technology means?
• Look upwardly the word in a lexicon. Do this every bit presently as possible (simply only afterwards inferring the meaning). When you are reading, you should have a dictionary at hand for this purpose. In other situations, do this inside a couple hours, definitely during the same day. How does the dictionary definition compare with what you inferred? Install a reliable lexicon app on your phone or figurer. Wait for ones that also pronounce the give-and-take.
• Brand connections to words you already know.You may be familiar with the "looks like . . . sounds similar" saying that applies to words. Information technology means that you can sometimes look at a new word and judge the definition based on similar words whose meaning you know. For example, if you are reading a biology volume on the human body and come across the discussion malignant, yous might gauge that this word means something negative or broken if you already know the wordmalfunction, which shares the "mal-" prefix.
• Write the word in a sentence, ideally i that is relevant to yous. If the word has more than one definition, write a sentence for each.
• Say the discussion out loud then say the definition and the sentence you wrote.
• Use the give-and-take. Discover an occasion to use the word in speech or writing over the next 2 days.
• Schedule a weekly review with yourself to go over your new words and their pregnant.

Key Takeaways

• College reading is very different from high school reading.
• You must take personal responsibleness for agreement what you read.
• Wait to spend about two or more than hours on homework, about of it reading, for every hour you spend in class.
• Reading is a primary means for absorbing ideas in the learning cycle, but it is also very important for the other three aspects of the learning cycle.
• Sympathize how your textbook is put together and what features might assistance you with your reading.
• Plan your reading by scanning the reading consignment start, then create questions based on the department titles.  Utilize the SQ3R system to help y'all focus and prioritize your reading.
• Don't try to highlight your text as you read the get-go time through. At that point, information technology is hard to tell what is really of import. Aim to highlight 15-25% of the text.
• End your reading fourth dimension by reviewing your notes.
• Do all the exercises in math textbooks; apply the formulas to real-world situations.
• Each type of graphic material has its ain strength; those strengths are usually clues about what the author wants to emphasize by using the graphic.
• Look for statements of hypotheses and experimental design when reading science texts.
• History, economic science, and political scientific discipline texts are heavily influenced by interpretation. Think critically about what you are reading.
• Working with foreign language texts requires more fourth dimension and more than frequent breaks. Don't rely on word-for-word translations.
• The best fashion to build your vocabulary is to read, and a stronger vocabulary makes it easier and more fun to read.
• Look for new words everywhere, not only in grade readings.
• Look upwards new words in the dictionary, write your own judgement using the new word. Say the discussion and definition out loud. Use the new discussion as soon equally possible.

ACTIVITY: PUTTING Active READING INTO PRACTICE

1. Listing the steps in the SQ3R system.  Which ane do you recollect volition accept the most fourth dimension? Why?
2. Which step in the SQ3R arrangement do you lot recollect is the most helpful for retaining data?
3. Recollect of your most hard textbook. What strategies tin you lot use to help you understand the material better?
4. What things nigh commonly distract yous when you are reading? What can you practice to control these distractions?
5. Listing three specific places on your campus or at home that are appropriate for you to exercise your reading assignments. Which is best suited? What can you do to improve that reading environment?