Embrace Reading!
In our connected world, most of us spend a great deal of time watching and interacting with screens. We can learn a lot from them, but they’re not the only way to learn. Reading is a powerful and necessary skill that you’ll be required to master in college, and it will be one of your strongest assets in the workplace. You may even find that you enjoy it! Even better, reading offers unique advantages: It grows your vocabulary, exposes you to new ideas, and may even help you develop a deeper understanding of others.
FOR DISCUSSION: Ask students to name words that come to mind when they think about reading. Did most of the words have a negative connotation (e.g., boring, slow)? If so, you may wish to review the benefits of reading with students. Did most of the words have a positive connotation? If so, your class likely has a positive attitude toward reading.
As you read, you’ll uncover theories, discover how things work, gain insights into the past, get immersed in a variety of cultures — and even have fun. Reading is also the gateway to helping you master new skills, such as how to design an experiment, craft a marketing campaign, or write computer code. Depending on your course load, your instructors may ask you to read everything from textbook chapters and novels to scientific articles and transcripts of great speeches.
FOR DISCUSSION: Invite a few students to briefly summarize their favorite book, article, manga, or other publication. Why do they connect with it? What did they learn from it?
How you read in college will probably differ from how you’ve read up to now. College work requires active reading, which involves interacting with the content you read, not just gazing at words on the page. You pay close attention. You think about the content carefully. You ask questions about what makes sense and why. These actions help you stay focused, which in turn saves time: You learn and remember more of the material the first time around so you don’t have to relearn it later. Active reading has three main steps: preparing to read, reading with focus, and reviewing what you’ve read (see Figure 6.1). We will explore each of these steps in the following sections.
Active Reading: A reading strategy that involves engaging with the material before, during, and after reading.
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Before we move on, though, it’s important to emphasize the strong connection between reading and your success. Reading is a central life skill: With rare exceptions, successful people use reading skills to gain information and extend their learning. Reading is also a central study skill that sets the stage for the other study skills discussed in this book. As Figure 6.2 shows, reading and attending class kick off your learning experience: When you read and go to class, you take in (or input) new information into your brain. You then put effort into taking notes and studying, which help you absorb and remember the information. Finally, you demonstrate (or output) what you’ve learned through tests, papers, and classroom presentations.
All of these skills work together. In fact, many of the strategies that help you read successfully — like maintaining a positive attitude, eliminating distractions, and thinking critically about information — can also help you excel at note taking, studying, and writing. When you weave all of these skills together, you maximize your learning — in every course.
WRITING PROMPT: Input, effort, and output are important steps in learning. Ask students to write about how learning would be affected if they skipped one of these steps. Also, ask them whether they think this learning process is at all different in the workplace. Why or why not?