1. Reading for your degree
LDU – LearnHigher CETL and LDHEN
www.learnhigher.ac.uk
www.londonmet.ac.uk/ldu

2. What’s going on
Why look at reading?
Students are not reading
Students are not critical
Students do not see the point…

3. Why some don’t read
Studying seen as part time
Reading less in the ‘real world’
Sheer amount of information…
More reading expected of students with less time
Subjects seen as vocational rather than
academic

4. What’s it for?
Reading is thinking
Reading = access to ideas & knowledge claims
Reading is learning
Reading = answering the question!

5. What do these mean?
Have you seen these – do you understand them?
Independent learner
Reading list
Read around the subject
Read and make notes

6. Activity
Brainstorm:
Why do we read?
How do we know what to read?
How can we read effectively?
How much should we read?

7. Reading strategy
Make a meal of reading use your QOOQRRR
Q – Question – novice, initiate
O – Overview1 – of course
O – Overview2 – of text
Q – Question – why am I reading this now?
R – read actively and interactively
R – re-read and make notes
R – review

8. Active, interactive & critical reading
Activity:
For EACH significant section:
What is this paragraph about?
Where is the writer coming from?
Who would agree/disagree with this position?
What is the argument? Who would dis/agree?
What is the evidence? Is it valid? How do you know?
Annotations – marginalia - short notes.
TIP: index cards of all sources – re-cycle reading

9. Writing questions:
What is this paragraph about?
What exactly is that?
What is your argument? (Tell me more)
What is the evidence (for & against)?
What does it mean?
How does this relate back to the question as a
whole?

10. Reading tricks
Read and come up with:
Three words that describe how it made you feel
A bare bones summary (25 words)
A visual summary
An object that represents something from the text
One question that you would ask the author
A one minute presentation on the topic

11. Research
If you want to participate in the Learn Higher
CETL research into reading and notemaking
Or share your reading/notemaking resources
and strategies
Contact Sandra Sinfield s.sinfield@
londonmet.ac.uk for more
information.