Viola’s Reading Strategy

This blog is about reading strategies.

   Reading is a big part in college study. As a result, having personalized reading strategies and becoming a successful reader is a goal that should be achieved. In general, learning, applying and adapting different reading strategies to different reading assignments is the best way to find one’s own personalized reading strategy.

   You should also consider your learning style, the actions, the materials and the evaluation to select your reading strategy. For me, I have a read/write learning preference. So it is good for me to get some information like glossaries from textbook and create study aids to learn by repetition and emphasizing main key points. So I start with NSAS: No Salt And Sauce reading strategy,

   I apply this strategy in my ECN class. First, I download and read lecture notes before class. Second, I scan the corresponding chapters, looking for the information identified in the notes and concentrating on terms. Then I attend the lecture. After class, I create study sheets and flash cards to help me recall and review the information. Below are my study sheet and flash card.

I choose this strategy because I have the notes available prior to class and my ECN course is very class-dependent. As the lecture is the major source of information, scanning the textbook is just enough. I just need to look for the major points and locate specific information. On the other hand, my ECN class is fact-based and there are lots of terms and definitions. Flash card is a very help studying tool here. So this strategy is just suitable.

I love this strategy. Reading lecture notes before class helps me establish a listening purpose. I know what to listen to during the long lecture. Scanning the textbook familiarizes me with the terms and it enhances my comprehension in class. I can get more out of class. Then the study sheets and flash cards help me prepare for the exams as I can read and learn the terms.

The limitation of this strategy is that the lecture notes have to be available prior to class and the class must be class-dependant. If the notes are not available, you must get an overall view of the material by reading textbook first. If the class is text-dependant, scanning probably will not suffice.

   So I choose to adapt this reading strategy in my AST class. AST is lecture-dependant but no lectures notes are available prior to class. But as AST is also fact-based, there are lots of terms in bold in the textbook and I can get a list of main points at the end of each chapter. So I read the terms and definitions in textbook instead of reading lecture notes.

 

   This adaptation is good. The step is different but the effect is the same as I can familiarize the terms and definitions before class. So I can continue using this strategy in my AST class.