Teaching how to do college: effective reading with the SQ5R strategy

By Kaleb Heinrich, Biological Sciences.

I didn’t learn to read until I was in graduate school. It wasn’t until then that I learned effective reading strategies that improved my understanding. Reading comprehension was not always a strength for me, especially when reading for school, my mind would often wander. Even though I would read every word on the page I would still have no idea what I had just read. Even when I would focus, I wasn’t always the best at seeing the whole picture. I would try to make short cuts for courses that required reading – reviewing only the bolded words, skimming the section headings, and only reading the summary. Despite my poor reading habits, I still did well in my college courses, so it wasn’t until I learned some proven reading strategies that I understood that reading could not only be easier, but it could be worth my time. As a teacher, I want my students to come to class prepared, having completed the required reading so that we can maximize our time together. I assume they are expected to read for their other classes too, so I want to give them an opportunity to be efficient and effective in all their coursework.

One of the best teaching professional development presentations I’ve attended was by a colleague from Louisiana State University. Dr. Saundra Yancy McGuire is a retired Assistant Vice Chancellor and Professor of Chemistry as well as Director Emerita at LSU’s Center for Academic Success. I highly recommend her book – Teach Students How to Learn, as well as the student version – Teach Yourself How to Learn. One of the activities from her presentation demonstrated reading comprehension, and I share this with my students every year. The activity comes from Dooling and Lachman (1971):

First, have students read the paragraph below, and then ask them to think about what it is about.

WITH HOCKED GEMS FINANCING HIM/ OUR HERO BRAVELY DEFIED ALL SCORNFUL LAUGHTER/ THAT TRIED TO PREVENT HIS SCHEME/ YOUR EYES DECEIVE/ HE HAD SAID/ AN EGG/ NOT A TABLE/ CORRECTLY TYPIFIES THIS UNEXPLORED PLANET/ NOW THREE STURDY SISTERS SOUGHT PROOF/ FORGING ALONG SOMETIMES THROUGH CALM VASTNESS/ YET MORE OFTEN OVER TURBULENT PEAKS AND VALLEYS/ DAYS BECAME WEEKS/ AS MANY DOUBTERS SPREAD FEARFUL RUMORS ABOUT THE EDGE/ AT LAST/ FROM NOWHERE/ WELCOME WINGED CREATURES APPEARED/ SIGNIFYING MOMENTOUS SUCCESS

After they’ve mulled it over for a bit, then show them the paragraph again, but this time with the title over it:

First Voyage of Christopher Columbus

Now with a little bit of context, the paragraph will make a lot more sense to the students.

I also like to share the SQ5R reading strategy with my students:

SQ5R
 Survey – look at intro, summary, bold print, italicized words, etc.
 Question – devise questions from your survey that you think the reading will answer
 Read – one paragraph at a time
 Recite – summarize in your own words
 Record or wRite – annotate in margins
 Review – summarize the information in your words
 Reflect – other views, remaining questions

Some of my students have been hesitant to use this strategy at first, but those who have taken the SQ5R approach have commented that, “yes it was slow at first getting used to the reading strategy, but the more I did it, the faster I got, and ultimately it saved a ton of time when reviewing for the test, because I was already comfortable with the information.”

Reading strategies are like tools in a toolbox, some may work for some students or tasks while others are a better fit. Encourage your students to explore some of the strategies and try one out for size. Who knows, maybe they’ll discover something that they have been missing (in their reading) after all this time.

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