Paper # 1 Not seeing the wood for the trees : encouraging active reading
Title :
Not seeing the wood for the trees : encouraging active reading
Authors :
Laura Barclay , School of Area Studies , History , Politics and Literature , University of Portsmouth
Keywords :
Academic reading ; fairy tales ; learning development
DOI :
Abstract
Academic reading is often the neglected counterpart to academic writing within higher education . This paper introduces a resource presented at ‘ Becoming Well Read 2021 ’, which was designed to support students with academic reading . Using a fairy tale as an example text , students respond to structured discussion questions that are then applied to the academic context . This paper concludes with reflections on how the resource could be adapted for future use in order to support students to actively engage with academic materials .
Introduction
In my role as a Learning Development Tutor , I offer workshops on a range of topics relating to academic study . These include essay writing , using sources effectively , critical thinking and more recently , academic reading . In this paper I explore some of the issues relating to the teaching of academic reading and introduce a resource that I designed to help students navigate the act of reading academic material . I presented this resource online at ‘ Becoming Well Read 2021 ’ and asked participants to take on the role of the student as I guided them through the activity . Each question posed to students acts as a catalyst for thinking about how to approach academic reading and these are detailed below . The activity is designed to be interactive , with an emphasis on the discussion as opposed to solely offering solutions or strategies for students to try .
The first iteration of this activity was delivered in-person and used Hansel and Gretel as the activity text ( hence the inspiration for the title of this paper ). With the move to delivering workshops online , I decided to find an alternative text that was freely available online . Using Rumpelstiltskin ( Brothers Grimm , 2009 ) as the example text still allowed me to address the same areas for discussion . Following feedback from students and colleagues , I continue to adapt and develop the resource for future delivery .
Academic reading in higher education
Within higher education , there is an abundance of research relating to the practice of academic writing , but much
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