At the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT) we receive tons of questions, comments and concerns from faculty about how they can make students do the assigned readings. Instructors have tried all kinds of ways to force students to read the assigned readings: chapter quizzes, pop-quizzes, calling students at random to answer questions, testing students on minutia hidden within the chapter to “catch” those who aren’t reading, and the list goes on. But, regardless of their attempts to encourage students to read, many faculty find that students are ill-prepared for class.
So, this past fall, we offered a workshop called, “Why Don’t They Do the Readings?”, and we ended up with a pretty good turn-out. Our workshop started with an activity where participants were asked to choose a scholarly article about a topic that was WAY outside of their field from a collection of about 10 different articles chosen by our staff. We gave the participants 5 minutes to read as much of the article as they could, then we asked them to explain to a partner what the article was about. We had Spanish language professors reading physics articles and physics professors reading articles about polyphonic music of the Baroque period. When their 5 minutes was up we asked participants 3 questions:
All of these highly educated professors found themselves completely lost when reading something outside of their field, and it suddenly dawned on the whole group (seemingly at the same time) that this just might be how their students feel when they are reading content that is new to them. This “novice perspective” is something that we tend to lose sight of as we progress further down the rabbit hole of higher education. We forget what it’s like to jump into a reading assignment that is filled with jargon, acronyms and field-specific terminology. These dense readings can take novice readers much longer to read than it might take them to read a novel or a newspaper article. Reading scholarly, informative texts is overwhelming and often leaves the novice reader feeling confused and frankly, a little inadequate. No one likes this feeling. The goal of our workshop was three-fold: 1) We wanted to put participants back in the role of novice readers so they could remember how it feels, 2) We wanted to introduce them to the concept of executive functioning (EF) and highlight the role that EF plays in students’ study skills and reading habits, and 3) We wanted to give participants some practical strategies to embed in their courses that could assist students in completing their reading assignments. Here is our list of 8 suggested strategies to help students remove barriers for assigned readings: 1. Know your students: Instructors need to ask themselves several questions about their students when assigning readings and activities:
Visible Learning for Teachers & Students: Maximizing impact on learning. (2011). New York: Routledge.
UDL Checkpoint 8.3: Foster collaboration & community 2. Make the purpose of readings explicit: Students really need and want to know the WHY behind everything we do in the classroom. In order to make connections within the Affective networks of the brain, students must understand how readings and assignments are relevant and authentic to their professional goals and values. Instructors can say something as simple as this: “Tomorrow’s reading assignment is really important because it highlights some of the skills that employers find especially valuable when looking for new employees.”
CAST (2018). UDL and the learning brain. Wakefield, MA: Author. Retrieved from http://www.cast.org/our-work/publications/2018/udl-learning-brain-neuroscience.htm
UDL Checkpoint 7.2: Optimize relevance, value and authenticity 3. Estimate reading times: Add an estimated reading time to each reading selection. Many students have other commitments outside of classes:
Hint: To accurately estimate reading times, time yourself reading the selection, then multiply by 1.5. UDL Checkpoint 6.2: Support planning and strategy development 4. Prioritize Readings: Determine the most important parts of your readings and deem these as “top priority”, label other readings according to their level of priority.
For students who struggle with time management, it can be difficult to know which readings should take precedence over others. If students know they can’t complete all the readings, they should at least complete the most important readings.
UDL Checkpoint 6.2: Support planning and strategy development 5. Scaffold Readings Help students learn to segment large projects into smaller, more manageable chunks. At the beginning of the semester, break large, week-long readings into daily portions, then explain to students how and why you broke readings down. Then as the semester goes on, gradually release this scaffold: This work by Jennifer Pusateri is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Based on a work at https://crazyudllady.weebly.com/.
Professors may make an assumption that students already know how to break down these large tasks on their own, however, for most students, this task does not come naturally. Teaching students how to scaffold their own readings will be helpful in your classroom, and will continue to help them through their college career.
UDL Checkpoint 6.2: Support planning and strategy development UDL Checkpoint 6.3: Facilitate managing information and resources 6. Use Guided Notes: Provide students with an outline or framework of questions about the most important content in the chapter. Guided notes promote active engagement during lecture or independent reading, provide full and accurate notes for use as a study guide, and help students to identify the most important information covered (Heward, 2001). Guided notes can be as simple as providing a graphic organizer that separates the chapter into sections or as complex as complete notes with numerous words left blank. Heward, W. L. (2001). Guided notes: Improving the effectiveness of your lectures. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University Partnership Grant for Improving the Quality of Education for Students with Disabilities. Retrieved from http://ada.osu.edu/resources/fastfacts/ UDL Checkpoint 3.3: Guide information processing and visualization 7. Use Multipurpose Readings: Use a reading that you can return to for different ideas and skills. This helps to create a greater depth of knowledge for students and assures the quality of pieces, while simultaneously reducing instructor labor and student workload. UDL Checkpoint 3.4: Maximize transfer and generalization 8. Use Multiple Modalities and Student Choice: Many learning barriers can be reduced and even removed by providing students with different ways to receive and perceive information through different modes of communication. Incorporating student choice helps to build engagement and students’ feelings of autonomy.
This can be accomplished by providing students with more than one format of reading material (for example give students a PDF, a podcast, and the actual text), and by letting students choose the mode of representation that works best for them.
UDL Checkpoint 1.3: Offer alternatives for visual information Of course, we can never actually "make" students do the readings, but we can, as instructors, do our part to remove the learning barriers that can cause students to fail to complete the readings.
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AuthorJennifer Pusateri is a Universal Design Consultant at the University of Kentucky's Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT). Archives
January 2019
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