At ICU, students need to learn how to read "critically." So, how do we do that? First, we try to teach our students some of the ways to be "critical" about the ideas they encounter in a text.
-Ask "Really? Is this true?"
-Ask "What reasons or evidence does the author give to support the idea?"
-Ask "Are the reasons good reasons? Is the evidence reliable?"
-Ask "What is the author neglecting to include? Are there facts that should be mentioned or explained more?
-Ask "How could the author improve the persuasiveness of the point?"
-Ask...there are some other critical tools I can't recall at the moment
Telling them to try to do this is easy, but whether they learn to do it well (even when they are not reading assigned texts) is another question. The true test of critical reading comes when they are doing personal reading or research in the future. Will they examine ideas with the above questions instinctively?
Another important aspect of critical reading is how well they can express their critical reactions to a text. In other words, can they communicate the weaknesses of a text to others in a coherent and convincing way? When asked to prepare for a discussion about a text, or to write their opinion about a text, can they get to the core issues and point out the weaknesses, or do they end up with vague, flowery reactions such as "I think it is good. I agree with the author."
This term, to emphasize critical reading skills more than before, I am making significant changes in how I assign reading homework. Rather than mainly focusing class discussions on comprehension, I want students to present their critical reactions to each other. The difficulty in that is whether students will understand the reading enough to be appropriately critical about it...some will, but more students might get left behind than before. I'm still not sure how I'm going to support students in feeling confident about their ability to be critical readers and reactors, but I'm sure I'll find a way.
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