Study Skill

Question: How should students prepare to read a chapter in a textbook?

Answer: Combine two steps: On a “What I Know” sheet, students brainstorm for five minutes what they already know about the topic to be studied. Next. They  survey the chapter by reading the title of the chapter and subheadings. Next: The teacher pre-teaches vocabulary that is likely to be unfamiliar, using context and word roots. Then: The students read the first and last paragraphs of the chapter, and the first sentence of each intermediate paragraph. Finally, students discuss what they have learned about the chapter and raise questions about what they want to learn from the chapter.

Comment: Good idea to have students brainstorm or free-write what they already know about the topic. Then they survey. A combination of K (What do I Know Already?)—W (What do I want to know?) and L (What have I learned?) and the survey part of SQ3R. Why didn’t I think of that? RayS.

Title: “SQ3R + What I Know Sheet + One Strong Strategy.” Patricia E. Call. Journal of Reading (September 1991), 50-52.