Creating a purpose for reading or viewing focuses students’ attention on important concepts in the text or recorded lectures instructors use to guide them. As academics, instructors readily pull information from sources with confidence while students may not share that same expertise or motivational level. Reading texts in the content areas actually requires strategies that many students may need to acquire and learn as they progress through their college careers. For example, gleaning key concepts from a mathematics text requires different skills than learning about historical concepts. We can help students by understanding different approaches to connecting them to the text, lecture, or recorded viewing by establishing a purpose for viewing.
Below are a few different strategies you can try for engaging students in learning:
| Double-Entry Diary | |
| Text Passage and Page Number | This is Important Because…. |
| P. 325: “Heterotrophic bacteria are unable to make their own food, so they feed on plant and animal matter.” | These bacteria get rid of waste, like dead plansts and animals. Bacteria recycle unneeded stuff that would otherwise pile up on earth. |
| From “Double, Double Your Learning,” by D. Buehl, 2001, OnWEAC, 2(2), P. 13. Copyright 2001 by Doug Buehl. | |
| Interactive Reading Guide | ||
| Types of Flood Control | Explanation in Your Own Words | How it Helps/Works |
| Dam | ||
| Levee | ||
| Other: Do you know of any other type of flood control? | ||
Buehl, D. (2014). Classroom strategies for interactive learning (4th ed.). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
| Create a T Chart for Comparison and Contrast | |
| What Life Was Like for Nobles | What Life Was like for Peasants |
Buehl, D. (2014). Classroom strategies for interactive learning (4th ed.). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.