Moving Forward: Teaching in Uncertain Times

Community Blog on online, hybrid, and F2F teaching during the pandemic

1

“Reading Fatigue”

By Mary Goldschmidt, Ph.D.
Part-time Instructor of English, Dunwoody Campus
Previously the Director of the Writing Program at The College of New Jersey, and an educational developer at the University of Scranton

We have all experienced Zoom (and WebEx) fatigue, but last semester I began to wonder if my students were also experiencing “reading fatigue.” Yes, I know: our students already think that we often assign too much reading. But hybrid classes require additional reading, everything from discussion boards that replace in-person speech, to directions and explanations of assignments. Moreover, much of the processing of this reading is done virtually and in isolation. The cognitive and psychosocial “costs” of reading in this environment outweigh the rewards, resulting in a kind of fatigue that is similar to the one we experience as a result of being on virtual platforms for much of the day.

However, there are ways we can mitigate reading fatigue while also improving comprehension and critical reading skills. Below I describe two activities that help you prepare students for what they’ll encounter in a text, model reading strategies, and increase the likelihood your students will persevere even when they encounter difficulty. Both require asking students to bring the assigned text (whether physical or electronic) with them to class prior to when it’s due. If you have a hybrid course, do it in the smaller face-to-face meetings until the entire class has had the experience; if you’re teaching fully online, they can easily be adapted for a WebEx class.

  1. “In-Out”[1]: Ask everyone to read the first page (or two) to themselves, and while doing so, note where in the text they feel “pulled in” by writing an “I” in the margin, and where they feel “pushed out” by writing an “O” in the margin. For example, they might feel pulled in because they are intrigued by a question, have interest in the problem being addressed, have relevant or similar personal experience, or simply liked certain phrasing. They might feel pushed out because they’re confused, bored, or the text made them think of other issues.

Once everyone has finished reading and marking, ask students to share their ins and outs while also explaining why they were drawn in or pushed out. I find it helpful to ask one student to share an “in” passage and then ask who else marked that same part of the text for similar (or different) reasons. Then I do the same for an “out” passage, until eventually we start to see patterns. Students will feel re-assured that some of their peers were also confused, as well as gain new understanding by hearing another student’s explanation of a passage.

What you gain is insight into what your students are having difficulty with – before they have to go it alone and possibly give up. As appropriate, you can define terms, provide necessary background and context, link to prior readings, and connect to aspects of the course you know your students already have interest in. In short, you can optimize chances for deeper comprehension and manufacture motivation to read.

  1. “Marginalia”: This meta-reading activity, while requiring slightly more time, is well worth the investment as it trains students in the critical reading skills necessary for successful college-level work.

Step 1: Ask your students to read the first two pages or so (or a passage selected by you) on their own but to have a “conversation” with the text as they read. Explain that they are to write comments in the margins where they ordinarily would only highlight or underline (e.g., “Huh?” “This is interesting,” “I didn’t realize that.” “Empathy —> prosocial action”). Let them know that they will be sharing their notes.

Step 2: Now have each person, one by one, read only their marginal notes aloud. (Be firm: explain that they should not say where the marginal comment appears or elaborate on why they wrote what they wrote.) This part of the activity can often be quite humorous, and it allows students to “hear” their peers’ reading process.

Step 3: Some prompts for discussion include: After hearing everyone’s marginal notes, what did you notice? Whose marginal comment was most interesting (surprising, impressive) to you? As the discussion proceeds, examine the notes in context and work toward finding the passages or sentences that had the most reactions. Ask students to speculate why a passage prompted so many reactions, while also discussing the types of reactions. Was there an outlier? What insights does this reveal? As with the In/Out activity, you will discover what your students had the most difficulty with and can offer clarification. You will also see the extent to which your students are able to connect the reading to prior knowledge and then emphasize the importance of doing so.

Step 4: Now hand out (or project) the following checklist and ask them to categorize each of their marginal notes.

  • Comprehension notes are marginal comments that identify and summarize or paraphrase the main argument, a particular sub-point, an example, evidence, etc.
  • Interactive/Evaluative notes question, analyze, agree or disagree with the author’s ideas, logic, evidence, assumptions or methodology.
  • Extending notes go beyond the text and suggest an alternative explanation, offer additional or contradictory evidence, pose new questions, react emotionally to some part of the text, or make connections with one’s prior knowledge or experience.
  • Rhetorical notes examine how the author attends, or fails to attend, to readers’ needs (for data, for acknowledgement of differing perspectives, etc.), the author’s mastery of relevant scholarship or background information, how the author establishes or undermines their own credibility, or the author’s implied political stance and/or ideological grounding.

Making the reading experience itself more explicit addresses “reading fatigue” by fostering greater engagement. It also allows us to guide students from content-related notes to more advanced readerly interactions. For example, “extending” notes can function as a form of “elaborative rehearsal” and improve retention.[2]

Even more crucial are the “rhetorical reading” strategies used by expert readers. Rhetorical readers see writing as a purposeful action; they work to situate the text in a discursive context and assess the writer’s strategies to succeed in their intentions. Such readers are more likely to make inferences and predictions, and can discern implicit claims in the text that less experienced readers cannot. [3] 

Step 5: After practicing these kinds of marginalia in class, ask students to make X number of comments from each category when they read the rest of the text on their own. Discussion and debate will be richer as students take more ownership of the reading experience.[4]

Both of these activities counter “reading fatigue” not only by having students interact with a text in unfamiliar ways, but also by making reading a more active and rewarding process.

[1] This activity was originally developed by Darlene Forrest, New York University.

[2] Revlin, R. (2013). Cognition: Theory and Practice. MacMillan.

[3] Hass, C. and Flower, L. (1988) Rhetorical reading strategies and the construction of meaning. College Composition and Communication 39(2), 167-183.

[4] A more detailed account of how you can use these categories in your teaching is available in my article “Marginalia: teaching texts, teaching readers, teaching writers.” (2010) Reader: Disciplinary Ways of Teaching Reading in English 60, 51-69.

 

lcarruth • February 12, 2021


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Comments

  1. Michael Tyrell January 29, 2022 - 4:35 am

    This is fantastic, thank you; I appreciate in particular the In/Out activity and the marginalia checklist. I worked with Darlene Forrest for many years. I still miss her wisdom, pragmatism, and humor.

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