Presented at LILAC 2018

1. @mlemanchester
My Learning Essentials
The University of Manchester Library
Critical reading
Getting the most out of your reading

2. Our workshops
My Learning
Essentials
Embedded
Programme
Open Programme
Online Resources

3. Student
Agenda

4. • Enables your attendees to take full ownership of their session and
learning experience.
• Allows facilitator to set expectations for the workshop.
• Creates a learning community (Tinto, 2000): we are encouraging
students to construct their knowledge together creating a learning
community which involves students both socially and intellectually.
• Starts off the ‘gradual release of responsibility’ (Fisher and Frey,
2013) The teacher shifts from assuming all the responsibility for
learning to a situation in which the students assume the responsibility.
Setting the agenda

5. Making connections, asking questions

6. • Read the article and take turns in pairs
to ‘speak out’ what you’re thinking as
you go
• Document all of your reactions on the
page to create a poster of reactions
• Keep the top section of the page blank
Making connections, asking questions

7. • Here we’ve introduced a reciprocal teaching strategy – Frey and Fisher
(2013) highlight that when pairs or groups of students read and talk
about what they read they learn more.
• The reciprocal teaching strategy requires students to pause
periodically and talk about what they are reading – in some cases
changing roles each time.
• For Frey and Fisher’s (2013) reciprocal teaching strategy they use the
following comprehension strategy: predict, question, summarize,
clarify. Aimed at a younger audience the point of this strategy is to
encourage reading and for students to develop a deeper
understanding of the text.
Reciprocal teaching strategy

8. Checking for understanding

9. Identify the main idea
opinion, not fact supported by evidence
argue or agree

10. • Write down 2-3 main ideas from the
piece on the post-it notes and add
these to your poster.
Checking for understanding

11. • At the top of the poster, come up with
a new title for the article.
Checking for understanding

12. • An important finding from information processing research is that
students need to spend additional time rephrasing, elaborating, and
summarizing new material in order to understand and store this
information in their long term memory. (Rosenshine, 2012)
• The summarizing strategy encourages students to identify the
important information from a text and accurately recount this
information from a text. (Frey and Fisher, 2013)
Summarising

13. • The ‘poster’ activity is adapted from Beers’ and Probst’s book,
‘Reading nonfiction’ (2005).
• It’s a simple strategy which encourages discussion. The original
suggestion by Beers and Probst is for the teacher/facilitator to read
out the piece of writing aloud whilst students annotate the poster and
discuss their comments afterwards.
• Here we ask students to populate the poster with questions, reactions,
the main idea, and summaries throughout the session which mirrors
the critical reading strategy used in this workshop from start to finish.
Poster technique

14. • Use the yellow dots to indicate which
main ideas you think are the most
important.
• Use the red dots to select the title you
feel best represents the article
Checking for understanding

15. • Rather than prompt feedback from the room by asking each group of
students, or for volunteers, to share their thoughts we’ve introduced
this voting with sticky dots activity as a way for all students to
contribute and leave feedback. This ensures that all voices in the
room are heard and they can come up with a collective consensus.
• As students are able to read what each group has come up with
they’re able to learn from everyone in an efficient way.
Prompting feedback through voting

16. Am I reading critically?
• Did I get what I need?Purpose
• Do I know how this
connects to other works
on the topic?
Context
• What is my opinion on the
main idea(s)?Analysis

17. • If we go back to the ‘Gradual release of responsibility model’ (Fisher
and Frey, 2013) the aim in our workshops is to achieve the final stage
– going from collaborative learning ‘you do it together’ to independent
learning ‘you do it alone’.
• We encourage students to continue to develop their skills beyond the
workshop by introducing strategies or checklists for learning.
Gradual release of responsibility

18. Tutorial – MLE Online Resources

19. “Excellent session”
“Really useful session will help me developing my
strategies I learnt to adapt in my own essay”
“Very helpful, clear and simple to follow”
“The facilitator was lovely, very welcoming and
supportive and engaging”
“I am so thankful for choosing this University. MLE
and other efforts by the library have helped me a
lot in my study, while in the same time I am
coping with house chores and managing four kids
at home.”
This workshop is popular with students

20. Do you feel more confident as a
result of what you have learned?
Keep in touch!
Tell us what you think!
mle@manchester.ac.uk
@mlemanchester
I have found this session engaging.
Do you think this session will
be beneficial to your learning?
Will you change the way you work
based on what you’ve learned?

21. Please use the Cornell Notes sheet to note down
your reflections after the workshop.
Add them to Twitter and tag them #lilac18 &
@mlemanchester.
Dear delegates,

22. • Beers, K. and Probst, R.E. (2015) Reading nonfiction. Heinemann.
• Fisher, D. and Frey, N. (2013) Better Learning Through Structured
Teaching: A Framework for the Gradual Release of Responsibility.
2nd ed. Alexandria VA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum
Development.
• Frey, N. and Fisher, D. (2013) Rigorous reading: Five access points
for comprehending complex texts. Thousand Oaks CA: Corwin.
• Rosenshine, B. (2012) ‘Principles of instruction: Research-based
strategies that all teachers should know.’ American Educator,
Spring, pp. 12-39 [Online]. Available at:
https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/Rosenshine.pdf
(Accessed: 20 March 2018).
• Tinto, V. (2000) ‘Learning Better Together: The Impact of Learning
Communities on Student Success.’ Journal of Institutional Research,
Vol. 9, [Online]. Available at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237333638_Learning_Bett
er_Together_The_Impact_of_Learning_Communities_on_Student_S
uccess (Accessed 20 March 2018).