Plan for Success

You’ll notice once you start your college education that there simply isn’t enough time to do all the things you have to do, much less the things you want to do. Recent statistics show that 40% of full-time undergraduate college students work. Reading strategies help you maximize your study time. There are many ways to read, and after this course, you will feel more confident deciding how you are going to read a text based on your time constraints and purpose in reading. In this assignment, you will look over and report on the required reading that you are assigned this semester in each one of your classes, and decide how you plan to pace this reading throughout your week to complete it successfully.

Establishing why you read something helps you decide how to read it, which saves time and improves comprehension. This section lists some purposes for reading as well as different strategies to try at each stage of the reading process.

Reading Plans

You need to make a plan before you read.  Planning ahead is a necessary and smart step in various situations, inside or outside of the classroom. You wouldn’t want to jump into dark water head first before knowing how deep the water is, how cold it is, or what might be living below the surface. Instead, you would want to create a strategy–formulate a plan–before you made that jump. The same goes for reading. Have you ever stayed up all night cramming just before an exam or found yourself skimming a detailed memo from your boss five minutes before a crucial meeting? The first step in successful college reading is planning. This involves both managing your time and setting a purpose for your reading^[1]

Managing Your Reading Time

This step involves setting aside enough time for reading and breaking assignments into manageable chunks. If you are assigned a seventy-page chapter to read for next week’s class, try not to wait until the night before it’s due to get started. Give yourself at least a few days and tackle one section at a time.

The method for breaking up the assignment depends on the type of reading. If the text is dense and packed with unfamiliar terms and concepts, limit yourself to no more than five or ten pages in one sitting so that you can truly understand and process the information. With more user-friendly texts, you can handle longer sections—twenty to forty pages, for instance. Additionally, if you have a highly engaging reading assignment, such as a novel you cannot put down, you may be able to read lengthy passages in one sitting.

As the semester progresses, you will develop a better sense of how much time you need to allow for reading assignments in different subjects. Also consider previewing each assignment well in advance to assess its difficulty level and to determine how much reading time to set aside.^[2]

Purposes for Reading

In college and in your profession, you will read a variety of texts to gain and use information (e.g., scholarly articles, textbooks, reviews). Some purposes for reading might include the following:

• to scan for specific information
• to skim to get an overview of the text
• to relate new content to existing knowledge
• to write something (often depends on a prompt)
• to discuss in class
• to critique an argument
• to learn something
• for general comprehension

Strategies differ from reader to reader. The same reader may use different strategies for different contexts because her purpose for reading changes. Ask yourself “why am I reading?” and “what am I reading?” when deciding which strategies work best.^[3]

Expectations for College Reading

• College-level reading and writing assignments differ from high school assignments not only in quantity but also in quality.
• Managing college reading assignments successfully requires you to plan and manage your time, set a purpose for reading, practice effective comprehension strategies, and use active reading strategies to deepen your understanding of the text.
• College writing assignments place greater emphasis on learning to think critically about a particular discipline and less emphasis on personal and creative writing.^[4]

Instructions

1. Look over the syllabi for each of your classes, with special attention to your required reading. If you are confused about the amount of text you will be reading each week for a class, make sure to clarify with your teacher. Consider the following questions for each class you are taking:
   1. How many books are you required to read in total?
   2. How many pages are in each of the books?
   3. How many pages will you have to read each week to keep on top of your assignments?
   4. Think of your ideal reading environment. For instance, do you read best at home or at school? Do you read best in complete silence, or are you able to read on public transportation and other noisy areas? Do you read best in the morning, afternoon, or evening?
   5. What strategies do you use to remember what you read? For instance, do you read better when you mark important ideas as you go? Do you reread to remind yourself of key content? (We will be working on strategies like these this semester.)
   6. Will you use different strategies for your textbooks vs. your novels/narrative books?
   7. Based on the considerations above, set aside time each week in your schedule to complete your required reading.
2. In order to assess the time required to read your textbooks, use the Pre-reading Strategy section of the Textbook Checklist, included in this section of the workbook.
3. Then make a schedule for this semester. You may use whatever method works for you.
   1. You can use electronic calendars associated with your mail or phone service.
   2. You can create one in MS Word or Excel.
   3. You can purchase a planner.
   4. You can use the templates in your workbook to create a schedule.
4. Create a weekly schedule, including your class schedule; time set apart for studying, reading, and homework completion; and any other weekly events, such as your work/exercise schedule.
5. Review the syllabus for each of your courses. Write the due dates for major projects, important tests, papers, or presentations on a monthly schedule for the semester.
6. Submit “evidence” of your weekly and semester schedules. You can attach a document or take pictures or screenshots of what you have created.
7. Make sure to also submit the answers to the questions about reading as you will receive points for fulfilling each part of the assignment.

Assignment: Calendar Template

Assignment: Weekly Calendar Template

Pre-Reading Strategies (Textbook Checklist)