The majority of junior students really do not know how to read at the level required for post-secondary education. In our experience, almost all students are relatively unskilled at reading and deep comprehension. Without a conscious effort by instructors and students, the students will graduate reading at the same level; without any improvement. There are two challenges for the student: reading word problems and parsing them (including assignment and project descriptions), and reading course material.

A professional reader comprehends what is written, understands it and knows if they do indeed comprehend (meta-cognition). The reader knows if something is expected of the reader, expected of others, if there are any special caveats or issues embedded in the material, if there are any assumptions or subtle points, and knows if there are any directions or qualifiers associated with the tasks in the case of word problems. There are several levels of comprehension and each has its role to play.

From a first person perspective:

• First, the most superficial reading or thinking is like reading math equations, many text book descriptions, phone book pages, stock tickers, most weather reports, etc.
• You read it, you might memorize it, you might use the information, but you really do not think too much about the information and it does not create any emotional or personal angst or issue. Neither does it generate any intellectual a-haa! or intellectual reaction.
• Second, you might read something (or hear or see something) and it creates a response.
• You like it, you hate it, you find it amusing, you find it interesting, your heart rate increases, etc. But, you read on. You really do not think too much about what has just happened; it is a gut reaction. “I do not like it”. “I like it”. “I think it is stupid”. This is typical of reading pulp fiction or light novels for easy reading while on vacation or vegging. It might even be the way that you read text books and course material (not recommended though).
• Third, you read or experience something that creates an emotional or intellectual response, but you start reflecting and enquire as to why it registered such a response.

• Why did you find it funny? Why did you find it annoying? This is the start of a higher level of comprehension, thinking, and cognitive skill. You are aware of the response and start to think about causal relationships; that made me laugh, why? This level can be superficial or a bit deeper.
• Fourth, you register the response, are aware of what might have made you respond, and you also think about the intent of the author.
• Was the response planned? Was it a conscious and planned structure that created the response? The author used clever puns or clever wording or certain circumstances, or the author accidentally created a situation that is funny when other information is known.
• Fifth, if it was a conscious effort by the author, why?
• Why did the author want us to feel or react this way at this point in time, and the reaction caused by this type of mechanism? Why did the author choose the method to elicit this specific response? Why this response? Why not a different method? Why not a different response? Why any response? Why? The response might be emotional or it might be an intellectual point of enlightenment; this is the deeper a-haa! point. But be careful and do not try to read more into it than is there. The author might not have been thinking deeper.

Suggestions…

• Do not spoon feed the students by simplifying sentences and instructions. They need to learn how to parse sentences like ‘tell me how to figure out how many students can do the task’.
• Use explicit examples in constructive failure exercises where they will learn to identify strong words like ‘must’ and ‘will’ versus weaker words like ‘could’, ‘may’.

• Use examples and decode the process; explain the key words, explain how it is possible to better understand a problem or material by slowing down the reading and think about reading with a purpose.
• After assessments, select one or two and slowly work your way through them; explaining how the question or assignment actually was quite clear if read with a purpose.
• A part of an assessment might be to have the students explain how they read and parsed the question, how they arrived at their understanding.
• Teach them how to make multiple passes through word problems or technical / scientific material:
• The first pass should be relatively quick and skimming. The purpose of the first pass is to get the main point and get the big picture. In the case of a question, the student needs to size up the basic topic and the type of assessment that is being asked for; same for a project.
• The second pass involves going back through the material and identifying any ‘deliverables’ which you are expected to deal with for word problems or the main points in a chapter or paper. Do not worry about these on the first pass; focus on the larger topic, the author’s ‘thesis’, what you might know about the topic and what you do not know.
• In the second pass process, note any ‘important’ relevant facts and information that relate to the deliverables, or assigned reading. This can be format, naming conventions, style, voice, tone, etc. Once you get this stuff out of the way and parked where you cannot forget it later, you can focus on what is actually expected or the point of the reading.
• The third pass (yes, a third pass) highlights any nouns, verbs, or adjectives that constrain or provide elasticity in the problem and solution space for the word problem, or that guide the interpretation, comprehension of the reading. This pass should also identify any emphasis words or phrases that imply order or priority, or any explicit assumptions about pros/cons, strengths/weaknesses of concepts. You are looking for specific words (i.e., the verbs) that define what you have to do; like ‘how to’ or ‘include’ or ‘provide’, or words that constrain or open up a concept. This is perhaps the most important pass to slowly and carefully do.

Co-dependencies & The Necessary and Hopefully Sufficient

• As instructor, you will have to learn about reading and comprehension. We suggest reviewing Adler’s book. You have to become self-aware yourself and learn to read systematically if you hope to explain it and teach it.
• You have to be transparent and discuss reading and comprehension with the students before you introduce non-simple language on an assessment. You should deal with this in the classroom first; then it is fair game.
• You have to explicitly give them tips on how to read and have at least one exercise in class where you go through the multiple passes.
• You have to give examples and lots of practice exercises for the students with suitable debriefing and reflection.
• You have to be firm and fair in your assessments; be supportive but if the student does not answer the actual question, they do not get marks. Give the students a chance for recovery and to show that they have improved by the end of the term and mark accordingly; if they have improved and have learned, reflect that in their assessment.
• The level of comprehension challenge must match the students’ ability with an appropriate level for pushing the comfort zone. Do not expect to get much at the junior student level if you just say ‘Discuss’, or ‘So’. There has to be more guidance at the junior levels. You can still be vague, but you need to give them a topic and help them focus a bit.
• You have to carefully write the assessments and projects to introduce complex sentences and strong/weak words. You should not do this in an ad hoc fashion and you need to be aware of the comprehension challenges you are embedding in an assessment. The number of ‘reading’ challenges should be controlled and carefully planted.
• When you are starting off, allow enough time to learn how to write an assessment for comprehension. As a beginner, a word problem the size of a paragraph on the preceding page can take an hour to carefully craft for language. With practice the time comes down, but It can still take 20-30 minutes to write if you are consciously designing with language and grammar in mind. It takes us from five to twenty minutes to write a typical word problem; after doing this for decades. It is worth it, but give it time. Learning to write this way is also a cognitive skill!

Further reading

• Adler, M.J. (1940). How to read a book, Simon and Schuster, NY.