Need to Teach How to Read Critically to the Students - Essay Example

Your first and sur Your Due This era is often referred to as the Information Age; meaning that information is ubiquitous and found in varying forms and formats. Therefore, the ability to read critically is an important skill not only at Universities but also in the business world Introduction Most of the things we learn are not from our experience, but through reading someone else’s experiences (Cioffi). This is where the problem lies. Education should be aimed to make the students critically evaluate what they see and read, rather than just take the text for granted and to be something which needs to be mugged up as it is for passing the exams. Every individual must be well equipped to deal logically with the enormous mass of information overflowing from media: both printed and none printed. His decision making process should be rational and logical. He should be able to judge and figure out whether the information presented to him is original or fabricated and faked to serve somebody else’s interests. Thus, we see that one of the most tormenting problems faced by the instructors of present era is to develop critical reading skills in the readers of today (McRaith). Defining Critical Reading Critical reading involves a very broad definition. It involves understand the idea the author of the text is trying to infer to, Owens links critical reading to structural analysis (Bosley). Critical reading requires the reader to evaluate at regular intervals as to what he is reading. It involves reading text not just for the sake of it, but rather in a much practical sense. This means that the readers should be able to relate the text with the practical aspects of their own lives and to the happenings in the surroundings (Fulginiti). The readers should be able to read between the lines. The author at times might get a little sarcastic in the text, or might make use of some similes and metaphors. The readers should be able to understand the meaning underlying their figures of speech. Amy Class suggests that it is important for the readers to use their own intellect and logic to form opinion about whether they agree or disagree with the text presented to them (Bosley). This should be preceded by a thorough evaluation of the author’s text from all dimensions. Importance of Critical Reading in Business World It is a common saying that leaders are readers (Charles J. Gadway). They critically read and eventually evaluate the information to grasp the relevant and leave out the irrelevant things. The importance of critical reading in business is very critical. In businesses, a lot of deals are involved which can change the course of any business. The ability to take decisions of whether to go ahead with a particular deal by critically evaluating the information obtained from various sources is a must. This is where importance of is critical reading cannot be neglected. Critical reading answers the question: are both faces of the information presented evenly? This helps the managers do a proper evaluation of the costs and benefits in carrying on with a particular deal (Martha L. King). A business world is an ever changing world and operating in such world requires you to adapt to the changing environment. No business can operate in isolation in a secluded manner because we live in a globalized world. Reading is very important to overcome this isolation. Critical reading helps the managers understand the current trends in the market by evaluating the information logically. This will help you develop your own niche by identifying the areas where the market fails to offer deliverables. Taking in the irrelevant and useless information will only lead to information overload and will be of no good help. The business executives thus need to grasp the information which affects their business directly. Stages of Critical Reading We read whatever limited information is given to us in the text. This information in the text is subject to various discrepancies. Firslty, the author might have described the event from only one perspective. Secondly, there are also questions on the author’s understanding of the event. The deepness, profundity and intricacy of the event can only be understood by the students once they get out of their comfort zone and try seeing the event from multiple dimensions and perspectives, rather than simply relying on a single limited view. This increases the thinking skills of the reader and also their analyzing capacity. The development of analysis capacity in students will make them question the reasoning of the author himself. They will be in a state to logically evaluate if there are any fallacies existing in the reasoning provided by the author. The teacher in the evaluation process needs to act as a facilitator to help the students figure out the discrepancies. Resolution is the last stage of critical thinking. The stage of resolution should be preceded by proper planning .Stamberg (1988) and Barrell (1991) have underlined the impotence of planning in the resolution phase (Cioffi). In this phase, the student resolves the discrepancies by checking on additional sources. Critical Reading in Colleges The text at the college level is far more complex than the ones at school level. Also, many parts of the text are arguable with which the students will have to agree or disagree. The reader should read the text with an objective. He should be conscious of the reason and purpose with which he is reading the text. The reader should engage in active reading and firstly try to find out the main idea behind the text. The information should be distilled for simplicity. Critical reading is often set up as one of the main objectives of the reading courses in the colleges. But, the freshers are not acquainted with the requisites of college reading. The main source of concern is that approximately half of the participants of the ACT test which was conducted in the year 2004 were not adept in college level reading. These participants are college level students. And this was despite the fact that 85% of learning in college consists of Independent reading. Also, a research conducted by the American Institutes of Research suggests that nearly half of the strength of colleges with tenure of 4 years is not adept at literacy (Bosley). These figures pose a question on the way critical reading is taught to the students in colleges. The method of reading taught by the faculties is in contrast to what is required. In high schools, the faculties guide the students to read for finding out information, rather than trying to make out meaning from the text. Critical reading is not something involving searching the text for information. The reader needs to form a bond with the text in the process of critical reading. This will deepen the level of understanding on the part of the reader and will thus answer his questions. The reader in due course of critical reading also predicts and assumes things based on the prior experience he has had in that field or some prior text read. There is a need for faculties to engage the students in more and more practice as far as critical reading is concerned. It has been found that reading is not conferred the ‘core’ skill status in most curriculums, it is only considered as a developing skill. Critical reading in most colleges is not made a part of standalone courses because of the common belief by the college professors that the college students should have been well acquainted with critical reading aspects from their school curriculum. The perception of most faculties regarding reading is in stark contrast than what it should have been. They believe that reading is a process of extracting information of text (Bosley). This is one of the main reasons why the students do not have the critical reading skills grounded in them. If the instructors themselves have a wrong perception about reading as a process, the same wrong knowledge is transferred by them to their students. Critical Reading Strategies L.Bosley set out to explore how the instructors go about developing the critical reading abilities in their students. Bosley found as a result of his research that there are a lot of views regarding the importance of reading among the teachers. Some considered reading as merely an information gathering exercise, while others believed in the overall integration of reading and writing. On a general basis, the writer found that instructors believe that the students should be capable of reading, but also that it is not their duty to teach them how to do it. Bosley in his study revealed that the English 101 course for the freshman is taught by part-timers who do not hold much experience. Thus, the development of critical reading skills in the students taught by such teachers is very limited. Critical reading skills are very important for success both in academics and in jobs thereafter. Thus, higher learning authorities must assign experienced faculties to students to develop their critical reading skills, and also introduce courses of critical learning for the teachers too. Most teachers denied the fact that they ‘teach’ reading to their students. The faculties are not confident of their skills in critical reading and there are very less instances for explicitly teaching critical reading strategies to the students (Bosley). Thus, there is a growing need for professional development of the teachers so that they get involved in teaching reading to the students more explicitly. Also , mentorship programs must be started in which the experienced teachers should be assigned as mentors to the less experienced ones , thus developing knowledge of critical reading strategies in them. Even the parents often fail to notice the importance critical reading holds in the development of their children. Most parents are not acquainted with the difference between reading and critical reading. It is important for parents to emphasize the significance of critical reading at home itself. The schools, therefore, need to acquaint the parents with the value critical reading as a process holds. Two other mechanisms which have proved effective in the development of critical reading skills in readers are the following: Story Comparisons Cioffi has suggested story comparisons as an effective mechanism to enhance the critical reading abilities of the readers. This will involve the three stages described earlier: noticing the differences in the different versions of the event, evaluating the differences and then resolving them finally (Cioffi). Customer Reviews Technique Mary Rice says that the students accept the information as credible if it relates to them, rather than depending on any reading strategies for decision making (Rice). Through customer review exercise, she gets the students to question the validity and genuineness of these reviews. Involving the students in question based discussions develop a greater level of understanding in them. The customer reviews technique is not just helpful for the college students, but also the readers at all stages. This is because young men prefer reading the matter which is short in length and does not make them look like weak readers. The short length of customer reviews solves this problem and motivates them internally. Also, the teachers should not impose their perceptions of the text upon the students. This limits the logical and analytical capability of the students and they depend on their teachers to figure out the meaning of every text rather than applying their own logic and understanding towards it. Janice Lewis in her article also highlights the language limitations and role of past experience to perceiving the meaning of the text (Lewis). The readers need to become active ones by focusing on what the writer infers, and evaluating the validity of what is being said. Conclusion Thus, there is a great need to teach how to read critically to the students, especially in those institutions where the curriculum makes use of challenging academic material. Students should question the reading material , try to engage in reading texts other than the ones recommended by their academic curriculum, and also discuss with others about what they read and understood from the text. This will polish the students’ understanding and reading skills. References Bosley, Lisa. ""I DonT Teach Reading" : Critical Reading Instruction in Composition Courses." Library, Academic Reseach. Literacy Research and Instruction. Routledge;Taylor & Francis, 2008. 285. Charles J. Gadway, National Assessment of Educational Progress (Project). Critical reading: theme 8, reading. Dallas: National Assessment of Educational Progress, 1973. Cioffi, Grant. "Perspective and expereince : Developing critical reading abilities." Journal of Reading (Sep.1992;36,1): 48. Fulginiti, Jeanne M. Critical Reading: Developing Reading Comprehension Skills-Levels A -F. Houston: Oceana Publications, 1978. Lewis, Janice. "Redifining Critical Reading for college critical thinking courses." Journal of Reading (Mar1991;34,6): 420-424. Martha L. King, Bernice D. Ellinger, Willavene Wolf, Ohio State University. Critical reading. San Deigo: Lippincott, 2007. McRaith, Barry. "Critical Reading." CRITICAL LITERACY : Theories and Practices (2010): 25-34. Rice, Mary. "Using Customer Reviews to Build Critical Reading Skills." English Journal (Sep 2007;97,1): 89-94. Read More