Active Reading and Thinking Skills

ACTIVE READING AND THINKING SKILLS
ACADEMIC READING
Made By:
Muhammad Hafiz Firdaus

Rizki Saputri Harahap
Delvi Febriani
Ratna Juwita
Lecturer: Roinah, M.Pd

•Active Reading
Active reading is part of a reading comprehension strategy that
should also include pre-reading an Active reading means the
reader is engaged in the text that he or she is reading.
•Purpose
College reading is more complex than high school reading. You
are expected to read higher volumes and complete challenges
independently. You have to digest, analyze, and apply what
you've read without much guidance. In order to read effectively
in college, it is important that you understand the goal of the
reading (i.e., reading with a purpose), and you understand and
choose the best reading strategies for the task.
When you read to collect data and retain information, active reading
skills act as a catalyst for critical thinking skills that must be applied
in a systematic way. Formulating questions about what you have read
leads to analyzing purposes and assumptions. What is the intent or
agenda of the author and his/her point of view? Ultimately, this
process helps you to understand and retain what you read and assists
you in mastering academic reading. This mastery leads to a successful
college experience, and will also serve you well in your future
profession.
 Goals and Objectives

The overall goal of this tutorial is to introduce you to active reading.
This tutorial addresses communications skills, requires active use of
writing, speaking, and other forms of self-expression, and provides
opportunities for information gathering, synthesis, and analysis in
solving problems and in critical thinking. When you have completed
this tutorial, you should be able to:
Describe active reading skills and their importance
Reflect upon and self-assess your current use of active
reading skills
Engage in and apply active reading skills
Identify strategies for taking notes and using underlining in
readings
•Reading Strategies
Strategies differ from reader to reader. The same reader may use
different strategies for different contexts because their purpose
for reading changes. Ask yourself “why am I reading?” and
“what am I reading?” when deciding which strategies to try.
Before reading:
 Establish your purpose for reading

 Speculate about the author’s purpose for writing
 Review what you already know and want to learn about the
topic (see the guides below).
 Preview the text to get an overview of its structure, looking at
headings, figures, tables, glossary, etc.
 Predict the contents of the text and pose questions about it. If
the authors have provided discussion questions, read them
and write them on a note-taking sheet.
 Note any discussion questions that have been provided
(sometimes at the end of the text).
 Sample pre-reading guides – K-W-L guide.
 Critical reading questionnaire.
During reading:
 Annotate and mark (sparingly) sections of the text to easily

recall important or interesting ideas
 Check your predictions and find answers to posed questions
 Use headings and transition words to identify relationships in
the text
 Create a vocabulary list of other unfamiliar words to define
later
 Try to infer unfamiliar words’ meanings by identifying their
relationship to the main idea
 Connect the text to what you already know about the topic
 Take breaks (split the text into segments if necessary)
 Sample annotated texts – Journal article · Book chapter
excerpt
After reading:
 Summarize the text in your own words (note what you

learned, impressions, and reactions) in an outline,
concept map, or matrix (for several texts)
 Talk to someone about the author’s ideas to check your
comprehension
 Identify and reread difficult parts of the text
 Define words on your vocabulary list (try a learner’s
dictionary) and practice using them
 Sample graphic organizers – Concept map · Literature
review matrix.
 Critical thinking/ Thinking skills
Critical thinking is a way of thinking, understanding and

expressing ourselves. See the Critical thinking checklist.
Critical thinking is about using your ability to reason. It's about
being active in your learning and questioning ideas, arguments
and findings.
In an academic argument ideas are organised into a line of

reasoning. The writer aims to persuade the reader that their
point of view is valid. Being able to understand and create
structured, reasoned arguments is central to critical thinking.
Try to constantly evaluate what you read, hear, think, experience

and observe. Assess how well ideas, statements, claims,
arguments and findings are backed up so that you can make a
reasoned judgement about how convincing they are.
 Using critical thinking skills
 You will need to demonstrate your critical thinking skills

in various ways:
 Critical reading
 Ask questions about the text as you read. This will keep
you focused and help you to understand it.
 Evaluating arguments
 When reading a text containing an argument, try to
evaluate whether it makes sense and is well supported.
See Evaluating arguments.
 Critical writing
 Make sure that your writing is clear and your argument
well structured. See Critical essay writing.
When you are reading to collect data and retain
information, critical thinking skills should be applied
in a systematic way. This is different than passively
reading something merely for entertainment in which
the story unfolds like a movie in your mind. As you
begin to apply active reading skills to reading for
entertainment, you may find the movie in your mind
becomes more enriched. Properly applied active
reading skills will better enable you to recall and apply
information you read.
THANK YOU
FOR
YOUR ATTENTION

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ACTIVE READING AND THINKING SKILLS

Muhammad Hafiz Firdaus

Lecturer: Roinah, M.Pd

 Goals and Objectives

 Establish your purpose for reading

 Annotate and mark (sparingly) sections of the text to easily

 Summarize the text in your own words (note what you

Critical thinking is a way of thinking, understanding and

In an academic argument ideas are organised into a line of

Try to constantly evaluate what you read, hear, think, experience

 You will need to demonstrate your critical thinking skills

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