8 Reading Interactively
Learning Outcomes
- Identify strategies for reading interactively.
- Apply interactive reading strategies to an academic text.
What Is Interactive Reading?
Many people mistake reading as a passive activity of moving their eyes across the page and receiving information. This is not an accurate depiction of reading. Reading requires active engagement with the material to the point of being interactive. Interactive reading is a conversation in the mind with the author. It involves pausing, pondering the ideas, questioning the information, struggling to understand, and reacting to what the author says. Being interactive in your approach to reading will result in deep understanding.
How Do You Read Interactively?
Previewing is the foundation for interactive reading. If you have taken the time to preview a reading, you are already starting to have a conversation with the author(s) by making predictions and asking questions. When you read the text interactively, use those predictions and questions to guide your reading. This is why it is important to write down your predictions and questions on the article. You can use them to prompt your thinking as you read.
Interactive Reading Strategies
After previewing a text, return to the title. Now, you can read the entire text. Do not passively move your eyes across the words and sentences; instead, interact with the text by using the strategies listed below.
- Pause to confirm or revise your predictions and to answer the questions you posed while previewing the article. Write down your revised predictions and your responses to the questions as you read. You can make those notes on the same copy of the article you used for previewing. If you cannot find the answers to your questions, save them for further research and discussion.
- Pause at other points to check for understanding of what you just read. Can you explain key ideas in your own words yet? If not, reread to clarify. Reading aloud may help you to slow down and focus. It makes no sense to keep reading if you did not understand something or if you became distracted, which happens to everyone as they read. Ideas that come later in a text build on the previous ones.
- Pay attention to any vocabulary words that are confusing. Look up the words in a dictionary if they are interfering with your understanding, or mark them to return to later.
- Record any opinions or reactions you have to the reading.
- Write down any further questions that develop as you read.
To see an example of annotations a student made while reading interactively, click the link: Interactive reading example. The annotations the student made during the previewing phase are also included in the example. Notice that the student checked predictions, marked new vocabulary, paraphrased key ideas, answered questions, and posed new questions as part of the interactive reading process.
Use the practice exercise below to experiment with interactive reading.
Practice: Read Interactively
Revisit the article you previewed in the practice exercise for the previous chapter. Now, practice applying the interactive reading strategies to that same article. Record your thoughts on the article. Use the copy that includes the annotations you made while previewing.
In the next chapter, you will reflect on your experience with previewing and reading the text.