At the beginning of our work together in June, in response to the question, “What are the struggles in your course?,” several of you wrote that students often aren’t doing the reading needed for your courses. I’ve been seeking practical information that might help with this struggle, and here’s what I—with additional input from jean—have found.
First, it may help to know that this struggle is not yours alone, nor one that is confined to our campus. In an article titled “Is This the End of Reading?,” The Chronicle of Higher Education gives an overview, from the perspectives of a variety of teachers and students, describing the challenges around reading in higher education today, suggesting possible causes of these challenges, and telling about different approaches to addressing them. For a shorter take on the issue by one teacher, see “The Loss of Things I Took for Granted” at Slate. I don’t agree with everything in these articles! But I find it useful to see how people are engaging with the problem.
Now, as Nicholaus Gutierrez says in “Is This the End of Reading?,” and as jean reminds me, this is a “wicked problem.” As such, there are no easy solutions. However, there are several things you can try, many of them based on principles of open pedagogy.
- One of the teachers quoted in “Is This the End of Reading?” is Susan D. Blum, editor of a book on ungrading that we often recommend. Her new book, Schoolishness, includes a chapter on lectures and course readings, which offers a few practical suggestions. For example, content-area reading can be supplemented or replaced with other media, such as podcasts or videos. There are also ways for student to engage in literature through alternative means; for example, LibriVox offers free audiobooks of works in the public domain.
- Blum also suggests asking students to curate reading/listening/viewing material for the class. This could be done as part of having students co-create the course or syllabus, or it could be done for just one unit or assignment.
- Incorporate student agency by giving students a menu of readings to select from for a given topic.
- Incorporate culturally sustaining approaches by asking or surveying students about their reading experiences—e.g., their family practices, library use, what they like to read, what helps them read for courses, what prevents them from reading for their courses, etc.
- Another approach to engaging students is social annotation. Tools like Hypothesis enable people to annotate digital texts either publicly or in private groups.
- CUNY Office of Library Services has a guide to social annotation.
- Hypothesis can be used with readings in Brightspace. There will be training available on this topic in August and early fall; the sessions aren’t yet scheduled, so keep an eye on the calendar or watch for announcements in the CETLS newsletter.
For Learning from Each Other: Refining the Practice of Teaching in Higher Education, BMCC professor Robin Isserles wrote a chapter, “Cultivating Engagement and Deepening Understanding While Leaving the Textbook Behind,” which may be of interest. We’ll make this chapter available to you.
One or more of these approaches may work, or at least be helpful, and it may take some experimentation to find out what is effective for your purposes, your course, and your students. Last summer I wrote that my approach to pedagogy in four words is “Let’s try things out!,” but while writing up this post I was thinking about how much vulnerability that approach requires, plus a willingness to make mistakes, which can be extra tough when the stakes seem so high. We want to do well by our students! Jean reminds me that it helps to be transparent with students—tell them when we’re trying out something new. After all, the work of teaching and learning is something the class is doing together.
