Week 2: Prompt 2: Read... Read... Then Read Some More

Prompt: What advice can you give a high schooler who is preparing for college?  Be sure to give specific, concrete, sound, helpful advice.

Reading is the foundation of being a good writer.  Once I had a student ask… “I heard you have to read a lot to be a good writer, is that true?”  I smiled and said, “Yes, it is.”  The student has this look on his face that let me know he didn’t like to read.

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Reading well is one of the most important skills for succeeding in college and in life.

Yet, according to the American College Testing organization:

about half (49 percent) of the 1.2 million students who took the ACT college entrance test in 2005 had scores indicating…

they were unready to handle college-level reading.

-From On Course by Skip Downing

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This week and next week we are discussing reading in my 1302 classes.  As I teach them about reading, I stress to them that college requires a lot of reading.  The material may be hard to read, you may not like the subject matter, and you may not want to read; but you must read.  And, we practice reading.  We read at least two articles each week.  I also make sure that they write something on both articles, so that they don’t feel as if they wasted their time reading something with no purpose other than just reading.

After LISTENING ACTIVELY, READING ACTIVELY, EFFECTIVELY, AND CRITICALLY is the best skill you can have when going to college.  Doing all four of these take practice.  The last skill you need in college is NOTE-TAKING.

So, as you prepare to go to college work on these skills…

• Listening actively
• Reading actively, effectively, and critically
• Taking notes

Once you master these three skills, you’ll be able to conquer college.

Read "College Ain't Easy" to learn about Dual Credit Classes - http://livinglovingteachingwriting.blogspot.com/2017/02/week-2-prompt-2-college-aint-easy.html