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How Can Reading Strategies Help Achieve the Reading Writing and Critical Thinking Outcomes in Basic Writing Courses

In “The Argument of Reading,” David Bartholomae writes that the issue “is not whether or what students should read, but how” (245). In other words, the content is less important then the way in which a student read. Reading outcomes are closely linked to writing outcomes as students are generally asked to respond to a reading in some way. Different reading strategies can be used to achieve different reading and writing outcomes.

Some possible questions:

• How can I teach my students to “Critically analyze their own and others choices regarding language and form”?

This is a writing outcome — so what does it have to do with reading? Mariolina Salvatori writes “…the teaching of literature and composition are characterized by an artificial separation between the activities of reading and those of writing” (“Reading and Writing

• What can I do to help “[D]evelop relationships among critical thinking, analytical reading, and writing […]]]”?

How do you foster critical thinking? Many teachers struggle to find lessons and activities to foster critical thinking in their students. Sheridan Blau writes “[w]hile reading interpretation and criticism define the overt focus of instruction in the academic discipline of literature, they also analogously describe the sort of critical thinking that is required for responsible intellectual participation in most civic, economic and moral transactions and in virtually every academic discipline and learned profession” ( The Literature Workshop 204).

A popular reading theory is “Reader Response.” But, Mariolina Salvatori, in a more recent article for College English in 1996, warns against this theory of reading. She states that an inexperienced reader should be discouraged from a reader response type of strategy as it may be “counterproductive” (443–4). She advocates for theories that explore help to give voice to a piece of writing. She wants readers to construct meaning through the

Is there just one way to read? What is the important information that the students must consider when writing about what they have read. “Good readers distinguish between important information and details as they read…”(Mi-jeong Song “Teaching Reading Strategies in an Ongoing EFL University Reading Classroom”). How do they distinguish? Some will automatically create their own strategies but other must be taught to use them. Song’s research indicates that reading strategies, when taught to students, increases students’ level of understanding.

There are many reading strategy books that can be helpful starting resources. “Literacy Strategies Across the Subject Areas offers teachers and students a flexible set of strategies that can help connect and support literacy learning within and across subject areas” (Karen D. Wood and D. Bruce Taylor). This book contains 24 strategies that can help your students achieve their reading and writing outcomes.

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