SQ(4)-R: Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review (and Research)

Background 

You’re probably familiar with SQ3-R as a formula / method for efficient and effective reading of content-based texts. This strategy helps students select what s/he is expected to know (at times outlined on class syllabi and / or gleemed from classroom notes); help students remember important ideas just read and, probably most important of all, help students review efficiently.  However, I’ve modified it a bit.  The well-known strategy is widely-know as SQ3-R but I’ve included a fourth ‘R’.  Still, the method is simple:

S = Survey what is to be read with emphasis on major and sub headings and any graphs, tables, pictures and notes as well as any summaries that may be included.  (I also teach my students to read and make notes of topic sentences for each sentence and / or paragraph).

Q = Turn the headings, (subheadings, graph or picture notes, or summaries) into Questions.

3 – Rs:

R = Read to answer your questions.

R = Recite and answer your questions in your own words.

R = Review by looking over highlighting and / or notes for basic points for each section.

Modification

My fourth ‘R’ is Research.  I believe that having students research topics in is a powerful tool for reinforcement of learned material. I also believe that questions asked by students during their initial survey and questioning of the reading but not covered in the reading assignments will help them develop a wider knowledge and understanding of what is expected of them to know.  Hopefully, students will also ‘get into the habit’ of delving into topics/subtopics related to though not necessarily germain to what they may immediately need to know. 

I have no empirical evidence for this other than it ‘makes sense’.  First of all, as students read more and incorporate what they read as part of their own schema the more knowledge resources they are able to draw upon as they progress to their education goals.

Secondly (and, I admit, even less empirically valid) is that it worked and still works for me. Let me explain.

A Lucky Undergraduate

As an undergraduate I took a class during with an instructor whose a approach to education was based on ‘traditional’ approaches current at tertiary levels at English (and now at many U.S.) colleges and universities which emphasize the student, after initial guidance and couseling, focus attention on particular areas of topics related to the particular class taken.

I took a History of the Reformation class taught by a visiting professor from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, B.C.  There were traditional assigned readings and lectures with plenty of encouragement and opportunity for students to delve deeper into particular areas of general topics.  Not long into the course we were required to to write five general topics that interested us and on which we would be willing to do more intensive research.

I don’t remember all five topics I choose but I do remember being fascinated with Erasmus and Luther’s famous ‘epistemological battles’ on the nature of free will and on the influence that John Calvin had on the Reformation with emphasis on Geneva and its aftermats.

Let it suffice . .

to say that I gained more knowledge on these two subjects and that I continued to read more widely on the Reformation since taking the class.  Was this all?  Not quite.

My instructor gave us worksheets of broad outlines (much like major and subheadings found in basic content-based texts) for us to fill in, as it were, with questions of our own to further research.

In other words, the professor taught us a method of studying and – especially – of researching that I used throughout not only during my undergraduate and graduate years but which still use to this day (using judious border notes in my text with, if possible, my laptop at hand for quick research) to supplment and / or clarify what I am reading.

So, research – especially in this day of a wide and rich array of electronic databases – is an important method that I add to the popular SQ3-R formula and which I not only encourage but teach as part of any class for efficient and effective reading.

Finally, let me add that I use collaborative learning to the method first introduced to me by my Simon Frazer professor.  This increases the potential for a more deeper and broader knowledge base as dyads, triads and what-have-you pool their resources, schema and talents to the studies at hand.

     Man in India Reading Book

Link to Power Point Presentation on Effective Reading

Resources

On SQ3-R:  There’s quite a lot out there on the Web.  For a basic overview see ARC@ at Sweet Briar College.  For more detailed (and excellent information) visit Strategies for Success.  Use their link Vary Your Reading Strategies for savvy skills and strategies when using SQ3-R for discipline-specific readings.