Welcome to this session on academic literacy! The overall goal is to break down the process of understanding difficult academic texts into manageable steps.
A book [or any reading] is an experiment, and as with all experiments, there is a sense of uncertainty about how it will turn out.
― How Doctors Think
And then there’s this:
I think that we should talk with the students about all the implications of writing and reading. We should make clear to them that it is irresponsible to suggest that reading is something easy…it is a kind of research. In this way, studying means finding something, and the act of finding brings with it…a certain moment of happiness that is creation and re-creation…We should challenge students to get this creative moment…
― Paulo Freire in We Make the Road by Walking
So as you go through this site and the activities we do, look for moments of breakthrough and awareness, understanding, connections, and new insights, because that is what really makes learning exciting – we don’t know what is going to happen – what our brains will do with new information and time. Enter into this kind of intellectual excitement, and you’ll be hooked for life!
Let’s now talk about evaluating and selecting quality materials
