Sally Bartholomew & Jodi Withers

Sally Bartholomew and Jodi Withers | University of Wolverhampton

The work that Jodi Withers and I (Sally Bartholomew) have done on reading for a purpose is aimed at those who are new to university or those who are thinking of going to university. We have recently published a book called 'Making it at Uni' (out in paperback in 2 weeks), already available in Kindle. One of the chapters in the book looks at 'Reading for a Purpose'. This chapter is based around our research into and experience around the seeming inability of students to read when they get to university. The book gives students some explicit 'rules' around reading at university and guides them through two reading exercises.

The reason for starting students with these 'rules' is to provide students with a scaffold so that they can make some headway in the first months at university. We have been using these techniques to teach first year students with great success. The workshop would give us the opportunity to share our research behind these reading techniques and to allow the attendees to 'have a go' at the techniques for themselves.