Background

Supporting students to select, analyse, evaluate and synthesise academic papers is a fundamental, under-investigated and persistently challenging aspect of academic literacy. Often subordinated to writing in academic literacy research and university support provision, reading is, in fact, a primary aspect of research and enquiry. A common frustration for many academic, development and support staff lies in the difficulty of supporting students to move beyond a limited and strategic approach to reading and research. The Academic Reading Retreat is an innovative interdisciplinary teaching and learning method developed at Keele University to address this challenge, which can be adopted and adapted across disciplines and contexts.

Aims

This event is designed for academic, development and support professionals, offering you time and space to engage in, and reflect on, teaching academic reading. It models methods for use in your own practice alongside discussion with peers about the challenges of supporting reading for enquiry.

Planned outcomes for the day include:

• learning how to run a reading retreat;
• exploring new strategies for supporting academic reading in the curriculum and beyond;
• developing your own academic reading practices.

Overview

Keele’s Academic Reading Retreats consist of three cycles of teaching, individual silent reading and group discussion. Participants bring one or two articles selected for a specific enquiry, to which they apply and reflect on taught strategies throughout the day. This reading retreat will involve up to fifteen teaching participants with one or two student ‘readers-in-residence’, when available. Each participant will choose a reading space for the day for private and focused reading, with group gatherings for teaching, discussion and refreshments in a central location.

Location

Keele Hall is a historic stately building on a beautiful campus, providing the perfect location for a retreat. Breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea are served in the hall, with an opportunity to walk through the formal gardens and lakes, weather permitting, during lunch.

Facilitator

Angela Rhead is a Learning Developer at Keele’s Institute for Innovation and Teaching Excellence (KIITE) where she acts as a Faculty Student Learning link, leads on Keele’s open workshops for students and teaches on the Masters in Higher Education Practice. She has extensive experience in teaching, teacher-training and educational development and has a particular interest in academic reading. Since developing structured academic reading retreats to support undergraduate and postgraduate students’ reading confidence, she has presented at several conferences and launched the Becoming Well Read annual symposium.

Cost: £75 (including lunch and refreshments)

Booking deadline: Midnight 22 July 2019