Sq3r Method

E. SQ3R Method Text books are often read in the same way the other books are read; begin with the first page of the chapter and read to the end of the chapter, without stopping. This method is fine for novels or other pleasure books, which does not need much understanding and retention as needed for most textbooks. Many books have been written on special skills useful in reading book. Some have emphasized increased speed reading; others, techniques for getting the most stimulation from and author’s ideas. Students, however, want a skill that will be particularly effective when reading school textbooks.1 SQ3R can serve as a substitute for a directed reading activity when students are working on the independent reading level. It can also serve as an alternative directed reading activity, to be used as teacher guided activity in a group or class – wide situation to achieve certain purposes. SQ3R is a useful technique for fully absorbing written information. It helps us to create a good mental framework of a subject, into which we can fit facts correctly. It helps us to set study goals. It also prompts us to use the review techniques that will help to fix information in your mind. By using SQ3R, it is especially helpful as a teacher directed activity in introducing and reviewing a textbook. It is a useful technique for extracting the maximum amount of benefit form our reading time. It helps us to organize the structure of a subject in our mind and to separate important information from irrelevant data. Using SQ3R provides a different method of reading textbooks that will most 1 Francis P. Robinson, Effective Study, (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1970), p. 31.

likely improve our understanding and retention of material. It is no a quicker way to read chapter in a textbook but it is likely to reduce the amount of time that one will need to spend studying material immediately before that test. This is so because more time is spent actually understanding the chapter when it is read initially. It is especially helpful as a student directed activity for mature readers who are reading expository material without the aid of a teacher’s guidance in the form of directed reading activity. Parts of it can even be built into a directed reading activity, but it provides for less guidance by the teacher than does the directed reading activity. That is why it is best to use SQ3R when the student is working on his independent reading level, whereas the directed reading activity is best when the student is working on his instructional reading level. The abbreviation SQ3R stands for the steps that the student follows in using the method. A description of each of these steps is given below:2 1. Survey A survey of headings in a lesson should take only a minute. Some students are so in the habit of reading once they start that, until they have learned how, they need to make a conscious effort to look just at the headings and then to estimate what the lesson is about. It is worthwhile to practice this skill. Take some reading materials on topics with which you are familiar, e.g., newspapers, digest magazines, previously read textbooks, and so on. Glance at the headings in an article or a chapter and then make guesses as to what the material will actually say. Check to see how well you have done. 2. Question 2 Ibid, p. 32-33.

Now that you have surveyed the entire chapter to build a framework for understanding the chapter, it’s time to begin the reading process. Turn the first heading into a question. This will arouse our curiosity and thereby increase comprehension. It will bring to mind information already known, thus helping us to understand that section more quickly. The question also will make important points stand our at the same time that explanatory details is recognized as such turning a heading into a question can be done at the instant of reading the heading, but it demands a conscious effort on our part. 3. Read Reading the section fills the information around the mental structures you have been building by surveying the chapter and developing questions about the section. Read one section at time; as you read the section, look for the answers to your questions and write them down, in your awn words. One question is probably enough for a section that is only a few paragraphs; however, for longer sections, we may find that w need to add a question or two. Do not focus on the details very much; well-written textbooks often provide examples to further the main ideas. As we read the section, try to separate the details from the main ideas. Use the details to help us understand the main ideas but do not expect ourselves to memorize every detail provided in the chapter.

4. Recite Having read the first section. Look away from the book and try briefly to recite the answer to our question. Use our won words and cite an example. If we can do

this, we know what is in the book; if we cannot, glance over the section again. An excellent way to do this reciting from memory is to jot down brief cue phrases in outline form on a sheet of paper. Now repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 with each successive headed section: that is, turn the next heading into a question, read to answer that question, and recite the answer by jotting down cue phrases in our outline. Read in this way until the entire lesson is completed. 5. Review This step helps us to build memory. We learn through repetition. This step provides another opportunity for repetition of the material and therefore will improve our recall of the information. Once we have finished reading the entire chapter using the survey. Question, read and recite steps, go back over all our questions. Cover the answers to the questions we have develop and written down and see if we can still recite them. If some of the answers have been forgotten, reread that section of the chapter to refresh our memory, recite the answer after we have written it down and then continue our review process. This five steps of the SQ3R method – survey, question, read, recite and review – when polished into a smooth and efficient method should result in faster reading, picking out the important points, and fixing them in memory. The student will find one other worth while outcome quiz questions will seem familiar because the headings turned into questions are usually the points emphasized in quizzes. By predicting actual quiz questions and looking up the answers beforehand the student

feels that he is effectively studying what is considered important in a course.