Getting students to do their reading is something that most of us have to deal with at some point in our career. In his IDEA Center Paper, Eric Hobson (2004) reviews research on student completion of assigned reading and finds that that a “consistent pattern of research findings has established compliance with course reading at 20-30% for any given day and assignment.”

We can help students complete their reading by providing them with the knowledge, skills, and tools. To do this well we must reflect on why we chose this text and how it helps achieve course learning goals.

We must also think about how we are using our text in our class. In Teaching at Its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors Linda Nilson (2003) argued that, “It is important that your students can’t expect to pick up the knowledge in your lecture. This means that you cannot rehash the readings in class ... You can spend class time answering questions on the readings, elaborating and extending them, and leading activities that make students think about and use the knowledge.” (p. 138).

Helping Students Understand a Text

In the IDEA Center Paper, Hobson (2004) suggests numerous ideas for helping students prepare to read and give meaning to a text:

• Explain the reading’s relevance either by previewing the material in class or explaining it in the syllabus. Consider letting students know the context in which the text was written, who wrote it, why it is considered important, and what impact it has..
• Include time to teach students how to read at the collegiate level. Do not expect new students or even returning students to be able to effectively read, annotate, or mark their texts. For many students, college material presents structure, terminology, prose, concepts, etc. that students have little exposure to.
• Allow class time to read or review the core or required reading. By doing this students are likely to have a deeper understanding of a portion of the text, helping them frame the rest of the reading.

In addition, we should consider the materials we are selecting as "required reading". Students tend to prioritize the amount of work required to succeed in a course, and this often means a large group of texts lumped together as “required reading” will appear to have equivalent weight and/or importance. Rating material by priority level will differentiate the relative importance to students, and will help them complete the reading of the most important materials.

Example Prioritized Reading List - European History: Middle Ages through the Renaissance

Holding Students Accountable for the Reading

Nilson (2003) recommends numerous strategies for holding students accountable for the reading including:

• assigning homework (e.g., responses to the readings turned in on notecards or electronically);
• giving quizzes covering major points in the reading that could be given before class, the results then used as feedback for how to structure the class session;
• asking for in-class written exercises or problem solving questions, often gathered by tools like classroom assessment techniques (e.g., mini essay or summary);
• and having students give oral presentations (e.g., debates, panels, or role plays).

Resources for Assisting Students in Reading Well

• Strategies for Teaching Critical Reading (Peirce, 2006)
• Using Textbooks Effectively and Getting Students to Read Them (Boyd)
  
  

Suggested Resources for Getting Students to Complete the Reading

• Getting students to read: 14 Tips (IDEA Paper 40)
• Just-in-Time Teaching is a teaching technique designed to establish a feedback loop between the Web and the classroom using a student’s prior knowledge as part of the course structure.
  • JiTT Warm-ups (scroll down to "warmups" from Just-in-Time teaching resources page)
• Low-stakes quizzes
  • Quizzes on Blackboard
  • Giving quizzes with Respondus

References

Nilson, L.B. (2003). Teaching at its best: A research-based resource for college instructors. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.