Teaching Critical Reading Skills: Strategies for Academic Librarians

Rempel (research and learning department head, Oregon State Univ.; coauthor, Creating Online Tutorials: A Practical Guide) and Hamelers (teaching and learning librarian, Muhlenberg Coll.) offer an indispensable compendium for academic librarians engaged in creating and providing instructional services. This two-volume set moves information-literacy instruction beyond the teaching of search strategies into the teaching of critical-reading strategies that focus on how to use information effectively. As defined here, “critical reading” comprises both careful reading in academic disciplines and communal reading for social engagement with the world. Volume one features discipline-focused lessons and lessons designed for specific user groups, such as transfer or graduate students. Volume two offers chapters on reading evaluation and reading beyond scholarly texts into the world. Entries in both books include background information about where and how each lesson was developed, deep descriptions of the activities involved, specific teaching strategies used, discussions of what worked best, and explanations of how the lesson connects to critical reading. Embedded in many chapters are further discussions of topics such as presentism, empathy awareness, contextualization, and multi-modality.