September 2021 - Skim reading is the new normal

Hi @Stephanie I agree 'click bait' is certainly a contributor to this problem. I would like to think that an inquiry that students are interested in may help teach students to read more deeply. Investing themselves into the process could help I feel. Teachers need to work with inquiry for this to work though. Otherwise we get students who are happy to regurgitate the information they need for exams and also continue to live in an online bubble. This for me is the truly scary part of all of this as it leads to students who can't think for themselves or voice an opinion based on facts.

I do think information these days is often presented in bite-size chunks with attention-grabbing headlines, particularly online. I wonder if this is a reflection of how much information is available online. So much that it's necessary to do 'click bait' style headlines simply to try to stand out from the ground.

But I can also see that that can be detrimental to reading longer and more deeply. That sort of thing does not encourage reading stamina, which can only be built up over time by reading more and for longer. Then when they do have to read something meatier, people find it hard because they're not used to it.

In terms of changing it, I think the only way would be to encourage students to read a variety of material. Yes, they're going to read the short soundbites online, but encourage them to read longer articles and books, in print as well as digital. Build that reading stamina up. Make sure those neurons are wired up in their brains. It sounds very much like a use it or lose it scenario based on the article.

This article was written 3 years ago. Do you think our understanding of reading within a digital environment has changed much since then? I personally believe that students read headlines more than ever, don’t read as deeply as they used to and are taught to regurgitate information rather than learn how to read and explain it. How can we change this within the classes we teach?