[NLA] A Veteran's Day Message

[Thomas Sticht]

Veteran's Day is less than a month away on November 11, 2002. The article
below was published in the October/November 2002 issue of Reading Today
(RT), the bimonthly newspaper of the International Reading Association
(IRA). RT has a circulation of around 84,000 with an average of 1.9
readers per copy giving an approximate total readership of 159,600.
However, only some 2 percent of IRA members are in adult literacy
education so RT does not carry many stories about adult literacy
education. If you would like to join the IRA and advocate for more
attention to adult literacy education in RT, other publications of the
IRA, and in conventions and meetings of the Association and its numerous
affiliates, you can find membership and other information at
www.reading.org. The IRA is a member of the National Coalition for
Literacy.
Tom Sticht

Celebrating Veteran’s Day, November 11, 2002

The Reading Formula That Helped Win World War II

Thomas G. Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education

During World War II, in what was known as the Army Specialized Training
Program (ASTP), United States colleges were swamped by Army personnel who
were on campus to take courses for hundreds of specialized skills needed
to win the war. The courses these soldiers had to take were accelerated
and highly concentrated, and they placed considerable demands on reading
and mastering the content of difficult technical manuals. Under such
conditions, many men were experiencing reading and learning difficulties.

At the Ohio State University, administrators sought methods that would
help the military personnel on campus meet the challenges of their
accelerated, technical courses. They found help in Professor Francis
Robinson, a member of the psychology department faculty.

Robinson was selected to head a new Learning and Study Skills program that
would teach military personnel to learn better by reading. Following his
psychological research training, Robinson conducted studies of the
students’ reading skills and found that they approached their reading
using unsystematic, haphazard methods that failed to lead to good
comprehension and retention.

After reviewing research and approaches to effective study skills,
Robinson came up with a formula for reading and study that has endured for
60 years. He developed what is called the SQ3R method of reading and
studying. In this method, students are taught to first Survey the text and
to raise Questions about the meaning of what they are reading. Then they
Read the text carefully, stopping now and then to construct and Recite to
themselves summary statements of what they have just read. Later they
Review what they have read.

First tested and proven first in action with those who fought in World War
II, the SQ3R method has found support in research leading to what is known
today as the "active reading strategy," which guides readers to take
actions before they read (as in surveying and questioning), while they
read (as in reciting) and after they read (as in reviewing).

Based on Professor Robinson’s research and development to meet the demands
for trained personnel during World War II, the SQ3R reading strategy has
been in constant use by reading and study skills educators ever since. It
has helped hundreds of thousands of veterans using the GI Bill and
innumerable other adults succeed in their pursuit of high school, college,
and other academic or technical degrees.

As we celebrate Veteran’s Day this November, while we remember and give
thanks to the millions of American men and women who fought to preserve
freedom in World War II, let’s also remember Francis Robinson and the
thousands of other reading educators who contributed to victory through
the power of a force mightier than any weapon – the power of literacy!

Note: This article is a reprint of an article appearing on page 18 of
Reading Today for October/November, 2002. Reading Today is the official
newspaper of the International Reading Association. For additional
information about the invention of the SQ3R method, see the article "How
The SQ3R Came to Be" by Walter Pauk in Advancing the World of Literacy:
Moving Into the 21st Century, the 21st Yearbook of the College Reading
Association (1999).
























_______________________________________________
NLA mailing list: NLA at lists.literacytent.org
http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/listinfo/nla
LiteracyTent: web hosting, news, community and goodies for literacy
http://literacytent.org