Needless to say, the amount of reading required in each class the students took in the fall varied considerably, and so did the participants’ reading practices. Their reading experiences in college are presented in the next subsections, followed by the instructors’ perspectives and expectations regarding reading in their courses.
5.3.1 Generation 1.5 Students
Despite their dislike for reading and the challenges they faced reading in English when growing up, the generation 1.5 students in the study – in particular Jacob, Joy, and Rachel – had developed a few reading strategies for their classes according to their individual learning styles and needs. Further, although completely fluent in English, these students brought up sometimes needing to look up the meaning of words they were not familiar with, and again their reading speed seemed to be a factor in how they handled the readings for their classes. The quotes below illustrate their general approaches to reading during their first semester of college.
I do look up words if I if I don’t know […] sometimes I will just skim through but uh I sometimes, I will just, I try to read every word and look it up if I don’t know it. (Ian, Interview 2)
Sometimes I try to like skim over it but then in the end I might have to even go back and read it again. […] actually here and there I’m starting to skip now like I’m trying I’m getting faster, like, I’m trying to skip the words here and there (uhum) which… it’s getting better but still not where I want it. (Jacob, Interview 2)
I just look at it and then I try to see like for a little bit make sense to me and then I just use dictionary if I don’t know that word and then, then like if they use how you say the things that like, expression? (uhum) Cause like sometimes in English I don’t know what that means, right? (Uhum, Right) so I just ask my friend like what does this mean or something like that. (Joy, Interview 2)
I usually just read the whole thing I mean like if it’s bolded or highlighted I’ll be like I’ll read it again[…]. But other than that I just usually read the whole thing, like I don’t take notes or anything unless I have to. […] I usually Google it [a word she does not know the meaning] cause I mean I always have my laptop open with me and then I just usually like just Google like the definition or what it means or whatever. (Rachel, Interview 2)
With respect to their individual classes, the four students’ reading practices and strategies appear to have been determined by how much they perceived they needed to read for each course. Their reading experiences in the specific courses are presented next and are organized according to the colleges the courses belonged to.
5.3.1.1 Liberal Arts
For their EH101 class, the generation 1.5 students claimed to do most of the readings since they had required reading responses in both sections in which they were enrolled. Joy and Jacob were in the same class while Rachel and Ian were in another section of EH101, and these courses were taught by two different composition instructors. The following are excerpts from the interviews when the students discussed their EH101 readings.
Ms. [name] makes us do discussion questions, which we have to read and they are called ‘Everything is an Argument’. So that’s pretty much every other day that we have to do, we have to work on homework, so we have to read and read the questions about the chapter and answer certain questions, so that’s a lot of reading. (Ian, Interview 1)
The reading I mean for English like for that class when you have to read you have to read cause like you are gonna talk about it the next day. (Jacob, Interview 2)
The only class I had like reading assignment was English so it’s like and because it’s just an article and I have to read it like analyze what they talking about. (Joy, Interview 2) I usually read the who, I mean it’s not a lot to read so I usually just read everything and then cause I know a lot of people they read the questions and then they just like skim through the article like I can’t do that cause I usually like have to remember where I saw it so I usually read the whole thing and then I answer the questions. (Rachel, Interview 3) They further added that the readings for EH101 were not that difficult and did not seem to struggle with the course (“I feel like the questions is really like, the questions are all yes, so it’s really easy to answer.” Ian, Interview 1;“They [the readings] are easy.” Jacob, Interview 1; “That’s [the readings] not that bad.” Joy, Interview 2; “English is it’s, it’s pretty easy cause it’s just like write, we read an article from the book or like we read what we are supposed to read
like the chapters and everything, so it’s pretty simple.” Rachel, Interview 2). Joy and A+ in the course, Jacob and Rachel made As, and Ian made a B+.
Ian was the generation 1.5 student who read the least for all classes, including EH101 where he did enough of the readings to write the response questions but did not seem to closely read the chapters assigned nor do readings for which he was not held accountable. Specifically, during the classroom observations of the EH101 class, I noticed that Ian did not participate in the reading discussions that the instructor facilitated with the whole class nor did he contribute much to group discussions of the readings. In addition, his composition instructor mentioned in our last interview that she had noticed that his reading responses were not as developed as Rachel’s and that he seemed to have read certain sections of the readings just to answer the questions. As she put it,
Rachel is obviously a really great student, like I think based on her discussion question answers, she was obviously reading all of the articles reading them very closely thinking about them very critically [...] Ian was not, you know, he was definitely one of those who was kind of giving very short discussion question answers and clearly probably not reading them in great detail. (EH101S Instructor, Interview 2)
Ian also confessed around midterm that sometimes he simply “assume[d] and “just guess[ed]” some of the answers to the reading response questions (Ian, Interview 2). While such strategy might not be commendable or recommended, it seems to have worked well for Ian who earned the completion credit for doing the reading responses.
Joy was the only other generation 1.5 student enrolled in another humanities course, Spanish I (FL101S). She explained that they used a textbook for the course, but because it was “basic Spanish”, there was not much reading involved in the class other than sentences and paragraphs (“like it’s not gonna be like two pages of reading, it’s just like one paragraph of reading, basic stuff.” Joy, Interview 2). The Spanish exams and homework she shared with me
consisted mainly of fill in the blanks and exercises with single-sentence questions and answers. Reading comprehension tasks were minimal and asked for content information about one or two paragraphs with five to eight very simple sentences. Joy added that Spanish was one of the easiest courses she took in the fall since she had already taken it in high school. She also
believed that her being fluent in two other languages contributed to her success in the course. In her words, “you know, like, when people know two language already, yeah then the third one become easy to them, you know? (I agree), you know, yeah so that’s why” (Joy, Interview 3). She made an A in the class and planned to take other Spanish courses throughout her college years as she hoped to become fluent in the language.
Rachel was enrolled in a course in the social sciences, Introduction to Sociology (SOC100), and she described the amount of reading required in SOC100 as “extensive”, i.e., “20-30 pages for each class” (Rachel, Interview 1). She said she coped with it by reading the assigned chapters every evening after class and focusing on the various concepts and key terms presented in class. She also read the copious notes she took in class before the exams. During my classroom observation of the class, Rachel – as well as most students in the classroom – took notes the entire class period, and she brought a completely filled notebook for SOC100 to our last interview. I also noted that the professor’s PowerPoint slides contained a lot of text, with definitions of concepts and examples, and he gave the students a few minutes to copy the
material before moving from slide to slide. The professor also presented lots of graphs and charts from research articles in the field that he pointed out to the students were not included in the textbook.
Rachel further explained that because the professor did not post his slides online and handed out a study guide with just key terms but without definitions, attending class and doing
the readings were imperative. In her words, “you have to read the book and then, you know, like read his lectures again [i.e., notes from class] and then, you know, like listen to his lectures and everything” (Rachel, Interview 3). In addition to reading the sociology textbook and notes, Rachel had to select and read a book from a list of four books the professor provided and write a book review by the end of the semester. She chose a book on “hooking up on campus”, which she believed was “the most interesting book” among the options she had (Rachel, Interview 2). She said she had purchased the book in the beginning of October but did not finish reading it until close to the due date because she did not like to read. She also shared that the book was not what she expected and was critical of it, as seen below.
It wasn’t as good as I thought cause like all the other ones I thought maybe a little boring and then this one was like I chose hooking up (right) and then I thought it was gonna be like um more interesting, but then I thought it was like really biased and everything cause she only like interviewed the people that supported her claim so I was like, you know, like you should’ve like interviewed someone like [from] the opposite side. (Rachel, Interview 3)
Rachel affirmed to have read the book in its entirety and gone back to it several times while writing the book review in order to include references and in-text citations in her review (“’Cause like we have to have references from the book so like for each one you have to like cite it, in-text citations and everything so I have to like reference the book so I have to go back to the book.” Rachel, Interview 3). More details about her writing experiences with the book review are offered in Chapter 6. She earned an A in this sociology class.
5.3.1.2 Business School
Ian was the only generation 1.5 student enrolled in a course from the Business School, Principles of Macroeconomics (ECN142). Unlike Rachel’s experiences in sociology, Ian explained that he did not have the textbook for the macroeconomics class because it was not required and that the lectures and exams did not come from it. As he put it, “Macroeconomics I
don’t have the book because, um, my professor really doesn’t give out tests or quizzes based on the book, it’s really him, so I don’t have the book” (Ian, Interview 1). When I asked him if the professor covered the textbook material in class, he said: “I heard that it doesn’t relate to the book, but it’s really, I really don’t know how he gets his stuff from” (Ian, Interview 1). Later on in the semester, he asserted that he really did not think the textbook was necessary and added “you are perfectly fine without the textbook” (Ian, Interview 2). In fact, the course syllabus stated that, although helpful, the book was indeed optional as the following excerpt shows.
The textbook for this course is [title of the book]. This book is optional and as such it is only a supplement to class, not a substitute for class. We will not intentionally follow the book nor rely on it for questions or answers. It is, however, a useful supplement and most of the topics discussed in class are in the book. So, you can use the book to help your understanding of the classroom material. (ECN142 Syllabus)
As indicated in the quote above, although Ian did not seem aware of this, the material covered in class was also found in the textbook. In the interview with the ECN142 professor, he explained: “Everything I cover in class is in the textbook, but I don’t make my lectures from the book. They could use another textbook and still get the material” because the course main objectives were to address economic principles and concepts “about how to think about the world, not a list of topics” (ECN142 Instructor, Interview). Ian claimed that he took notes in the macroeconomics class and read them when studying, but he did not take any notes during my classroom observation, and his struggles with the course throughout the semester appear to indicate that he did not often engage in this practice (e.g., “That’s [macroeconomics] actually it’s really hard and I I really feel lost, it’s really confusing, cause you can’t actually memorize, you have to like understand and that for that part it’s really hard to understand cause, he moves very fast, he doesn’t like stop and goes over everything just moves really fast.” Ian, Interview 1). The professor did not use PowerPoint slides during my classroom observation, and his notes on the
white board consisted of graphs and equations. There were no definitions of key terms or any other form of writing provided, and his explanations of the different economic models provided were oral. Towards the end of the semester, Ian began to read study guides he got from PASS leaders and classmates, which he claimed helped him do well on the last exams and ultimately pass the course, albeit with a C.
5.3.1.3 Science
As expected, the generation 1.5 students claimed that the science courses they were enrolled in (i.e., biology and chemistry) as well as the math classes did not require as much reading as EH101 and sociology, described above. Ian, Joy, and Rachel were in the same section of BIO119, and their approach to reading in the class was generally similar even though their experiences and attitude towards the subject were somewhat different. Rachel had taken AP biology classes in high school and felt prepared for BIO119 while Joy and Ian were a little more concerned about the course because they did not like science (“I hate biology; it’s just a lot of memorizing. I hate science.” Ian, Interview 3; “’cause I’m pretty bad at science.” Joy, Interview 1).
The three students explained that their BIO119 professor covered the textbook material on her PowerPoint slides and study guides, which she posted online. The PowerPoint slides the instructor used during my classroom observation had quite a bit of text, including definitions and examples. There were also illustrations and graphs with written explanations. The students said they primarily read these resources, skimming the textbook at times. Joy’s interview excerpts below summarize their approaches well.
Um, in biology, I don’t really read the textbook, so I just study from the slides that she gives and the study guide, pretty much, I just use resources from the internet instead of textbook. (Joy, Interview 1).
I skimmed the book so like I didn’t read everything I just like skim, skim, and then try to go to the end of the chapter and do the exercise, that’s it and then most of the, um, most of the, things I got I study from her slide and study guide. (Joy, Interview 2)
The biology lab required a lab manual with exercises, which the students had to complete as part of their assignments. The lab class was worth 25% of the grade for BIO119, but passing the biology course was contingent upon passing lab as well. Joy and Rachel were lab partners throughout the semester and studied together for lab, “skimming and scanning” the manual and working on questions and lab reports together (Joy, Interview 2). They both complained about the lab teacher, a TA, quite frequently and said that because she was not very helpful, they had to rely on the manual to learn the material. In Rachel’s words, “we have quizzes and everything so we actually have to study the lab manual but other than that, I mean, we just learn from the manual we didn’t really like we don’t learn anything from her” (Rachel, Interview 2). Ian did not discuss his biology lab very often but mentioned that he did not do as well in it as he did in the biology lecture. These three students earned As in BIO119.
Jacob took chemistry (CH121) in the fall and faced some challenges in class due to a lower grade in the first exam as discussed in his profile in Chapter 4. He said that there was not much reading involved in the course other than the slides the professor posted online, and he used the textbook to do exercises at the end of the chapters. The PowerPoint slides the professor used during my classroom observation presented several definitions, concepts, notations as well as figures and charts. She also played videos in class related to the concepts from the slides and solved several equations on the board. Because of his low performance on the first test, Jacob explained that he felt that he had to do extra homework from the textbook to be better prepared, but this included solving problems and not necessarily reading the chapters. However, he also pointed out that understanding exactly what the questions asked was paramount to doing well on
the tests and ultimately in the course. After not carefully reading the questions on the first test, he began to pay closer attention to them and working all the exercises in the textbook in order to be