Efferent reading

Is the text established primarily to help readers gain

information with as little reading possible, or is the site
established in order to create an aesthetic
experience? Efferent reading: reading to take away
particular bits of information.

Reading to learn
Reading to Learn or R2L is a set of strategies that enable teachers to
support all the students in their classes to read and write at the levels
they need to succeed. The strategies vary according to the needs of
students, their year levels, the subject area, and the kinds of texts they
are expected to read and write. But the aim is for all students to be
reading and writing at the levels they need to succeed in their grade
and subject areas.

Early Years
In the first year of school, the strategies support all children to become
independent readers and to write successful texts. They use the
illustrated story books that teachers read with their classes, to teach
all the skills involved in reading and writing, such as comprehension,
word recognition, spelling, letter formation, sentence construction and
story writing. Because these skills are learnt in the meaningful,
engaging context of shared reading books, children can acquire them
much faster than through traditional early years activities such as
alphabet, phonics and sight word drills. Early years strategies are
described in the Reading to Learn Teacher Resource Book 6.

Primary School
In the primary school, the strategies support all children to engage in
reading and writing stories for pleasure, to learn from reading and
writing factual texts, and to evaluate texts, issues and points of view in
their reading and writing. They use texts in the subject areas that the
class is studying, to teach skills in reading and writing, at the same

time as learning the content of each subject area. They support all
students to read and write texts at the same high level, rather then
giving them texts at different ability levels. In this way they ensure
that all students are ready to succeed in secondary school.

Secondary school
In the secondary school, the strategies support all students to learn the
content of each curriculum area through reading and writing. They use
the texts that students are expected to read in each subject area, to
guide them to learn through reading, and to demonstrate what they
learnt through writing. They enable teachers to balance the curriculum
demands for covering the content, with teaching the skills that
students need to independently learn the curriculum from reading and
writing. They are designed to ensure that all students are well prepared
for further education after school. Primary and secondary school
strategies are described in the Teacher Resource Package Books 1, 2, 5
and 9.

Further Education
In further education, including university and vocational education, the
strategies are designed to embed skills in reading and writing in
teaching and learning the curriculum content. They enable tertiary
teachers to support all students in their classes to read academic texts
with comprehension, and to use the information they learn from
reading to write successful texts for assessment.

Types of informational materials and their

sources
Magazine

A magazine is a collection of articles and images about diverse topics of

popular interest and current events. Usually these articles are written by
journalists or scholars and are geared toward the average adult.
Magazines may cover very "serious" material, but to find consistent
scholarly information, you should use journals.

Use

to find information or opinions about popular culture

to find up-to-date information about current events
to find general articles for people who are not necessarily specialists
about the topic

Journal
A journal is a collection of articles usually written by scholars in an
academic or professional field. An editorial board reviews articles to

journals can
cover very specific topics or narrow fields of
research.
decide whether they should be accepted. Articles in

Use

when doing scholarly research

to find out what has been studied on your topic
to find bibliographies that point to other relevant research

Data Base
A database contains citations of articles in magazines, journals, and
newspapers. They may also contain citations to podcasts, blogs, videos,
and other media types. Some databases contain abstracts or brief
summaries of the articles, while other databases contain complete, fulltext articles.

Use

when you want to find articles on your topic in magazines, journals

or newspapers

Newspaper
A newspaper is a collection of articles about current events usually
published daily. Since there is at least one in every city, it is a great
source for local information.

Use

to find current information about international, national and local

events

to find editorials, commentaries, expert or popular opinions

Library catalog
A library catalog is an organized and searchable collection of records of
every item in a library and can be found on the library home page. The
catalog will point you to the location of a particular source, or group of
sources, that the library owns on your topic.

Use

to find out what items the library owns on your topic

to find where a specific item is located in the library

Books
Books cover virtually any topic, fact or fiction. For research purposes, you
will probably be looking for books that synthesize all the information on
one topic to support a particular argument or thesis.
Libraries organize and store their book collections on shelves called
"stacks."

Use

when looking for lots of information on a topic

to put your topic in context with other important issues
to find historical information
to find summaries of research to support an argument

Encyclopedias
Encyclopedias are collections of short, factual entries often written by
different contributors who are knowledgeable about the topic.
There are two types of encyclopedias: general and subject. General
encyclopedias provide concise overviews on a wide variety of topics.
Subject encyclopedias contain in-depth entries focusing on one field of
study.

Use

when looking for background information on a topic

when trying to find key ideas, important dates or concepts

Web site
The Web allows you to access most types of information on the Internet
through a browser. One of the main features of the Web is the ability to
quickly link to other related information. The Web contains information
beyond plain text, including sounds, images, and video.
The important thing to do when using information on the Internet is to
know how to evaluate it!

Use

to find current information

to find information about companies
to find information from all levels of government - federal to local

to find both expert and popular opinions

to find information about hobbies and personal interests

Aesthetic reading
Reading to explore the work and oneself. Here, readers are engaged in the
experience of reading, itself. Rosenblatt states, In aesthetic reading, the readers
attention is centered directly on what he is living through during his relationship
with that particular text. [110, p. 25 ] An example would be reading Hemingways
Old Man and The Sea to live through a deep sea fishing adventure, or the Grapes of
Wrath to plumb the emotional depths of living through the Great Depression. One
would not read the Old Man and The Sea to learn how to deep sea fish, nor the
Grapes of Wrath to examine the economic factors that caused the Great Depression.