A Writer's Guide to Mindful Reading
Carillo provides expert guidance in a clear and accessible way about how important it is to navigate reading tasks through a series of purposeful choices. She demystifies the fact that reading different kinds of texts require dramatically different strategies to navigate, and she makes these ways of reading explicit. I particularly appreciate her focus on how developing mindful approaches to reading can have actionable impact on becoming a stronger writer.
At first, being mindful may seem unnatural and even tedious at times. You may wonder, “Why can’t I JUST read without doing all of this extra work?” Here’s why: Research shows that in order to transfer—or apply—what is learned in one course to another, students need to actively think about—or reflect on—what they have learned. In other words, they need to be mindful. If students simply go through the motions and complete assignments and readings without any awareness of them and their uses beyond the present class, students are not likely to draw on those earlier educational experiences when faced with similar experiences later in their academic careers and beyond.