Teaching Critical Reading Skills Volume 2: Strategies for Academic Librarians

Teaching Critical Reading Skills: Strategies for Academic Librarians collects the experiences and approaches of librarians who teach reading. In two volumes, librarians share their role in teaching reading—using pedagogical theories and techniques in new and interesting ways, making implicit reading knowledge, skills, and techniques explicit to students, presenting reading as a communal activity, partnering with other campus stakeholders, and leading campus conversations about critical reading. These volumes provide ready-made activities you can add or adapt to your teaching practice. The five sections are arranged by theme:
 
Volume 1

• Part I: Reading in the Disciplines
• Part II: Reading for Specific Populations

 
Volume 2

• Part III: Reading Beyond Scholarly Texts
• Part IV: Reading to Evaluate
• Part V: Reading in the World

 
Each of the 45 chapters contains teaching and programmatic strategies, resources, and lesson plans, as well as a section titled “Critical Reading Connection” that highlights each author’s approach for engaging with the purpose of reading critically and advancing the conversation about how librarians can foster this skill.
 
Academic librarians and archivists have a long history of engaging with different types of literacy and acting as a bridge between faculty and students. We understand the different reading needs of specific student populations and the affective challenges with reading that are often shared across learner audiences. We know what types of sources are read, the histories—and needed changes—of how authority has been granted in various fields, how students may be expected to apply what they read in future professional or civic settings, and frequently look beyond our local institutions to think about the larger structural and social justice implications of what is read, how we read, and who does the reading.
 
These volumes can help you make the implicit explicit for learners and teach that reading is both a skill that must be practiced and nurtured and a communal act. Teaching Critical Reading Skills demonstrates librarians’ and archivists’ deep connections to our campus communities and how critical reading instruction can be integrated in a variety of contexts within those communities.

Hannah Gascho Rempel (she/her/hers) is the Research and Learning department head and College of Agricultural Sciences liaison librarian at Oregon State University. She teaches classes for Honors College students on learning through play and a graduate-level class on responsible conduct of research. She has previously co-authored two books: Creating Online Tutorials: A Practical Guide and Understanding Student Development: A Practical Guide. She has also authored or co-authored over twenty-five articles and book chapters in the field of librarianship on areas such as graduate student needs in the library, fostering curiosity, and technology uses in the library. She is active in the Science and Technology Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries. Hannah receives support and inspiration from her spouse, Marc, two children, and sometimes from the cats.
 
Rachel Hamelers (she/her/hers) serves as the teaching and learning librarian and the math and science subject specialist at Muhlenberg College, Trexler Library in Allentown, PA. She teaches classes based on science communication in the Media and Communication department and the Public Health program at Muhlenberg College. Rachel received her undergraduate degree from Texas A&M University and her graduate degree from the City University of New York, Queens College. Rachel’s research interests include science communication, especially in relation to HIV and AIDS, information literacy instruction, and critical reading instruction in the sciences. She is active in the Science and Technology Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries. Rachel has an amazing partner, Mike, two awesome daughters, Lainie and Ellie, and four fun and very dog-like cats.