In layered reading, your learners will quickly read the text at least five times.

 

1- Overview

2- Preview

3- Read

4- Postview

5- Review

 

This gives learners multiple exposure to the text, without taking up too much time.  In order to be most effective, learners will want to understand the basic shape and structure or the text--meaning they will create a mental outline. This allows learners to see the main idea and the connection between it and the supporting ideas. 

 

Step One: Overview

In this step learners quickly skim the text. They are looking at organization, structure and tone. These things will help them create the "big picture" or main idea of the text.  As they skim, pay attention to text features like the introduction and conclusion, heading and subheadings, visuals and graphics, bolded vocabulary words, text length and difficulty, any questions posed by the author, etc. Keep in mind that they are literally flipping through the text spending only about 2 seconds on each page. After overviewing they should understand about 10 to 20% of the key concepts/ideas and have a basic mental outline of the text. These will help learners to establish their goals and purpose and more easily find information.  

 

Step Two: Preview

In this step learners are also skimming quickly. However, the main difference is that they are now looking each section a little closer.  They need to look for key concepts and facts (which will most likely be in the introduction and summary). They also are adding to their mental outline, seeing if the sections follow a logical order. Paying attention to headings, bold words, and other highlighted materials will help them further organize and identify the key concepts. One way to think about overviewing versus previewing is that an overview is like a mental check: does the text have these features, and what is the main idea? A preview on the other hand creates the mental map of the key ideas. When learners preview they are still reading fast, spending about 4 seconds per page, but by the end they should understand about 40% of the key ideas and can easily describe the text's basic pattern of organization.

 

Step Three: Read

For this step your learners are not skimming or scanning, but reading at a comfortable pace. Because they already know the basic organization as well as the main and key ideas they are better able to predict and synthesize the information. As learners read, they should take notes and even mark/highlight the text. Keeping these notes simple, like a question mark for a section they don't understand, or a line connecting two ideas, writing a few key words for each paragraph to remind them the main idea will help them stay focused. Teach them to keep notes simple and avoid underlining. These notations--or marks--will help learners as they review or study the text later on.  Some learners like to create an outline during the preview section and then fill in details as they read.  Doing these simple things will help them stay focused and motivated. The amount of time they spend on each page will depend on their reading rate, but it should be a comfortable pace. If they find themselves falling asleep, read faster. If they are not remembering, they should read a smaller section-like a paragraph and review what they remember. After reading they should understand at least 80% of the text including the main ideas, themes, supporting details, and overall pattern.  Keep in mind that often, even when reading to learn or integrate, leaners do not need to understand 100%.   

 

Step Four: Postview

Right after they finish their comfortable read, leaners should quickly skim the material again. As they read, think about the relationships of each part/section to the main idea. This is also a good time to edit their notes and check the organization. This will help solidify the information and allow them to check their understanding and remember more. When doing the postview read, they should spend less than 4 seconds on each page. 



Step Five: Review

Allow sometime before learners review their notes and outline. Often times they will want to review right before class a quiz or a test. This is especially true if they are reading a textbook for a midterm or exam. Each week they may read a new chapter. learners will want to review all the chapters the week of the test. Periodically reviewing their notes throughout the semester will help keep the information fresh in their mind.



Note: Learners can and should make adjustments to these steps as they read. For example, if they are reading for an exam they will want to do all the steps and spend enough time on each. However, if they are reading an article for background on the topic, they probably will spend less time previewing, and spend the majority of their time reading. For more information about layered reading see pages 65 to 77 in Frank's (1990) book Remember Everything You Read:The Evelyn 7-day speed reading & learning program.