You Can’t Outsource Sense-Making: High Impact Approaches to College Reading

In a rapidly evolving world of digital media and generative AI, how can college educators help students make sense of complex texts and navigate an overwhelming information landscape as thoughtful, empowered citizens? This webinar shares insights from Breakthroughs in College Reading: The Promises and Tensions of Disciplinary Reading Apprenticeships, highlighting the transformative impact of a long-term, cross-disciplinary community of practice that enhances both educator and student learning through a focus on disciplinary literacy.

The authors found that supporting students to engage productively with college texts involves recognizing reading as a problem-solving process, helping students take responsibility for the intellectual work in their courses, and fostering strong classroom communities that bridge students' existing knowledge to new academic identities. Examples from community college and university classrooms in fields such as science, math, history, psychology, and ESL provide both pragmatic and inspiring snapshots, showcasing the broad relevance of disciplinary reading strategies across all areas of study.

Whether you teach in the humanities, social sciences, or STEM, this webinar offers practical tools and innovative approaches to help students become independent, critical readers who confidently navigate complex information. Faculty will leave with actionable strategies to foster deeper learning and greater student agency in their classrooms.

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Analyze how disciplinary reading strategies can help students navigate complex texts across various academic fields, and identify potential applications in their own teaching practice.
• Identify practical strategies for creating classroom environments that support students in connecting their existing knowledge to new academic contexts, promoting deeper learning and academic confidence.
• Create a plan to introduce metacognitive conversations with disciplinary texts to enhance student learning and sense of belonging.

Note: For NISOD members, webinars are free. For non-members, webinars must be paid for upon registering.

Learners will have the option to earn a certificate of attendance or a certificate with Continuing Education Units (CEU) upon completion of the webinar. To earn a certificate with CEUs, the learner must successfully pass the learning assessment with a score of 80% or higher. All learners must complete the post-event evaluation to earn credentials. 

The duration of this webinar is one hour, which is equal to 0.1 Continuing Education Units (CEUs).