SQ3R is a reading strategy formed from its letters:
Survey! Question! Read! Recite! Review!
SQ3R will help your students build a framework to understand their reading assignment.
Before you read, Survey the chapter:
- the title, headings, and subheadings
- captions under pictures, charts, graphs or maps
- review questions or teacher-made study guides
- introductory and concluding paragraphs
- summary
Question while you are surveying:
- Turn the title, headings, and/or subheadings into questions
- Read questions at the end of the chapters or after each subheading
- Ask yourself,
"What did my instructor say about this chapter or subject
when it was assigned?" - Ask yourself,
"What do I already know about this subject?"
When you begin to Read:
- Look for answers to the questions you first raised
- Answer questions at the beginning or end of chapters or study guides
- Reread captions under pictures, graphs, etc.
- Note all the underlined, italicized, bold printed words or phrases
- Study graphic aids
- Reduce your speed for difficult passages
- Stop and reread parts which are not clear
- Read only a section at a time and recite after each section
Recite after you've read a section:
- Orally ask yourself questions about what you have just read, or summarize, in your own words, what you read
- Take notes from the text but write the information in your own words
- Underline or highlight important points you've just read
- Reciting:
The more senses you use the more likely you are to remember what you read Triple strength learning: Seeing, saying, hearing
Quadruple strength learning: Seeing , saying , hearing, writing!!!
Review: an ongoing process
- After you have read and recited the entire chapter,
write questions in the margins for those points
you have highlighted or underlined. - If you took notes while reciting,
write questions for the notes you have taken
in the left hand margins of your notebook. - Page through the text and/or your notebook to re-acquaint yourself
with the important points. - Make additional flash cards if necessary.
