Painless Reading Comprehension - Darolyn “Lyn” Jones Ed.D. 2016

The SQ3R method
Different types of reading

Now that you know the rules, how can the rules be applied? Probably the oldest and most well-known way to read a textbook is a system called SQ3R, which was created by Francis Pleasant Robinson in the 1960s. There are different variations of SQ3R. I modified the SQ3R model we will be using from Robinson’s model and used it successfully in my classroom with my students. SQ3R is not a droid! Sorry! SQ3R stands for Survey, Question, Read, Record, and Review.¹⁰

Survey—Similar to skimming, surveying requires that you get a sense for how the chapter is set up prior to reading it. Read the chapter title, the subheadings, the boldfaced words, the introduction, and the summary. Reading the summary first allows you to see where you are headed; it will introduce you to the big ideas that can guide your reading. It’s not like reading the last page of a fiction book or telling the ending to a movie. When I used to teach Beowulf, I told my students that both Grendel and Beowulf would die. They needed to read and find out how and why.

Question—Remember when we talked about questions in the last chapter? Use the question words Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How. Turn the chapter title and subheadings into questions using these words and write those questions down. When you read, you then try to find the answers for the questions you created. Again, this gives you a reason to read.

Read the textbook—Read a section at a time. Take breaks in between if necessary.

Record your notes—While you are reading, use the sticky notes or RADAR method we discussed in Chapter Five, the key word notes from Chapter Four, or simply answer the questions you created for the Question part of SQ3R.

Review your notes—Reread your notes and make sure you understand what you read and write.

Let’s Practice!

Read the following textbook selection. Survey the selection, question the subheadings, read the selection, record your notes, and review your notes.

Art and English Selection: “Artist Faith Ringgold” by Julie Strawhacker

An Introduction to Faith Ringgold

Faith Ringgold has found much success as an artist, including receiving more than seventy-five awards and seventeen honorary doctorates of fine arts, both National Endowment of the Arts and the Guggenheim fellowships, and having her work in the collections of the New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Today, her work appears in a variety of public places as a result of various commissions, some of which include murals that reside in the 125th Street Harlem subway station, a Brooklyn school library, a Women’s House of Detention on Riker’s Island, and Bronx College, and a quilt in the Crown Heights Public Library. However, Ringgold struggled for many years to find acceptance as an artist in the art community.

Faith Ringgold’s Beginnings

Ringgold, who was born on 146th Street in Harlem in 1930, was afflicted with asthma, preventing her from attending school regularly until she was in the second grade. During the many days she spent at home, as a result of her asthma, Ringgold created art with the supplies given to her by her mother. Later, during her senior year in high school, she decided to pursue a career as an artist. She attempted to enroll in the liberal arts program at City University in New York but was informed that, as a woman, her only option was to enroll as a student of education. Ringgold, who came from a family of educators, said the only career you could have as a woman of the South was to be a teacher. Ringgold later graduated from City University in New York with a bachelor’s degree in 1955 and a master’s degree in 1959, both in education, and taught art in the New York City Public Schools from 1955 to 1973. She said that she considered herself an artist who taught what she loved.

Being a Black Female Artist

Along with teaching, Ringgold painted landscapes in her early career. But, she soon found obstacles to establishing herself as a black female artist. Ringgold later made a statement about male power, and how it relates to women in her story quilt, A Picnic at Giverney in which Willia, Ringgold’s alter-ego, sits with a group of clothed feminists in Monet’s Garden with a nude Picasso in the corner. In this ironic reversal of Manet’s Dejeuner sur l’herbe, Ringgold comments on the portrayal of women in art and the power of the male. She says that men always wear those heavy suits as a symbol of power. At the time Ringgold attempted to take her place as an artist in the New York art community of the early 1960s, she realized that opportunities for minority artists were presented to male, rather than to female, artists. Though determined, Ringgold was not able to find support from the black community, whom she considered to be a group of people that had been cut off from its own artistic culture.

In 1964, Ringgold wrote letters to established black artists, Romare Bearden and Hale Woodruff, in an attempt to join a group of twelve black artists, well-known in the Harlem community. This elite group, which included one female student member, was known as the Spiral Group. Ringgold, however, was not invited to join this male dominated group. But, she didn’t give up.

Faith Ringgold: The Activist

In addition to being a black artist and a feminist, Ringgold also became an activist early in her career. In 1959, the year of her graduation from graduate school, she participated in and organized protests and demonstrations against racist policies that were in place in art museums. She made her first contact with other black artists when she joined the Spectrum Gallery in 1966 and participated in the first exhibition of black art there since the 1930s. She also demonstrated in an attempt to persuade the Museum of Modern Art to establish a wing dedicated to Dr. Martin Luther King. The demonstration resulted in the placing of two black people on the board of trustees and the scheduling of two major exhibitions for two male black artists. Ringgold also took part in a demonstration at the Whitney, which resulted in Betye Saar and Barbara Chase-Riboud becoming the first ever black female artists to have their work exhibited there. Today, Ringgold provides fellowship grants to those who study the visual culture of the African American people through her Anyone Can Fly Foundation.

In Summary

Ringgold’s artistic themes dealing with racial and feminist issues and her desire to address social and political problems were not considered to be a part of the mainstream art of the 1960’s and therefore were another roadblock to her gaining recognition as a legitimate artist. The mainstream art of the 1960’s was a cool and detached product, not a vehicle for communicating ideas to viewers. Many artists, both black and white, held this as an ideal way to create. The Social Realist style of Faith Ringgold’s American People Series and other similar works was seen as being out of touch with the artistic trend of the time.

STARTERS

I already know that …

This reminds me of …

ASKING QUESTIONS

I wonder why …?

Why is it that …?

What about …?

What if …?

MAKING CONNECTIONS

That reminds me of what we studied in …

This is similar to … because …

I can relate to that because …

I agree with this because …

I disagree with this because …

Review—Review your notes

How did you do? This isn’t an easy piece to read. A student model using SQ3R for the Ringgold reading follows. I asked this student to write down the section titles and the main ideas she read in the summary.

Survey

An Introduction to Faith Ringgold, Faith Ringgold’s Beginnings, Being a Black Female Artist, Faith Ringgold: The Activist, and In Summary. The summary tells me that she is going to talk about race, being a woman, and being an artist.

Question

Who is Faith Ringgold? What were Faith Ringgold’s beginnings like? Where did she live and work? What is it like to be a black female artist? When was she a black female artist? Why was she an activist? How was she an activist?

Read

I read the selection.

Record

Under each passage below, I put the following sticky notes.

Faith Ringgold has found much success as an artist, including receiving more than seventy-five awards and seventeen honorary doctorates of fine arts.

I know she must be a good artist and very smart to have won all those awards.

However, Ringgold struggled for many years to find acceptance as an artist in the art community.

I wonder why it was so hard for her to become an artist.

She says that men always wear those heavy suits as a symbol of power.

This reminds me of my dad. He calls his business suit the power suit.

Ringgold also took part in a demonstration at the Whitney …

I disagree with protesting if it is violent. As long as it’s peaceful like what Martin Luther King did, then it’s okay.

Ringgold, however, was not invited to join this male dominated group. But, she didn’t give up.

This reminds me of Harriet Tubman, who also never gave up.