Teaching and Encouraging Meaningful Reading of Mathematics Texts

Our explicit goals are two-fold: we wish our students to read the text book before attempting homework problems, and further to read the book actively, 'with pencil in hand'. We expect several benefits to derive from such an emphasis. In the short term we hope to make more effective use of class time. We can spend less time in class on basic definitions, freeing up time for a more profound discussion of topics. We are also able to cover more material at a deeper level. In the long term we want to develop proficiency in our students at reading hard, technical material, and in fact lead them to become independent learners. We take this latter goal especially seriously for our pre-service elementary and secondary school teachers. In this paper, we describe specific varied attempts we have individually made to encourage active reading, and finally discuss our impressions of the results of each.