Reading Your Textbook

Being an excellent reader is a skill that can be practiced and developed. If you save your reading assignments for last, you’re bound to run into difficulty. Don’t be a passive reader. When you read for information, read with a pen in hand.

Here are some strategies to help you develop your reading skills.

Most textbook chapters begin with an introduction, often a story. Do read the opening story: it will get you "hooked" into reading the chapter.

Skim First

1. Write the chapter number, dates, and a brief form of the title on the top line of your paper.
2. Read chapter subtitles under the chapter so that you know the major subjects to be covered.
3. Peruse (browse) the chapter without writing anything down. Notice subheadings, pictures, maps, and other illustrations so that you can get a sense of the "story" to be told in the chapter.

Use the bold subtitles to organize your notes, but shorten them. Pause to remember anything you might have already learned about the subject.

Then Read Carefully

1. Read only one section at a time, "Bold to Bold." In your mind, translate the bold subtitle into a question. After you have read the section, THINK about it. What two or three points explain the subheading? After you have decided, write them in your own words. By "retelling" the story, you are actually learning it. By learning to "translate" what another person writes or says, you are actually devising your own note taking language. You are also learning to organize ideas by figuring out the author’s outline of the book. These skills will help you in your own writing as well as your reading. You do not need to write down details or ideas that you already know or can easily remember. Use phrases to answer the questions posed by the subtitle, and specifically answering "Who? What? Where? And Why?" Most of the time, you do not need to record the date.
2. When you encounter italicized or bold words, be sure you understand the meaning of the word and why it was significant. After you record the word and its meaning, you might want to include examples, as explained in the book.

Always look for CAUSE and EFFECT. In other words, try to understand why an event occurred, and what the results were.

Think After You Read

1. After you have finished a section and/or a chapter, review your notes while glancing at the textbook to see if you have grasped the big picture. See how the maps, graphs, and illustrations reinforce what you have learned.
2. Abbreviate as frequently as you can, as long as you can understand what you have written.
3. Be sure to record all "superlatives" (first, best, least, greatest, largest, etc.) and any other "startling statistics."
4. Throughout your reading, keep in mind significance, the "so what?" of history.

Don’t use your textbook as a bedtime story. Read actively and learn more.

Student Model

Click here to see a student model of reading notes from a textbook.