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LEARNING FROM TEXTBOOKS 195to become more actively involved in your reading assignments. Can
you identify the learning aids provided in this textbook?- Survey the Assignment Before Each Reading Session. Before you go on
a trip, you usually spend time planning where you are going, how
long you will be there, where you are going to stay, and how you will
get to each location. Effective planning increases the probability of a
satisfying vacation.
Planning before reading also can help you achieve satisfying results,
because it forces you to make decisions about how to deal with the
assigned material. Before you begin reading a chapter, survey the table
of contents and read the major headings. Then read the chapter sum-
mary and any questions posed by the author. This surveying will help
you identify some of the main ideas, topics, or issues of the chapter
before you begin reading.
When you first preview a textbook, look for learning aids. When
you survey a chapter before reading, you are preparing to make some
decisions. Surveying is analogous to viewing the coming attractions
for a film. The film preview gives the viewer an idea of the type of
movie he or she will view in terms of the plot and characters. It pre-
pares an individual for the viewing of the movie. Surveying a reading
assignment not only provides insights for what you will learn, but it
also helps you evaluate the difficulty of the material. This evaluation
helps you determine whether you should read the entire chapter at
one time or divide the reading into several sessions. - Read Questions That Are Provided at the Beginning or End of Each Chapter,
in Accompanying Study Guides, or Provided by Your Instructors. These ques-
tions provide important guidelines for what you are expected to learn
in the chapter. By reading questions before you begin reading the
chapter, you have a better idea of what to focus on.
During Reading- As You Begin Reading, Think of the Text as a Conversation Between the Author
and Yourself. Ask the following questions: What is the author trying
to tell me? Which sentences state the main idea? How do these ideas
relate to other points of view on the issue? - Turn the Headings in Your Textbook into Questions and Answer Them. Write
questions in the margin of a textbook if there are no headings, or
between the headings if there are long sections of text.
There are two broad levels of questions: lower level and higher
level. Lower-level questions tend to focus on factual information and
ask you to retrieve information that was previously presented. They