The University of Arizona

Faculty Corner: Lesson 6 - Reading Textbooks

Content/Organization/Overview

This lesson discusses two strategies that will assist students in getting more from their textbook. Previewing is a component of many reading strategies, including SQ4R, and allows students brief exposure to new reading material in hopes that they will activate prior knowledge, become familiar with the concepts that will be discussed and the organization of the text, and assist in the comprehension and retention of the material when the student returns to fully read the text. Annotation is a system of text marking designed to assist students in summarizing and coding material and provides an effective alternative to highlighting.

Common problems that students have in this area:

  • Passive reading (i.e. not paying active attention to the text)
  • Insufficient knowledge of what is important in the text
  • Highlighting too much material

For discussion:

  • Have students discuss textbook reading techniques they have been taught or currently use.

Activities and Assignments that would complement this lesson:

  • Distribute a section of the course text that is already annotated.
  • Have students compare their textbook markings to one another.

Follow up:

  • Periodically offer quizzes based on the material to evaluate whether students are getting the important points from their textbooks
  • Have students submit 5-7 test questions based on their course readings.