Teaching Students to Read a Textbook

Students use textbooks throughout their academic careers, but few have ever been taught how to effectively use them. Teachers often assume that students already understand the layout of textbooks and are proficient in utilizing these content-rich instructional aids.

Textbooks, however, are different from many other books that students encounter and require distinctive competencies and skills. Showing students how to read and study from textbooks will set them up for academic success. Here are some ideas.

Introduce the Textbook

My first piece of advice is to slow down. Be sure to allow enough time to familiarize students with the textbook, its title, and the main ideas or themes it presents. Try not to just assign a chapter unthinkingly. Treat the textbook as a vital part of your curriculum that deserves time, attention, and discussion.

Second, explain that the authors of textbooks write them expressly for learning, so the books often come with many guide rails that can help students better understand the text and its key takeaways. Explain to your class that you’ll be apprising them of the guide rails so that they can better comprehend what might seem like a lot of complex information. 

Third, review with the class the important introductory material that the textbook’s authors present so students get a flavor for the material. Sometimes, the author or authors will discuss the main points of the book in a preface. This can be worthwhile to read.

Discuss the parts of the textbook. Many students don’t know how to quickly locate information in a textbook, so understanding the parts of the textbook will help them. For instance, point out the table of contents, index, title page, references, or bibliography.

Review the way a typical chapter is set up, which will help students as they dig into the material. In one textbook I use, each chapter has three or four lessons. Each lesson has several headings and subheadings. Be sure to discuss the difference between a heading and a subheading and how to spot them. The textbook my students use even color-codes them differently. 

Point Out the guideposts

The difference between a textbook and another work of nonfiction is that a textbook is explicitly meant to inform students. The author(s) include what I call “guideposts” to direct students to the most important information. Every textbook offers different guideposts. The following are some I encounter in the materials I use.

Introductory materials: This might include essential questions or even a short paragraph detailing what the chapter or lesson is about. Read the introductory materials with the class before diving into the chapter. This prepares students and contextualizes the material, which helps them to better understand the information.

Vocabulary: Often, vocabulary words are in bold. Underscore the idea that vocabulary is the foundation of authentic knowledge and understanding in any field, and it needs to be reviewed repeatedly. There also might be important words underlined or italicized.

Questions: Many textbooks provide questions for the student to answer. Sometimes these are located at the end of a lesson. One textbook we use also includes “guiding questions” at the beginning of each subheading. I sometimes refer back to the guiding questions, reminding students after reading each section that they should be able to answer the preceding guiding question. This is a good way to get students to read more intentionally and with an objective. Questions are ways the author(s) identify to students what the writers want them to know. Students need not guess, as they are being explicitly told.

Images, charts, and captions: If there’s a picture, it must be important. Note this fact to students, who sometimes skim over images and captions. Reviewing an image and the accompanying caption is also a good tool for educators who wish to assess students on a chapter post-reading.

Additional text: Often, pages include a box with a quote or fact in it set apart from the main text. Depending on the location, this might be called a sidebar, a callout box, or just a text box. Encourage students to read these carefully, and help them reflect on why a box is included but separated from the other written information.

Study suggestions: A textbook I use in my class contains helpful ideas for how to study, including directing students to create graphic organizers for particular information. These suggestions give students perfect opportunities to work smarter, not harder.

Studying From Textbooks

There are many ways teachers can incorporate textbooks more naturally into the class. The following activities can help students study and delve deeper into the structure and purpose of their textbooks.

Open-notebook assessments: Allowing students to use their textbook for a quiz or test is controversial (and sometimes downright frowned upon). These assessments, however, help students better understand the structure of their textbook, and I use them in conjunction with assessments without the textbook.

Making illustrations and figures: Ask students to find information, data, or a story that does not have an accompanying illustration or image. Students then draw one in their notebook to go along with the relevant facts.

Headings and subheadings: A quick but effective review is to ask students to turn each heading or subheading into a question. Then they answer the self-made question with facts from the section.

Predictions: Ask students to look at a question in the lesson or chapter, an illustration, or chart, and then predict what the section will be discussing. This can work as a classroom think-pair-share activity.

Vocab pretest: Provide students with a list of the vocabulary they will be studying, and ask them to attempt to provide definitions. Students compare their definitions with the textbook’s definitions. This activity works best with sections about which students have some prior knowledge.

Summaries: There is power in short writing projects. Ask students to summarize a chapter, section, or lesson in a paragraph or even a single sentence. This can be a potent way for students to identify and distill the main points.

Textbooks require a certain type of deep, deliberate reading. Teachers can train students to read textbooks with a critical eye by utilizing the author(s)’ guideposts, which offer significant opportunities for helping students to study.