- How to study a Text Previewing the Chapter
- Reading
How to Read a Varsity Textbook.
Whenever i ask some Students how they read a Chapter in their textbook, they
usually give me that expression which politely says, "What are you talking
about?" Behind that expression are
two truths:
(1) Most Students commence
personal studies just about a fortnight to Test/Exams
(2) Others read their textbook
chapters starting on the first page and just continue on to the last page, and
(3) Rarely have they been
taught any differently.
Too bad . Reading a chapter
from beginning to end is the least efficient, least effective way possible. A
textbook should be read differently than any other type of book. Most students
are passive readers. To get themost out of a chapter, students need to become
active readers. Ask yourself this: what’s the most effective way to learn to
change a flat tire, reading the owner’s manual or actually changing a flat
tire? Believe me, you learn
fast when you actually need
to change a flat tire. Why is that? Because you involve several of your senses
(sight, sound, muscle action— and quite likely speaking). In this situation, actually
the most effective way is to read the owner’s manual first, and then to change
the tire. The more of our senses we involve in anything, the more effective is
our learning. The same principle applies in reading a textbook chapter
effectively.
The more of our senses we can
get involved, the more effective our reading will be. If you are accustomed to just
reading silently and turning pages, that
Will sound strange. But
changing that attitude will turn you from a passive reader into an active
reader. Will reading a chapter as an active reader take longer? Yes, but not
much. One payoff is in how much more you learn and
Especially how much more you
remember. Another payoff is that when you need to review the chapter again for
a test, reviewing
will take a lot less
time—when you need extra time. Have you ever turned a page and thought,
"What did I just read?" That unhappy feeling doesn't happen to active
readers.
Previewing
the Chapter
Why check out a chapter before
you begin reading? If you need to drive somewhere but don’t know how to get to
your destination, wouldn’t you first get directions or check out a road map?
Previewing your route is an effective way of getting to your destination
efficiently. Similarly, previewing a chapter gives you an idea of what the
chapter is about and what its organization is. There are generally three ways
to preview, depending on how your textbook is laid out.
(1) If your textbook has a
summary at the end of a chapter, read the summary first.
(2) If your textbook doesn’t
have a summary but does have subheadings in bold or italicized print, go
through the chapter reading the subheadings.
(3) If the chapter has neither
a summary nor subheadings, the procedure is a little more complicated. First,
read the first paragraph or two until you come to the thesis statement—the
sentence that tells what the chapter will be
about. Underline this thesis
statement. Then read the very last paragraph or two, where you will find the
author’s conclusion. Underline the conclusion. Then compare the two underlined
sentences, and you will have
the main idea of the chapter.
Now go back and underline the first sentence of each paragraph in the chapter.
Usually these sentences will be
the paragraphs’ topic
sentences. Reading just these underlined topic sentences will provide the
reader with an outline of the whole
chapter. The good news is that
most textbooks do have summaries, so the first method listed above will be the
most common one that you use. Seeing the "whole picture" before you
begin reading will help tremendously in your
understanding of how parts of
a chapter fit into the whole.
Asking Questions
Educators from Socrates to
those of them classroom presently, acknowledge the power of asking questions.
You too can use the power of questioning in reading your textbooks. The most
useful aid in becoming an active, questioning reader are subheadings which are in
bold print or italicized. Every time you come to one of them, pause and turn
that Subheading into a question. (For your questions, use the five
"W’s" and one "H"--what,
Where, when, why, who , and
how.) So, for instance,
The Battle of Gettysburg
becomes "Why was the Battle of Gettysburg important?"
The dangers of saturated fat
becomes "What are the dangers of saturated fats?"
George Spelvin becomes
"Who was George Spelvin?" or "What did George Spelvin do?"
or any other question. The big reason for doing this is that we remember more
of what we read if we read to answer a question. Surprisingly, even if the
textbook paragraph doesn't answer the
question we've made up, the
learning effectiveness is still there. One more thing: When you've turned a
subheading into a question, say the question
out loud to yourself.
(Remember, the more of your senses you can get involved, the more effective is
the learning.) (Note: Some textbooks have study questions at the beginning or
end of a chapter. Usually those questions are in the same order as the chapter’s
material. If your chapter has a list of
study questions, read the
first study question out loud to yourself, then read the chapter until the
question is answered. Then come back to the list of questions, read the next
one…and so on, until you've finished reading the
chapter.)
Reading
Good, now you have previewed
the chapter. You've also learned how to turn subheadings into questions. Now
you’re ready to read.
.Are you accustomed to not
writing in your textbooks? If so, forget it. Active readers write in their
textbooks a lot. Read at a rate that pushes you a bit. If
running your finger under and
a bit ahead of what your reading helps, do that—it’s a well-known technique for
speed reading .Did you read what you think is a key point? Put an exclamation
mark in the margin (or any other mark which will identify key points for you) Was
there something that was unclear or something to which you’ll want to come back
to study further? Put a question mark in the margin
Write notes in the margins
Underline or highlight what you think are key
points. (Don’t go wild with underlining or highlighting, though; it then
becomes
meaningless.) . Circle words
which you had to look up in a dictionary.
TEXTBOOK READING
When you have completed reading the paragraphs
after each subheading, try to state in your own words a summary of
what you just read. Say it
out loud—even whispering is good if you’re in a quiet study area in a library.
This is a critical step in learning from reading, and it does two things.
1. It helps to fix the
material in your mind,
And 2. If you can’t summarize
what you just read, it’s a sure sign that you haven’t learned it, and that you
should read it again. It’s easy for you to kid yourself that you have learned
the material just because you’ve read it. Easy, but wrong. You cannot remember what
you don’t understand, and you can’t do effective reading further on if you
don’t comprehend what you just read.
Reading , speaking, and
writing, used together, use the fundamental principle that the more of your
senses that are involved, the more effective the learning. Textbook reading
should be an active process.
Later.
. .
When exam time comes, you will
need to go back and re-read the chapters which will be covered on the exam. No
one needs to tell you
That this is pressure time . If
you have been an active reader as suggested above, then when the time comes to
study for a test, you will be able to review the chapter(s) simply by reading
the subheadings, noting the highlighted or underlined sentences, and recalling
the summaries you said out loud earlier. Review thus becomes an efficient
process, more than making up for the little bit of additional time it took to
read the chapter as
an active reader the first
time through. As stated earlier, most students have simply fallen into the bad
habit of just reading a chapter from beginning to end because they haven’t been
taught any differently. What’s the
Key word in that statement? Habit
. One of the best ways of changing a habit is to replace it with a good habit.
Usually that’s what is happening when you become an active
reader, using the techniques and knowledge you have just read.
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