I found this a few weeks ago, and thought it would make a nice poster for a classroom. I also got to thinking about it after our class discussion last night, when we were demonstrating new ways to help students approach a textbook.
I think all of us who have succeeded to the point where we are in college, or have obtained a degree, take it for granted that even if we struggle a bit with textbooks, we can overcome any problems with content fairy easily. We are familiar with the table of contents and index, as well as knowing when to pause and reflect on new content in order for it to make sense.
It never occurred to me before that there are students who can't do this and that struggle with even the most basic navigation of textbooks. The strategies that we covered last night make a lot of sense. I find that I use a version of SQ4R with my Chemistry class textbook, and I wasn't even aware that I was doing it until it was revealed to me in researching the topic.
If we truly take the time to model these textbook reading strategies for our students, we can indeed train their minds to be thoughtful about complicated texts. We can open the doors for them so that they can explore the ideas and concepts that are presented in these books in a way that actually is meaningful, and makes the content come alive for them. Oh the places they'll go!
