You should be right in the swing of the fall school semester by now. We are definitely rolling along with trying to keep up witih all our subjects and studies.
I was recently asked how to teach a student how to study with a textbook. This is a great skill to have and applies to both online and hardback textbooks. I teach this as part of my Study Skills classes. I thought others may benefit from these ideas of how to study with a textbook.
- Make sure they are writing down every example problem, and working it themselves. I have tutored people who just “read” the examples. This does not always translate to “knowing” how to work the problems if you haven’t done it for yourself.
- Make a list of all the bolded vocabulary words. Look them up in the glossary in the back of the book if there is one. If not, try to look them up online and find formal definitions for them instead of just trying to figure it out from context.
- Work all problems and study guides given by the teacher or textbook.
- Check your work.
- Analyze what you don’t know.
- When you are reading the chapter: Let’s say the title of the section is “The Nature of Light.” As you are reading ask yourself, What is the nature of light? What does that mean? What are they telling me? What is light? Define all the terms and ask yourself questions of the text. Try to find the answers as you read. This is called Active Reading. You can find videos about it on Youtube.
- If you are an audible learner, read your vocab words and /or notes into your phone and play it back to yourself in the bathroom/car/etc whereever you are going.
- Make an outline of the chapter topics and ask yourself which sections do I not remember or don’t understand.
- Do the same thing as you study your vocabulary words. Put them on flash cards and separate them into one group of the ones you know and another group of the ones you don’t know. You can also use Quizlet or other vocabulary apps.
- Make a formula notebook for math or science formulas and keep them all together so you can reference them as you are doing your work and studying.
I hope these ideas are helpful! What about you? Do you have any other ideas about how to learn from a textbook?
If you are interested in a local study skills class, I keep this page updated with how to find me, or you can contact me to arrange a private session.
Blessings,
Michelle
Ten Ways To Study a Textbook