Text Book Survey

This is a learning strategy that can be used in any course to assist a learner with establishing a schema (discussed in your text) for learning new content.

Step 1: Survey the text

1. flip through the pages and read the chapter titles, out loud - do NOT just read the titles from the Table of Contents page! You must flip through the pages to benefit from the layering effect of this exercise.

2. You are only reading the chapter titles and supplemental material section titles

Step 2: Survey the chapter

1. flip through the pages of the chapter in which you are preparing to work

2. read the chapter title,

3. then read (out loud) the section headings,

4. then start back at the front of the chapter and read (out loud) the subheadings. You must do headings and subheadings separately.

Step 3 - Survey the sections

5. Return to the first page of the chapter on which you are preparing to work

6. Read the terms in bold out loud

7. Read the terms and definitions in the margins out loud

8. Read the Tables, picture captions, and insert sections

9. NOW you are ready to begin reading the chapter - you should now be able to make fewer highlights and take fewer notes on those items that are unfamiliar or unclear and that appear to be most significant.

Repeat steps 1-3 each time you begin to work in a new chapter. Try this technique with other textbooks and/or manuals in which you are working in order to learn new content. An analogy to this exercise is putting together a puzzle: first you find the corners, then you find the edges, once you have created the ‘frame' you then begin to fill in the pieces. That is what you are doing when you apply this strategy to a textbook.

Week 1 Drop Box Assignment:

Reflect on your reactions to this activity: What insights did you gain from this activity? What conclusions can you draw from this activity about how people learn? What conclusions can you draw about yourself as a learner? To which chapter in the text do you think this activity relates and why?