It’s amazing how many kids are totally clueless about the different parts of the textbooks they use on a daily basis.   Teaching your child this information is fairly easy and it helps her become an active reader.  Introduce her to these important parts of her textbooks:

Introduction – The introduction tells you how to use the book.  This is important as it tells you things your teacher may forget to let you know about the book.  In the introduction, you may learn that answers to the chapter questions are in bold print, and solutions to all odd numbered problems are in the back of the book.

Table of Contents – The table of contents tells you what information you’re going to learn about this year.  You can look at the number of pages devoted to one topic and find out the most important topics in the book – things you’ll be studying the most.

Body of the Book – The body of the book is where you’ll spend most of your time.  The following reading comprehension strategies will help improve your use of this part of the textbook.

Appendices – In math, this is where the answers are.  Tables, maps, and charts you may need are here too.

Glossary – The glossary is a word bank of all the words used in the text book.  This is where to look to answer vocabulary questions quickly or where to look up words you don’t understand.

Index – The index is organized by subject.  It includes all the details of the book in alphabetical order.  If you can’t find an answer to a chapter question, look up the subject in the index – it may take you right to the page you overlooked before.  You can use it to find additional information if you need to write a report on a specific subject. 

Pick up one of your child’s textbooks and teach this skill today!

(c) 2009, flexiture, monte w. davenport, ph.d.