Textbook+Survey


 * Summary**

One of the most important things that a teacher can do is to help students learn how to read informational texts. The social sciences are full of resources that students have had little exposure to. Students are taught how to read narratives, but education does not emphasize reading for information. As a social studies teacher is important to help students build the skills necessary to comprehend informational texts. One effective way to do that is to familiarize students with the structure of the texts that they will be using. //Textbook Survey// (Lenski et. al, 2011: 218) is a strategy designed to familiarize students with textbook structure by having them complete a short survey while considering a particular text.


 * Directions**
 * 1) **Introduce** students to the idea that knowing how a textbook is structured will facilitate their use and understanding of a textbook.
 * 2) **Distribute** the textbook survey and guide students through the survey step-by-step.
 * 3) Once they have been introduced to the survey, have students fill it out with respect to the text that you will be using in your class.
 * 4) **Discuss** students responses to the survey and encourage them to elaborate on undeveloped answers and remind students that understanding text structure is the key to unlocking the information inside.


 * Example**

Below is a generic textbook survey. The responses are just examples of what students might conclude about a text.