Stop! Before you read this blog, have you read my previous blog? If not, click here to get caught up…this will make much more sense if you do! 🙂
Here are the 7 Steps for Reading Math Textbooks
- Read every word – every word has meaning
- Slow down – one paragraph could take 5-10 minutes to read and digest!
- When comprehension is waning, look at the vocabulary load and ask yourself “Am I understanding each word and technical term?”
- Read to find the steps and “what to do” suggestions from the author – these steps are the reason we read the math text!
- Approach reading the textbook differently: you don’t “read through it,” you “work through it” – it is a guidebook for a series of operations you complete while reading
- Read for details first, then concepts (by the way, this is the exact opposite from how we read in history/social studies!)
- Visuals are expensive to product in textbooks, so when you see a chart/graph/image, you know that it’s important – take time to read it, not just scan it!