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Textbook


Page Content:

Definition:

A book used by students as a standard that comprehensively presents the principles of the subject for formal study through condensing and providing overviews of topics. Students often use textbooks as a guide or reference for selecting ideas and subtopics for further inquiry, or more in-depth, authentic study.

Purposes:

  • To convey a general, condensed version of a topic
  • To provide important concepts and processes of a discipline

Characteristics:

  • Condensed overview of topics
  • Presents a summary of the core principles of the discipline or subject
  • Generalizations
  • Vocabulary
  • Features: Table of Contents, Glossary, Index, Appendices, etc.
  • Abstracts
  • Selective (feature) excerpts, including reprints of primary documents (e.g., case studies, interviews, copies of newspaper articles or journal entries, etc.)
  • Maps
  • Symbols/icons
  • Introductory objectives or questions
  • Pictures with explanatory captions
  • Marginal notes
  • Illustrations
  • References
  • Summaries
  • Activities
  • Prefaces
  • End of chapter summaries
  • End of chapter or section questions
  • Nonfiction elements including: bold print, fact boxes, table of contents, indexes, headings, subheadings, charts and graphs, captions, appendices, titles etc.

Grade Level Instructional Scope for COMPREHENDING and USING the Genre and Text of Textbooks:

Grade 3

Opportunities to Teach:

Understanding the genre

  • Text features
  • Main and supporting details
  • Format

Understanding and using the text

  • Content area vocabulary and/or principles
  • Skimming for information
  • Rereading
  • Questioning/Inquiry
  • Applying knowledge gained to content area questions

Booklists:

  • Grade 3

Access to the Documents:

Complete K-8 Genre Project
From the Michigan Department of Education

Complete K-8 Genre Booklist
From Kent Intermediate School District


Page last modified on February 05, 2009, at 12:16 PM