Social Studies Textbook Features

Features to note:

• Chapter number and title
• Timeline at bottom of first pages of the chapter.
• Lesson number and title.
• Main Idea in red just below the title. This tells you the "big picture" of the lesson.
• Key Vocabulary in the margin of the first page of each lesson. Below this, a section called Key Events helps you know important events from the lesson, and their dates.
• Correlate the terms, people, and places listed in the Key Vocabulary with the blue words in the text. Help students verbalize that if they want to review quickly or check their understanding, these are the words to pay special attention to, and being blue makes them easy to find.
• Each lesson also starts with a brief descriptive paragraph to get the reader oriented into the lesson's information.
• Below the section headings within the lesson, there are "Focus" questions. Students should read these to give their further reading a focus. When finished reading the section, the student should answer the focus question aloud, based on what he or she has just read.
• At the end of each lesson, there is a section with "Lesson Review" questions that help students review what they have just read and use the information to improve their critical thinking skills. Note that the questions that say "Focus" are tied directly to the blue "Focus" questions below individual section headings. Their answers are found in the corresponding sections.
• Additionally, point out the headings and subheadings within the text of the lesson. Emphasize that these are important information and help keep the text organized.
• Also, note the graphic elements such as photographs, maps, diagrams, graphs, and charts that provide additional information and help students to visualize what is being stated in the text. These are all part of the information, and should all be read and discussed to understand the lesson!
• At the end of each chapter, there is a Chapter Review that helps students recall information from all of the lessons in that chapter.
• You may also want to visit the textbook's website for further information and related activities. http://www.hmco.com/school/ Go to the tab for Educators, choose Kansas, then History & Government. Our textbook series is "We the People".

See also the Answering Textbook Questions directions.