Chapter Tour: Being Your Own Guide
"Notice how this next painting exhibits several characteristics of
Monet's later works. The subject (in this case water lilies), the brush
technique, and the use of color are all associated with canvases
completed by Monet in the 1920s ...."
Recall visits to a museum, an art gallery, a national park, or a
historical site when you have been escorted through a guided tour. A
guided tour presents a visitor with a knowledgeable introduction to
what is being viewed. The tour helps you focus on what is interesting
or important, offers you insight into the exhibit or experience that
helps you appreciate it more, and provides a framework for
understanding what you encounter.
In contrast, unless you are already quite knowledgeable, you will
probably miss some significant elements of the experience if you
wander about by yourself. This is also true of students struggling to
make sense of textbook readings in their classes. A "chapter tour" can
provide them with enough direction and background so they can learn
what's important in their reading.
Teaching/Learning Activities
A Chapter Tour is a form of study guide that "talks" the reader through
a chapter, and points out elements of the text that warrant special
attention. Using a Chapter Tour activity involves the following steps.
Step 1: Preview a typical textbook chapter to identify salient features
that students might overlook during their reading. Many textbooks
today present information in a variety of visual formats in addition to
print, and offer numerous study aids that highlight what is important
in the chapter. Yet unless attention is specifically called to these text
features, students often skip over them as they read to complete an
assignment. As part of this process, make special notice of ways the
chapter forecasts organizational structure (i.e. cause/effect,
compare/contrast, concept/definition, problem/solution, and so on)
and how it signals key concepts and ideas.
Step 2: Create a Chapter Tour that guides students toward noticing
these features as they use the book. For example, students reading a
U.S. history textbook can easily become immersed in the details of a
section and miss major themes or ideas. A Chapter Tour of their book
can help them focus on changes and problems, two concepts that
predominate in history. (See the example below.)
Step 3: Have students complete your first Chapter Tour as an
introduction to the textbook. One effective way of using a Chapter
Tour is to allow the students to work with partners so they can
verbalize what they are discovering about the way this specific
textbook works.
Step 4: Develop variations of your Chapter Tour for subsequent
chapters, both to remind students of critical elements of the text and
to include additional aspects that you want brought to the students'
attention. Eventually, students can be asked to create their own
chapter tours that show their understanding of key ideas.
Advantages
 A Chapter Tour can help students successfully cope with their
textbooks in the following respects:
 Students are provided with an "expert guide" to alert them to
what is most important in a chapter.
 Students are encouraged to look at the chapter to see the "big
picture" first before tackling the individual details.
 Students are conditioned to make more systematic use of reader
aids provided within a chapter.
Resources:
Wood, K., Lapp, D., & Flood, J. (1992). Guiding Readers Through Text:
A Review Of Study Guides. Newark, DE: International Reading
Association.
A Chapter Tour of Your History Textbook (an example)
1. To find out what a chapter is about, take a survey of it first. The
following survey process will help you determine what to look
for.
2. What is the title of Chapter 15? Chapter 15 is organized into
three sections. What are the titles of those sections?
3. Go the first page of Unit 5. Below, list one event that occurred
during the time period of Unit 5 for each of these four
categories: At Your Leisure, The American People, Inventing
America, The Changing West.
4. Turn to Chapter 15 in the textbook. Notice that each chapter
begins with a main idea focus statement. What changes will be
the focus of Chapter 15? List one problem that this chapter will
discuss.
5. Locate the introductory paragraphs on the opposite page. This
introduction will feature a quote from a primary source, material
that was written during the time period covered by the chapter.
Skim this introduction. What person is quoted in this passage?
6. Take a look at the section of the chapter that begins on Page
458: "Industry's Golden Age." Each section in this book begins
with an advance organizer, focus statements that help you
identify what to look for. Read over the three "Focus" statements
on page 458 and answer the following questions: a. Who does
this section primarily seem to be about? b. What problem does
the government deal with in this section?
7. Flip through the pages of this first section of Chapter 15. The
material is divided into smaller topics. Write the four headings
for this section.
8. Notice the statement about "steel" in red print in on Page 458.
These "essential points" summarize important ideas in the
chapter. Locate the four other "essential points" in red in this
first section.
9. Quickly look over the pictures. Look back at the changes you
listed in question 3. How do these pictures relate to the changes
you identified?
10.
Skim the feature article in this section. What seems to be
the point of this passage? What changes are emphasized in this
feature article?
11.
Flip to the end of the chapter. Notice that this chapter
concludes with a "commentary." What "myth" is this
commentary challenging?