Textbook Tabbing

Designed by Eldon McMurray, Ph.D., Mount Hood Community College

Go through your text and use tabs, stickies, post-it-notes, or tape. Mark the beginning of each chapter. If there are reviews in a chapter, tab those. At the end of the book are important appendices you will want to mark. If your book has answers, mark those. If you find some very important information, tab that. You may want to use different colors for different sections, e.g. red for chapters, yellow for reviews, another color for answers, yet another color for the preface information.

The advantages of tabbing:

• Become familiar with the text
• Helps you know what you will cover and possibly raise questions to ask
• Builds a basis to learn
• Saves time

I have taught Math for many years and have found this helps me save time. I label the chapter tabs (red - and it reads 5 for chapter 5.)  The chapter reviews are tabbed in yellow - I used what tabs I had. Tabs with arrows can be very helpful in pointing out important information.



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