The objective of this study was to examine the effects of a surveying strategy using tables of contents in textbooks on elementary school students’ motivation, use of self-regulated learning strategies, and achievement in social studies. The participants were one-hundred and twenty fourth graders from four classes in a public elementary school. Two classes each were assigned to the experimental and comparison conditions. The experimental group received training on how to use the table of contents during the social studies class over twenty-one class periods. In contrast, the comparison group received conventional text-book oriented instruction during the same class periods without any training. The content-surveying strategy training demonstrated its effects on students’ motivation and self-regulated learning. Specifically, the experimental group demonstrated significantly higher task-value scores than did the comparison group. The experimental group also reported significantly greater use of self-regulated learning strategies compared to the comparison group. However, the content-surveying strategy training fell short of creating statistically significant difference between the groups on achievement test scores.