Textbooks+09

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=Textbooks=

Problems
--“Why Textbooks Aren’t Enough” from //Subjects Matter//
 * Textbooks are superficial**, because they cover too many topics without developing any of them well.
 * Textbooks are exceedingly hard to read**. Textbooks are reference books written like encyclopedias, dictionaries and thesauruses. However in schools, they are often treated as if they are novels that students are supposed to read cover to cover, while retaining and memorizing the information within.
 * Textbooks are authoritarian and often inaccurate**, because they are often used as the only source of reading for several years at a time (even when new studies come out proving them wrong).
 * Textbooks are not written for students**. They are designed for state approval boards (especially Texas and California) to make a profit for publishing companies.
 * Textbooks cost too much**. They may be a bargain for the number of pages and amount of material, but they leave no room in the budget for other reading materials like newspapers, journals or classroom libraries.

//Subjects Matter//, Chapter 3: Why Textbooks Are Not Enough
This chapter presented an opinion that I knew students held for years but did not know that people in the field of academia had even considered. This opinion is that textbooks are overused, and should be supplemented or replaced by alternate reading materials when possible. Some of the reasons that are listed for this include the fact that texbooks are superficial, meaning that they contain so much material that they are only able to "scratch the surface" of the very key concepts or events in each content area. The example that sticks out in my mind is when they describe a history book that only includes two pages on slavery, about a paragraph on Hiroshima, and a small sidebar on Einstein's theories. These short dedications to key historical events are obviously not enough, and thus give some texts such as these the illusion of being superficial. Two other problems that are pointed out with textbooks are that they are exceedingly hard to read and they are not written for children. This book explains how text books put little to no effort in creating a coherent narrative that will keep readers involved and excited about the information. Instead they bombard the reader with overwhelming amounts of information and make it their main concern to provide facts that will help students in all 50 states do well on their different standardized tests. -Jeff Jones

**Solutions – Use textbooks strategically and sparingly.**
--“Why Textbooks Aren’t Enough” from //Subjects Matter//
 * Order one classroom set** as opposed to one book for every student and give them more engaging homework assignments without the textbook.
 * Prolong ordering new editions** if you can. Fields like British literature that rarely have new discoveries can be kept much longer than most textbooks.
 * Don’t splurge on the extras**. Save money for other reading materials by skipping the extra transparencies, handouts, CD-ROMs, videos and audiotapes.
 * Stop having textbook centered courses altogether**. Make your own collection of poems or readings instead so you can tune them to your students interests and levels.

Use **multiple genres** mixing fiction and non-fiction, primary and secondary sources classics and contemporary works. Reading materials should run the gamut from textbooks to poetry, news articles to historical novels and biographies to historical accounts. Teachers should **allow students some choice** in their readings. Guide students in their choices, but use a mixture of assigned and chosen readings. Students reading should be a**mixture** of easy and hard, short and long. Sometimes you just need a short easy piece to get them the background, but use other readings to challenge them and build their vocabularies. Finally, teachers should build a**classroom library** using all of these types of reading materials to create a wide variety of readings available to students. --“Toward a Balanced Diet of Reading” from //Subjects Matter//

//Subjects Matter//, Chapter 4: Toward a Balanced Diet of Reading
This chapter is set up contrasting texts that seem appealing to students to those that do not. This chapter starts by presenting a trade book and then asking, "what's the difference between textbook talk and this best-selling trade book?" the answer is that the information is readable and memorable and then they go deeper and describe what makes the text that way. they then list 7 points. These 7 points include : content that is important or engaging, people we can care about, a narrative structure or chronological line, places we can visualize, danger, conflicts, risks, or choices, value, moral, ethical or political dimensions, and some ideas that reasonable people can debate, dispute, or disagree about. After this the chapter then shows some general contrasts that are apparent in almost all books, these books are either: choice vs. assigned, fiction vs. nonfiction, classics vs. contemporary, hard vs. easy, short vs. long, primary vs. secondary sources, multiple texts vs. single sources. After explaining all of these options a little this chapter explains how to build a classroom library and encourages that it include many different types of books and even explains how to spend the departmental moeny on such books. -Jeff Jones

**Suggestions for Teachers**
1. Have empathy. Just because it’s easy for you (a subject matter expert), it won’t necessarily be easy for students to grasp. 2. Help kids get started. Teach before and during the reading to help kids understand. 3. Don’t leave kids alone with their textbooks, but have kids work in pairs, groups or teams. 4. Choose wisely. Make strategic choices about what kids should learn rather than trudging through the whole book. 5. Supplement richly by using newspapers, primary sources, novels and other readings. 6. Check the state exam. Don’t make kids read the whole textbook, because it will be on the state exam. What if the state exam focuses on the 21st century and you didn’t even make it to World War I in your history course? 7. Flip through the textbook on the first day so kids know how to read this book. 8. Help students adjust to new vocabulary before the lesson by mixing new words with words they already know. --“How to Use a Textbook” from //Subjects Matte//r

**//Subjects Matter//, Chapter 6: How to Use a Textbook**
This chapter focuses on how to make textbooks easier, more accessible, and more useful for young readers. One thing that stuck out to me is that to teach a textbook effectively, a teacher mush have empathy. The book reminds us that often times when teaching we have read the text multipule times in the past and we are alraedy experts in the subject matter. Many times in the past i have felt like teachers did not understand why I was hvaing trouble with a particular concept and they did not realize that at one point in time they probably had some problems with the same concept. Two other things that they cautioned teachers about was helping them get started. The book says not to simply hand out reading assignments and then quiz for understanding later but instead to give students proper support before and during the reading. The text also makes sure to stress taht textbooks are not the only source for information now, and that anythign taught in a textbook can be supplemented through some other resource such as magazine articles, newspapers, websites, etc. The chapter then goes on to list 6 activies for ensuring that your students understand the text taht they are reading. These activites include: checking out the textbook, jigsawing, guide-o-rama study guides, vocabulary word sorts, textbook circles, and remebering facts from long texts. Thinking back over my schooling I can remeber almost all of these techniques being used in my classrooms. The chapter ends by urging teachers not to be scared to pick a different textbook if the students simply are not able to learn using the text that was originally chosen for the class. -Jeff Jones