Textbooks have always seemed to be "so important" in our classes throughout high school and college. We spend almost or over $200 each semester buying textbooks for our classes, but do the teachers really know how to effectively use them? I think I can confidently answer that question with 'no.' The quote that I picked out of the text to talk about is, "The material may seem easy to you, but it really may be Greek to the kids" (SM 182). I don't think there is a quote that I can relate more to. I often think that teachers forget that we are not masters in the subject being taught, and that we can't sit down with 30 pages of textbook reading and completely understand the topic afterwards. Splitting up readings, and having activities to go along with it is probably the most effective. Reading is not one of my strong subjects, and textbooks tend to use vocabulary that does not make it much easier to understand the material being read. I would rather have a guide, or questions to go through while reading so that it is more guided reading rather than me trying to comprehend 30 pages of history. It is important as future teachers, no matter the subject, to learn how to properly use a textbook to help us teach. We need to take time to create handouts to go along with their textbook so that it is not overwhelming for them. Also, it is important to keep in mind that we are going to have students that reading is not their strong suit. It is going to be hard to help them learn with a textbook if they struggle with literacy to begin with. The time that we take to extract important information, provide guided readings, and create powerpoints is going to help our kids out so much and allow us as teachers to use a textbook as a helpful resource rather than a useless book.Word Count: 330
Lisa,
ReplyDeleteWith how expensive textbooks are, one would expect them to come with a guide that teachers could use in their classrooms. Teachers rely on assigning reading by chapters because of this, which is brutal for subjects like history, as you mentioned. In my future science classroom, I like the idea of providing my students with a guide they can use for reading where they will spend their time concentrating on the things that they need to know.
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