BLACKBOARD LIST

Subjects Matter Chapter 3

what we can do

central role of text books

Touble with textbooks

Getting Better

• what we want to figure out is:
• how can we teach our content better so our students can learn, remember, and care about your subject
• how can we use text books poperly and effectivly so kids get the most out of them

nyou may use a text book in your class every day in pretty much every subject and these text books are the facts of life .on the other hand your text book may be less of a choice but an opposition. the book you use might have been selected by your department or distrect and you might not have a voice in selection of the textbook .your text book might be your favorite but not someonelses, (viceversa). the building blocks of knowlege and information need a place to live and that is what text books are for .

Central role of text books

The touble with text books

- Text books are superficial:these text books are big and are jammed with all the data, facts, figure, charts, ect...these books only scratch the surface because they contain to much info. - text books are hard to read: text books are referance books. they introduce vocab and concepts at blidning rate. in school we often act as if textbooks were novles that kids should plow right through them and remeber and care about what they have just read. - text books are badly desighnedpost modern designs mostly dont work. instead of inviteing kids to the material many of todays text books are a graphic malstorm.

we can easily imagin that as teachers who are raceing through the content to cover everything thats going to be on the next test might not believe they have the time to stop for those more interesting elements and content. the information comes at the students fast as some introduce words with out defineing them and can be overwelming to many students.

Getting Better

1. switch from one textbook per student to one classroom set. their may be some sideffects as kids can' t take home the textbook from your class but you will get the chance to experiment with more engageing homework assignments. 2. delay adopting new text as long as possible. 3. you could also stop haveing textbook centered courses altogether if you are feeling adventurous. now it is clearer than ever that we must change not just how we teach reading but what we ask the kids to read.

what we can do

we need to use text books more appropriatly and sparingly as the referance books they are and also infuse the curriculum we are teaching authentic real world non fiction, informational, expository, persuasive text that adults really read.