I found chapter 3 to be very
accurate and informative. How many of us have had that teacher that reads from
the textbook all class and then assigns the questions at the end for homework?
Probably most of us, and it certainly is not a good experience to go through. I
mean, most of us probably zoned out and stopped paying attention after the
first ten minutes. These teachers are looking for an easy way out, and are doing
nobody any good except themselves. Chapter 3 discusses how we need to change
the role of the textbook in classrooms and use a much wider variety of
resources. This will help us get the best out of our students, and keep them
much more interested and active in class. A great quote from the text stated,
“We strongly believe that textbooks are overused, and should be supplemented
generously or replaced with other reading materials where possible.” This is
something that needs to be done in schools, as a variety of different materials
will give students a more open-minded point of view, and access to information
that will capture their interest and attention far more than reading the same
textbook from the same author every day. Another issue is that some textbooks
are just way better than others. If you are going to use a textbook, it is well
worth the trouble to make sure you adopt the best one available. Avoiding the
ones that are out-of-date, badly designed, and much too hard to read will
benefit students greatly.
Chapter 6 discusses what we really
need to worry about covering that will be on the state test, as different
states have adopted different types of tests that they administer, and how we
should go about covering this material using textbooks and other resources. The
section that talked about ways to use textbooks more effectively was very
informative, as the author introduced strategies and even activities to do this
in the best way possible. These strategies and activities described are great
ways to help kids get the most out of their textbooks, while keeping the
lessons engaging and the classroom reasonably lively. I thought these two
chapters were helpful and will certainly be useful to us as beginning teachers
in the near future.
