Reading #4 - Why Textbooks Are Not Enough

While I do realize that my last post pertained to textbooks, an opportunity to rant about them has presented itself yet again. Chapter 3 of Daniels' and Zemelman's book "Subjects Matter" delves quite deeply into education's hot button topic; textbooks. A majority of the chapter is dedicated to why textbooks are "bad things". Granted, there are some pieces of advice on how to get the best out of a textbook if a teacher is forced into using one for their lessons, but on the whole, the chapter discusses how they are a hinderance in the classroom. Although it is a seemingly negative chapter, I tend to share the same sentiments as Daniels and Zemelman.

Before I could even turn the first page I found myself questioning and highlighting. I suppose it was some mild form of "textbook-PTSD" that had me in a frenzy. I remember quite vividly how loathsome my peers and I were towards the four hundred paged, fifty pound, relics. I remember one of my classmates found his mom's name in a textbook from when she was a student at our high school. Ironic then, impossible to think now. What on earth is a teacher doing, teaching out of a book that was published when they were in college? And then for some classes we carried around books that we barely ever used. This is more similar to my college experience. I have run out of fingers for the amount of textbooks a professor has mandated that I purchase and then neglects to use them throughout the entirety of the semester. I wonder how often this is happening in high schools across America.

I sense myself starting to rant, so I figure it best to pull some quotes from what I read and to write my commentary about the topic...

On page 52, Daniels and Zemelman accuse texts books of being superficial. I could not agree more. The weight, length, and size of textbooks are unnecessary.  Rather than students lugging around bulging backpacks, teachers should be reviewing textbooks, using the best material and providing it for their students. The commitment to teaching an entire course based off of the contents of a single textbook is immensely limiting to a student’s learning potential.

An even worse example of restricting a student’s learning is raised on page 46 of Subjects Matter. Daniels and Zemelman reported an account that the state of Illinois made it illegal to spend state book money on anything except commercially published text books. This issue will always be beyond me. The purpose of education is to provide our students with the necessary resources to succeed. When a state limits the amount of resources available to a school, a huge disservice is paid to our students. This just becomes another hindrance towards teacher’s efforts in differentiated learning.

A counter example of the latter shows another flaw in the education system in regards to textbooks. In another account provided by Daniels and Zemelman, in 2012, the State of Louisiana’s Department of Education forbid the use of textbooks in its schools. AGAIN. Limiting. As if the limit of student learning potential wasn’t enough, this provides a classic example of the educational pendulum like paradigm shift. Rather than trying to adapt textbook usage and find a way to make them beneficial to instructors and students alike, they are abandoned. It’s time to end the limitations on source material.

I propose that our generation of students band together as “baby textbookers.” (Forgive the horrible “Baby Boomer” pun – I’m sure someone can come up with a more suitable name). Anyway, we have all had some sort of bad experience with a textbook in some form or another. As aspiring teachers we should vow to not do the same thing to our future students as was done to us. Let’s amend the textbook misusage.  

On a lighter note, I included this video that shows some textbook charity. We all know how expensive the bookstore can get. I wish more people did things like this...

Reading #3 - UbD

So often text books are looked at as the "ball and chain" of the classroom. From the student perspective I have to agree with the text book stigma. My high school and college experiences with text books have been less than favorable. Classes are either structured to the tee in accordance with a class' text, leaving no room for differentiated learning, OR the text is not used at all (the latter is the most common pattern in college). The regimented teaching style that most commonly accompanies text book usage includes an introduction to the text, reading the text, followed by answering the chapter questions in the text. HOW BORING?! As an aspiring teacher, however, I am less skeptical on the use of text books. 

UbD is a refreshing approach to teaching out of a text book and reading as a whole. Not only is the reading process changed in a way that is more intriguing, but the material is covered in a way that helps the student better absorb the content. The largest aspect of backwards curriculum in which I most agree with is the assessment portion. The idea is to assess throughout the entire learning process, not just waiting for the end of the unit. It has always been my contention that "end of the unit" testing is too late. If a teacher/instructor waits until the end to assess their students learning they are putting themselves in a tricky situation. The assessment format provided by UbD allows the teacher to gradually check their students learning process, and ensures that the students are learning all of the necessary steps along the way. Through the traditional reading style a teacher cannot be sure that their class is following along if they wait to track the student's retained knowledge until the end. In most cases it is too late to reteach what has been taught because, of course, the teacher is obligated to move on to the next part of the curriculum. 

I know full well that many schools mandate the use of text books. This, however, does not make me fret. I know that if I can utilize the text in a way that is effective then my students will not loath text books the same way that I did when I was in high school. 

The below video gives a good summation on what UbD hopes to accomplish (I think it does so successfully). Jay McTighe says that "the devil is in the detail" and that "just because our students know something, doesn't mean that they understand." McTighe delves into how beneficial the assessment process is to learning