Reflection #3: "How to Use a Textbook"

With our reading this week in “Subjects Matter,” chapter six goes in depth about how teachers should use a textbook.  The big question for this chapter is, “How much is enough?” Teachers need to know how to utilize a textbook without overloading the students with reading but also not giving the students enough material to understand the concepts. It mentions the “Curse of the Coverage” which talks about how teachers feel the pressure to cover the entire textbook due to state standards or end of the year tests. Throughout the chapter, the authors give us six different activities and strategies to use when it comes to making the text in the textbook a little more understandable and comfortable with the students. The activities are the following: checking out the textbook, jigsawing, guide-o-rama study guides, vocabulary word sorts, textbook circles, and SQ3R. All of the activities have a very helpful diagram or example of the worksheets that would be used during the different activities.

When it comes to teaching students, this chapter tells the teachers/readers that students can be overwhelmed when assigned to read a chapter a night without any help. As teachers, we need to guide them when it comes to using the text, and we cannot expect them to sit down every night and read a chapter with complete understanding of what is being mentioned in the chapter. This chapter informs us that taking the time to do activities when assigning reading can be very beneficial for students’ learning and attitude towards the textbook or novel that is assigned for reading. Their willingness will be higher, and if they have support with completing or reading the text, they will not struggle as much as if they were reading on their own.

I definitely think that this chapter can apply to my content area. In this chapter, they dedicate an entire page to talking about mathematics textbooks and how different they are compared to a Social Studies, Science, or English textbook. There are highlighted theorems, example problems worked out step-by-step, and there are many instances where students get lost in the text. They do not know where to look or how to use the example problems to their benefit. Thus, I think this chapter and the activities listed in this chapter can help my domain and me when it comes to implementing our mathematical text.