Just the other day, my very eccentric twelve-year-old sister
walked up to me and stated: “Emily, I finally figured out why old people have
such bad back problems! It’s because of all their years of carrying around huge,
heavy textbooks in their backpacks for school!” I had a good laugh, but then I
did seriously consider the weight of all the textbooks I’ve been forced to lug
around in my school years…it’s ridiculous!This chapter really strung a cord with me, just as the past two chapters have, because I have a strong distaste for the heavy use of textbooks within the classroom. We’ve all experienced those classes where the entire curriculum is centered on this one boring, content-overloaded textbook. Each chapter was packed full of tons of vocabulary, facts, dates, and formulas that were impossible for you to just read through easily. And of course, your teachers would expect you to go home and “read” a chapter just like any old Hunger Games novel. But that’s impractical. Most students struggle to make it though just one paragraph of textbook language, much less can they absorb, comprehend, and remember every detail and fact that the text presents. It’s too much information thrown at you all at once.
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Textbooks are not all bad, though. Used for their proper purpose, which is as a reference book, textbooks can actually serve students well in a classroom. Textbooks can provide concrete definitions, diagrams, and examples that will aid them in meeting their standards and expectations. However, I’d really love to see teachers incorporating more and more trade books and supplementary materials into their lessons. These sorts of texts will do a far greater job at not only engaging their students, but also making sure students are truly comprehending the material for the long haul. Students should be able to remember more than “the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell!”
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Emily
