The most
important idea that I’ve taken away thus far from Subjects Matter is the importance of
supplementary materials and trade books within my content areas. Textbooks have
really taken a beating in our class discussions and readings in these past few
weeks, but for a good reason: textbooks can be a major hindrance to student’s
education and interest in a content area. As a future math and/or science
educator, my goal should be to engage and inform my students of my course
subject(s) through my genuine excitement about my content area(s). I can’t do
that if my curriculum is centered on a single, expensive, lengthy, and
difficult-to-read textbook.
Richard L. Allington, an author and professor at the University of Florida, describes that many classrooms use textbooks that were
written for two or more grade levels ahead of their student’s current grade
level. While reading an above-grade level textbook is already a difficult task
for most, it’s even more daunting for the students who are not even reading
grade-level texts adequately. With textbooks like these, our students are not
going to be able to comprehend the material and may fall behind and out of
interest in the course. But also Allington believes that teachers can solve
this textbook-reliance by situating the textbook as a general organizing
framework or reference for the course, and then use ample amounts of tradebooks
of multiple genres to convey the course’s content in a more understandable and
interesting way. Allington also promotes student choice and individualized
instruction as methods for aiding student’s comprehension and interest. There are
so many supplementary resources out there—trade books, websites, and novels—that
teachers can be using to reach their diverse learners.
Finally, I want to end with a very relevant TEDTalk Video. The
speaker in this video, Tyler DeWitt, is a high school science teacher who
realized that his students were struggling to understand his course due to the
fact that his textbook’s language was impossible to understand. Instead of blaming
his students, though, Mr. DeWitt realizes that his students are not scientists
and experts, and he adapts his curriculum to fit their needs in a much more
interesting way.
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...sorry, I got passionate.
Emily
