Monday, October 17, 2016

Teaching Tip #35




Teacherscribe’s Teaching Tip #35
The Trouble with textbooks.
I’m stealing this from a book I read this summer for a graduate course on teaching reading in the content areas: Subjects Matter by Harvey “Smokey” Daniels and Steven Zemelman.
Trouble #6 – textbooks are not written for students.
How can they be when they have to appease teachers, common core, the state standards (if your state doesn’t align to common core), school boards, state departments, parents (God help us if they mention evolution or the reproductive parts of human beings), and various other political agendas (the Tea Party – the better NOT teach the constitution is a living document OR liberal tree huggers who want to glorify global warming or the redneck conservatives who want to down play the significance of immigration or the Civil Rights movement)?
When was the last time anyone – including teachers – picked up a textbook for enjoyment?
That’s why – as Seth Godin notes in his excellent TEDx Talk, Stop Stealing Dreams – no one who wants to both become passionate about and learn about baseball walks into a Barnes and Noble and says, “I want the latest and greatest textbook on baseball!  Do you have one of those on hand?”

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