Chapter 6 of Subjects Matter titled, “How to Use a Textbook” offers much insight into how a textbook should be used in a classroom and the importance of variety of instruction when teaching your classroom. It brought up many points I found particularly interesting and some different ideas to figure out what’s really important in the textbook. A lot of the time, teachers think it is a good idea to go through the whole book thinking that it will help the students in the long run. Many of us already know from experience that skimming your eyes over the text just to say that you did it does not help the students remember the information. Instead, the chapter talks about being selective when picking out topics to teach your students, and it also gives you questions to ask yourself when going through the information such as does the idea, topic, or process represent a big idea with enduring value beyond the classroom? Questions like these allow us to really delve on the concepts we are teaching and determine if they are REALLY important to the students’ learning. Going along with the textbook, this chapter also provides a few activities that help you as a teacher divide the textbook up or provide alternative activities rather than just assigning reading. One activity that stuck out to me was the idea of finding out what’s on the big tests our students have to take. I believe this one stuck out to me because I always felt that my teachers already knew what was on the test, but when it came down to it, they were off by a good bit. It never occurred to me that finding out what was on the big test and basing my teachings and lessons around that would help my students better.
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Hey Carter!
ReplyDeleteIn your post, you mention being selective as a teacher and also being aware of what will be on standardized testing to be able to fully prepare your students for it. If you were to assign two full chapters for students to read about 20% would read everything word for word and comprehend all of it (I know because I was not one of those students). By going through the reading beforehand and highlighting the major parts of the text, you will be providing them with the perfect information that will most effectively help better their understanding of a concept.
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