You see, when I was in teacher-school, my course assignments as a student teacher were U.S. History, Government, and Sociology. I was handed a textbook for each one, modeled how to teach from each textbook by my cooperating teacher, and left to my own devices for 16 weeks. (Not that I minded being left alone; if I was going to learn by screwing up repeatedly with another teacher’s students, the last thing I needed was another adult in the audience to witness it.)
I learned a lot during my student teaching experience. I learned that students don’t always want to learn. I learned never ever to leave my 6th period U.S. History alone for even 2 nanoseconds. I learned that students appreciate it when you make learning rigorous but fun. I learned to be myself with the kids instead of a know-it-all in the front of the room.
But one of the most important lessons that I started to learn was how not to use textbooks. Except for Sociology, I spent a lot of time reading the book the night before and creating fabulous and informative U.S. History & Government lectures for the students straight from the textbook. Yes, I confess—I was a dreaded “textbook teacher.” But every time I stood up and started putting information in my students’ heads, one thought kept popping into my head: “Why am I telling them things that they could have read about themselves?”
This question kept coming back to me during my early years as a teacher. When I got up to lecture, it just seemed so….useless. What I realize now is that nagging feeling, that feeling of “Why am I doing this? Isn’t there a better way?” was really me feeling like I was doing all of the work of learning. It was the recognition of the need that students need to create their own meaning from text, but just not knowing how to go about having the students undertake that kind of mental creation.
Because I had been taught to teach from a textbook, I didn’t have many resources and strategies in my teaching “toolbox” to help students create their own meaning from reading. Thankfully, I have been lucky enough to work at two districts that take continuing professional development seriously, and I was allowed to go to various workshops and conferences in order to put more tools in my toolbox.
I’m not blaming anyone for my lack of reading strategies coming out of my teacher preparation program; that’s just (unfortunately) how teacher preparation programs were run—and how most are still run today. I have no control over that (just one more thing that would change if I was crowned Queen of Education). However, new teachers have to recognize that good teaching is more than just opening the textbook, repeating everything that’s in there for the kids, and then handing out worksheets for students to do until the book version of the test is ready in the copy room. I know not all teacher preparation programs do this; but I have seen many student teachers and novice teachers pass through our high school, and not one--not a single one—wanted to veer too far away from the textbook. Sure, they wanted to do activities that weren’t in the text, but they were leashed to that textbook like a dog in a yard. And their reach beyond the textbook only extended as far as their leash (read = comfort zone) let them go.
This is why I wouldn’t let new teachers use textbooks if I was in charge. In the immortal words of a very good Pearl Jam song, we need to “drop the leash.” New teachers need good mentors and instructional coaches, ones that will help them put resources and strategies into their instructional toolboxes so that they can help students create their own meaning. In other words, we need to help new teachers see that their role is not to help students memorize everything they can out of a textbook—their role is to provide meaningful strategies and activities to help students do the work of their own learning. Textbooks have a place in today’s classroom, but that place needs to be redefined for students in today’s 21st century classroom.
So, how should textbooks be used in today’s classrooms, and what tools do new teachers need in order to do this? In my opinion, textbooks should be used in two main ways:
1) Textbooks should be used as just one of many resources for knowledge acquisition. Most of the time, students and parents need to be re-educated on the purpose of textbooks, and shown that textbooks are not the only valid source of information. In my experience, if you don’t hand out a textbook in your classes within the first week of school, the e-mails and phone calls start coming. Because I am piloting a 1:1 netbook initiative this year, I am insisting students use web resources as well as the online version of the text whenever they need it. This has resulted in several accusations of me assigning ”impossible” assignments (translation: requires higher-order thinking skills and synthesis of information from many sources) without giving students a textbook to look up the information (translation: I'm a jerk). It takes some effort to overcome these traditional viewpoints concerning textbooks, but it’s worth the struggles in order to give students needed thinking skills and practice using other resources beyond the textbook.
Tools for the toolbox:
- Before teaching a unit, lesson, or topic, research all available sources of information. These could be articles, stories, or online sources that provide not only basic information about the topic, but also ones that have the potential for enrichment or extension.
- Develop activities and learning strategies that incorporate the use of these other sources of information, so students must use sources other than just the text to create their own meaning.
- Another consideration is only making a classroom set of textbooks available if your students have access to the online version of the book.
- Further, there are some projects and activities where I ban the use of the textbook altogether—students must instead pull from a pile of resources that I have collected over the years, or search the internet to find valid sources of information (Yes, we must teach them how to find reliable sources after they Google. In fact, I have had to teach classes how to do a proper Google search in the first place). Students don't like this, but I tell them that I don't want them to become an educational "one-trick pony;" they need to be aware of and use the multitude of resources available to them, including web-based resources. I also point out that life doesn't come with a textbook, and they should get used to using the resources that actually will be available to them as adults.
Tools for the toolbox:
- During the first weeks of school, make it a priority to teach students how to read your textbook. Teach them about using headings and pictures to predict what the reading will be about; teach them to develop questions (not answer the questions at the end of the chapter or section) during reading by modeling it through the use of think-alouds, and have them summarize and connect their new knowledge to old knowledge through a synthesis or summary activity after reading. (Rick Wormeli’s Summarization in Any Subject is a great source of these during/after reading activities, along with the book Applications of Reading Strategies in the Classroom by Frank, Grossi, & Stanfield.) However, don’t fall into the trap of “I showed them all how to do this one time and they aren’t doing it so it didn’t work and I’ll never do this again because it didn’t work the one time I tried it.” Teaching them to read complex informational text takes repeated modeling and practice—by both teachers and students.
- Model and teach students several different ways of making meaning out of information text in the first semester. You must have students use a reading strategy at least three times before they develop a feel for it; view the first semester as your reading strategy “proving ground.” Then, in the second semester, start giving students choices about which strategies they want to use both before, during, and after reading, to allow them to develop their own reading tools to put in their student toolboxes.
While I have many pet peeves about textbooks, the two suggestions listed above are what absolutely must change regarding their use (or misuse) in the classroom. Using textbooks in the traditional way doesn’t promote true student understanding, or help put students in charge of their own learning. So let’s start using textbooks in a way that makes sense, and in a way that helps students grow as learners.
Even more importantly, let's start teaching novice teachers how to properly use the textbooks for learning. Let's start teaching them that they don't have to be "leashed" to a text, and unleash new teachers' potential to improve student learning.