Chapter 6: How to Use A Textbook

As I read through the chapter, I couldn’t help but think about my experiences in the classroom growing up. I would always dread having to read through textbooks and I would try to skim through them to get the gist of what was going on. I remember taking Honors Biology my freshman year of high school and we were required to read through each chapter of the textbook and outline them as homework. His intent was that we went through the concepts at home and we could do a class discussion based on the chapter we read that previous night. We would also be given quizzes to test our knowledge of the chapters and he would pull the smallest of details that truly would give up the fact that some students didn’t read because they were more than likely not to pass. I knew this wasn’t an effective way to learn and I thought this was a terrible way of teaching. I like the strategies this chapter highlighted and how it shows that the textbook can be used as a resource. “It’s possible to be using the wrong textbook and not even know it,” (201). I’ve had teachers use the same textbooks for years. If standardized tests are constantly changing, shouldn’t the textbooks be updated to what is going to help prepare students more? Although much of the information in textbooks don’t change much, I believe the structure of them is vital to students’ learning. I like how one teacher decided not to use textbooks at all although this won’t work for all teachers. Literacy was still important in his classroom and they still used PowerPoint receive their information along with reading through articles and newspapers for real-life application. Each teacher and their methods of teaching are going to vary on how they will utilize the textbook, but at the end of the day it all comes down to students and their understanding of the content.

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