Synthesis Blog #3: How Should I Use a Textbook in My Class?

When reflecting on my experience in school, I remember that curriculum and learning were both heavily based on textbooks. In my classes, we read most of the textbook whether it was assigned for in class or outside of class. I find it particularly interesting that the author emphasizes to not assign the entire textbook, especially since this is the opposite of how I learned. Retrospectively speaking based on my classroom experience, it seems that there was a great amount of time wasted in trying to cover the whole textbook instead of focusing on if we as students grasped the concepts. As a future teacher, I understand that it is important to be very selective in how I use a textbook, but as I began this chapter, I wasn't sure how to implement that.

As I continued reading the chapter, I learned many things from the six activities listed. I really liked the idea of using the Jigsawing activity in my classroom. Since my content areas are math and science, most of my readings would probably consist of textbooks, articles, and texts similar to this. Because of this, the readings I use in my classroom could be very easily subdivided. Since kids would specialize in a smaller number of topics by using a Jigsaw activity, reading and understanding large texts would be far less overwhelming for them. Also, Jigsawing promotes students working together in groups and relying on peers.

At first, the idea of students relying so heavily on their peers signaled a red flag for me. However, as I began to think more about it, I realized that this may motivate the students even more to sufficiently understand and explain their text, especially in the middle grades. If a student values the approval of his or her teacher, how much more will that student value the approval of his or her friends and classmates? A lot. According to Daniels, "it's much harder to 'fake it' than it is to slide through a textbook assignment without understanding" (189). Also, working with other students provides the opportunity the the kids to actually think through and engage with the assigned reading, which will greatly influence their comprehension of the text. Overall, I like the idea of Jigsawing and cannot wait to use it in my classroom!

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