Now, keeping in mind that I’m a second grade teacher and that MY American History teacher taught in the EXACT same manner as above and I don’t remember a THING about American History, here’s a proposed list of assignments that I would have liked to have seen on the board.
* Who lived in pre-colonial America? Choose one people to read up on, create an artifact relevant to these people and be prepared for show-and-tell.
a teacher's reaction to a high school history class in which assigned textbook chapters had been written on the board
I've come to the conclusion that today's educators are anti-book. [update: this is way too sweeping and cranky. Cranky is bad. So is sweeping. Obviously, "today's educators" do not speak as one. And, as Dr. Stipes points out, it would no doubt be equally correct to assert that today's students are anti-book. So I take it back. I may have to stick with the claim that "today's
Pro-technology, anti-book.
Take my district (please!) The high school and middle school share a brand-new, two-story, Barnes-and-Noble-esque library that has very few books. The library has so few books, I'm told, that this year the school removed shelves to make the absence of books less glaring.
Parents at the 4-5 school are raising money to buy books for the library there.
High school kids come home and tell their parents the reason they're not reading more books in Honors English is that there aren't enough books to go around. (Teacher says it's not so, but if teacher is correct, why aren't the kids reading more books?)
And we've all heard tell of textbook shortages. Some of us have experienced textbook shortages firsthand (Spanish books that couldn't come home with kids because there weren't enough to go around in the case I know of.)
Occasionally people send emails concerning the book situation to the school board. The school board responds saying the book shortage has been addressed and we have all the books we're supposed to have.
Technically that may be true, though I have heard two stories of textbooks not showing up until, in one case, 2 months into the year; not until mid-year in the other. The students made-do with packets until the real books showed up.
Why would that be?
If we have all the books we're supposed to have, shouldn't we also have them when we're supposed to have them?
So we seem to be experiencing a degree of mystery where books are concerned.
There is no mystery when it comes to technology. We have vast heaping quantities of technology; we have rooms bursting at the seams with technology. We have computer labs (where middle school students can access at least one X-rated web site, I'm told); we have music labs; we have SMART Boards up the ying yang.
How many SMART Boards is that you ask?
Forty five.
The district's goal for last school year was the purchase and installation of 45 new SMART Boards and we met that goal.
No word on number of books purchased or read.
Who is anti-book? The English teachers that don't have enough, but fear for their job if they tell the truth? The school board that wants to eliminate librarians, and entire schools because they cannot balance the budgets as families move to the suburbs? Or, is society as a whole the culprit?
ReplyDeleteI teach and I assign lots of reading. My students all tell me that they don't have time to read the books. Students forced me to use PowerPoint, so now I fill my slides with text, and still assign a stack of books.
"I've come to the conclusion that today's educators are anti-book."
ReplyDeleteIt depends on what books.
Educationists have no problem with fiction. They do hate textbooks. Committing knowledge to memory is seen as "rote" memorization. Apparently there is no other way to commit knowledge to memory than by "rote". Demonstrating that one has learned something is then denigrated by the pejorative educationist term "regurgitation".
How educationists came to be so anti-knowledge would be interesting to explore.
See here for thoughts on memorization http://instructivist.blogspot.com/2006/11/memorization-need-not-be-rote.html
Memorization need not be rote.
My daughter's 6th grade science class (taught by a woman that admits her background and experience is entirely in reading) typically has the kids follow along in their textbook as an electronic voice pipes the words to them aloud.
ReplyDeleteThe kids detest the voice and mock the voice. My daughter can't stand to listen to the voice and follow along (it reads too slowly).
The textbook is on a 6th grade level. There is no reason these kids can't read aloud themselves (taking turns), or read quietly during class or as homework.
What is the point of having the kids listen to an electronic voice read a textbook to a class of kids.
Oh, I forgot, the teacher is integrating technology into her lesson plan.
My mistake. I'm sure this is a good use of classroom time.
Committing knowledge to memory is seen as "rote" memorization.
ReplyDeleteThere's also a view I've seen expressed by ardent constructivists that giving students information directly is catering to students by "handing info to them on a platter" without them having to work. I suppose if a teacher just stood and blathered the info at the front of the room, that would be true. But there is such a thing is asking students questions and making them work. Presenting information directly in a book takes work and in fact is an important part of learning. Students need to learn how to extract information from books. The process is an interative one. At first a student might read the assigned part, feel that they've done the work and then the next day find they are unable to answer questions on what they just read. It's a skill. Some textbooks in fact have little questions interspersed throughout a chapter to help students focus on what it is they've just read. If they can't answer such questions they go back and re-read. As Instructivist points out, absorbing such information is NOT rote memorization.
Hi Dr. Stipes!
ReplyDeleteI've "updated" my "today's educators" claim.
What a ridiculous thing to say; I hate reading stuff like that and now I'm writing it.
sigh
I may be a tad too stressed to be writing a blog at the moment....(deadline pressure)
"Educationists have no problem with fiction. They do hate textbooks."
ReplyDeleteExactly. Indirect learning rather than direct learning. Fun (slow)learning rather than direct (fast) learning. Textbooks are for direct learning. Fiction is indirect.
"But there is such a thing is asking students questions and making them work."
They don't like hard work and grade-level expectations because that would be a "filter" and not a "pump". They think that they can get something for nothing. The only way they can do that is by eliminating or reducing expectations. If the goal of education is defined by fuzzy goals, then you can do almost anything.
Kids are ruined in the early grades and are completely unprepared for the rigors of high school and college without a lot of parental (or tutor) intervention.
I teach an after-school SSAT prep class. The kids do not like it when I lecture, or even ask questions. They just want to jump right in and do stuff. They want to learn by doing. They don't even want to hear my comments about how to approach the short essay they have to write. They are so used to having the teacher give them a brief introduction and then letting them do stuff.
As I have said before, we give them too much credibility. We look for deep meaning when there isn't any. If we had full school choice, then they can go off in their own little world and do whatever they want with the kids of like-minded parents. But, of course, they know what's best for all kids.
"Homeschooling is good"
ReplyDeleteThere is a surprisingly large market out there catering to homeschoolers who also don't want to use books.
"...it would no doubt be equally correct to assert that today's students are anti-book."
ReplyDeleteCareful. Kids are anti-lots of things. Let's not blame kids for the shortcomings of the school. Kids shouldn't be driving the curriculum.
Our school is very pro-reading, but anti-textbook. This starts to change in 7th and 8th grades as a preparation for the rigors of high school. The change also happens because, starting in 7th grade, teachers have to be certified in the subject they teach.
Our school does not become more pro-reading in middle school. Not at all.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of this year--C. is in 8th grade--the big, culminating ELA project will be making a movie. None of the teachers overseeing the project is trained in filmmaking or in film studies. (My Ph.D. is in film studies, believe it or not.)
Parents of high school students are extremely upset over the reading situation there.
ReplyDeleteOne parent told Ed that her son was given a summer list of books between junior and senior year. He was to choose one and read it.
He chose Winnie the Pooh.
The was on the list.
The parents in this family are major researchers -- major researchers meaning famous researchers, the kind of people you read magazine profiles about.
the kids follow along in their textbook as an electronic voice pipes the words to them aloud
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know whether this helps slow readers?
I've always wondered in the case of Andrew -- also Jimmy -- this is a bit off-topic, but I've tried to experiment with having closed captions on....(that experiment never lasts long since Ed is forever changing cable systems to the point where I now have two typed pages of instructions explaining how to turn the TV on and see something on screen other than static).
Presenting information directly in a book takes work and in fact is an important part of learning. Students need to learn how to extract information from books.
ReplyDeleteBarry, if you have time (I know you do!) you should write something about this to post up front.
EVERYONE SHOULD.
We're dealing with this now. C. has no idea how to take notes.
His social studies teacher is covering this, but his method is too complex. (He has a 3-column note-taking process.)
We're pretty confused on this score.
Note-taking is another of those skills that we presumably both do very well, but we don't know how we do it.
I'm going to look back at How to Double Your Child's Grades in School & at Pauk, too.
Also, Kerrigan wrote a book on college reading (at least, I think he did - it's all a blur at this point) so I'm going to see what he has to say about it.
Teaching a novice something you know how to do well yourself is incredibly challenging.
Thank God for X-1-2-3.
C. said this morning, "We have an essay to write in class next week. I'm going to use X-1-2-3."
ReplyDeleteWe're going to have him brainstorm some X-1-2-3 sets for that essay beforehand.
He's writing the essay about a movie they're watching in class.
ReplyDelete"C. said this morning, "We have an essay to write in class next week. I'm going to use X-1-2-3."
ReplyDeleteThat must be music to your ears, Catherine!
As far as the note taking is concerned, I am wondering when my fourth grader will be taught how to do this. So far, I haven't seen any evidence he is doing this. This concerns me.
I had a couple of good history classes. They mostly weren't wedded to their textbooks either. The history teachers knew their history, and told it like a story, and we wrote essay answers to questions about the history. I'm sure I looked things up in the book, but that's not what I remember from the classes, and I don't think it was particularly effective in my learning of history. Not much research, no show and tell, but also not "read the textbook": lots of history, though. I think that's a good thing in a history (oops, Social studies) class.
ReplyDeleteActually, the classical approach to teaching history is not textbook driven. The emphasis is using history encyclopedias, literature of or about the period, and learning history as a story. For example, in learning about ancient Egypt, my fifth grade student is using a couple of history encyclopedias, writing summaries on notable men & women, art & inventions, religion & mythology, maps, daily life, etc. and keeping track of it all in a binder. She also keeps a running timeline where important historical events are recorded to form a visual reference. She's reading The History of Mankind, The History of the World, and as she's currently learning about Egypt, historical fiction like The Cat of Bubastes, for example. This is the approach to learning history chronologically in four periods (5000 BC to 400 AD/400-1600/1600-1850/150-present)immerses the student in history in a very rich way. The student spends a year studying each of the four in sequence which gives a chronological and natural progression to learning history. I didn't learn history this way, but I wish I had.
ReplyDeleteMy fourth grader is learning Virginia history because he will be tested on it in the spring. He brought his textbook home once, and that was to answer some questions. This was difficult for him to do since he has never had to do read a textbook and extract information.
ReplyDeleteI am wondering if the teacher realized how difficult this assignment was for his students and dropped the idea. I say this because I haven't seen the textbook again. While history doesn't necessarily have to be textbook driven, I think students should know how to answer questions when given a textbook. For me, answering questions helped me to memorize history facts and dates when I wrote them down.
Absolutely. Textbooks shouldn't be foreign to students and being able to extract valuable information and process what has been read is a vital, transferable skill. Of course, it's even better is it's a well-written textbook.
ReplyDelete"Our school does not become more pro-reading in middle school. Not at all."
ReplyDeleteMy son (in sixth grade) has to read at least one book a month of over 150 pages. This is over and above any books being read in class, like "The Pearl". They have to do some kind of report on each book. Unfortunately, the report might include a lot of coloring!
As for history, he hasn't had a thing. Not one thing.
ReplyDeleteI don't use our school textbooks for English. Many of our English teachers don't. They are terrible. Overly complicated in the midst of the text - 2-4 pictures per page, side boxes, vocab on the right hand side and at the bottom, more pictures, odd pull-quotes - designed to be "eye-catching" but are actually just distracting. The activities are sub-par ("Write a letter to Chaucer about a journey you took" - senior English), and they are meant to be supplemented with workbooks we don't have, so half the lesson is lost anyway. The translations of Beowulf and Antigone are some of the worst I've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteI've been through a textbook adoption too, and the biggest push from the textbook companies was to buy these enormously complex programs and things like video clips, CDs of the material read aloud, and little computer quizzes were touted as learning gold for "authentic engagement." I don't have all the technology for those in my classroom, much less all the paper and time needed to copy the supplementary worksheets.
For English, one of the major problems with textbooks is the students can't annotate in them which, at the high school level, is extremely important. So we end up making copies anyway.
It's not always anti-textbook, as has been mentioned. Sometimes, teachers junk textbooks because they're junk. :)
oh, absolutely
ReplyDeletemost K-12 textbooks are horrific, as far as I can tell
Did I ever write a post about my experience spending an entire week trying to find decent books on writing?
I discovered, fairly early on, that any composition textbook written for the K-12 market was bad.
Across the board. This rule never, ever failed me.
There are some good books for the college market. Or at least there is one: Joseph Williams' LESSONS ON STYLE.
There are many good books on writing for the adult market.
You have to look for the writing books people buy for themselves.
Those are the good ones.
My son (in sixth grade) has to read at least one book a month of over 150 pages.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the Honors English students in 9th grade are reading that much. (Could be wrong, but that seems to be what parents are telling me .... I'll check.)
C. has read one novel this year: The Chocolate Wars.
He is now reading a college-level biography of Andrew Carnegie because he's supposed to read a bio of an immigrant and that's the one I picked out.
He's been reading his Earth Science textbook (Earth Science is a Regents course) and his math textbook (also a Regents course).
I'm not sure what he's reading in social studies.
Just asked.
They have a textbook but they don't use it. The teacher gives them a packet instead of about 3 pages, maybe once a week.
Basically if I hadn't chosen the biography he could have gone from Labor Day to Christmas reading around 300 easy pages of text plus Earth Science.