Chapter 4:
Textbooks are the major source of reading in any student’s
life and can make doing their reading very hard. I know as a student it is not
the easiest thing in the world for me to sit down and doing the readings for
class. However, I will sit for hours and read for pleasure. The chapter talks
about the needing for balance between the dry textbook reading and the sources
that students don’t want to put down. As a history major it is important to use
many different types of source and many different types; from long selections
in textbooks to short clips for a newspaper. One thing that really stuck out in
the reading was the fact that students will sit for six hours trying to read a
textbook and not really understanding the material in front of them. As a
teacher, I would rather a student read a few small articles or even journals,
spending only one hour and really understanding the information. One of my
favorite things to do as a history major is research. The idea of finding many
different sources on one subject and fishing through for information is fun. It
allows me to explore the topic and draw my own conclusions because there are
multiple points of view at my fingertips. Therefore, why should high school
students only be exposed to one type of resource? The idea is to create a lifelong
learner and if we put blinders on the students reading how will they learn to
explore. How will they learn to take three different accounts of one event and
draw their own conclusion?
I never really liked history, and reading the textbook was a drag. I never retained any information. I am a logical thinker, so I like to be able to piece things together, make connections, and formulate my own opinion. I definitely think that opening up students to a variety of informational sources will help them better understand the content and make history personal.
ReplyDeleteI think history is a challenging subject when it comes to choosing textbooks, because as a teacher you need to provide what the textbooks are leaving out. I had an amazing teacher that told my class about the amount of things that our history textbook left out. While they are a great sourceof facts, they perpetuate the stereotypes that women and African Americans didn't matter. Yes, women had different responsibilities and most of them couldn't write, but there were women that stood out and their story was told. Some history textbooks (textbooks of all subjects really) appear to be objective, but use very subjective language. This could offend some of your students who do not fit the "male, white" role that takes precedent in many textbooks.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of implementing journals and articles into lessons and reading assignments. When it comes to history, I think this can be extremely helpful to the student because they will be able to learn the many different points of view from all different authors. Textbooks can still be a part of the classroom but maybe more as a reference rather than the major reading material for the class.
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