Synthesis Blog #3

The beginning of chapter six shows me the negative outcomes that come too often in classrooms using textbook-based instruction alone. Expecting a middle school student to read an entire textbook is ridiculous because even college students would find this extremely difficult. This old roots teaching style would be very detrimental for students that struggle with understanding literacy. Not every student will have the same capacity for learning and in targeting those that are at risk there must be a better answer than “it’s in the textbook” when they don’t understand something. I view textbooks as beneficial in core areas, preferring the college classes I’ve taken where the topics are introduced in the same order as the chapter outlines with a clear schedule of when these topics were introduced. I was rarely provided with class schedules throughout my K-12 education that went past important due dates. Now as a college student I can’t remember a class that didn't have this information available. Personally, this is beneficial for my learning because I can more easily find notes that I took in class allowing me to find the information from the textbook that is useful. I see these as benefitting younger students the most and it is something that I will make sure to incorporate into my future classrooms. Along with this, I can relate to the later part of the chapter which shows why information that doesn’t need to be known for a test shouldn’t be in the curriculum. Students are already expected to memorize so much material and incorporating material unrelated to their standards for learning would only serve in adding confusion. This shows me the importance of planning a curriculum so that all material is carefully aligned with the things that my students will need to know for standardized tests and providing concise study outlines that get them motivated to open their textbook.
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