Synthesis Blog 3

Synthesis Blog 3

            I found that the chapter “How to Read a Textbook” demonstrated many interesting and relevant points about the dangers of solely relying on the words in the textbook to teach.  “Too often, we just divide the number of pages in our textbook by the number of days in the school year and then assign those six or seven pages every day to “get it done.” But in our hearts, we know this kind of “coverage” doesn’t really work (Daniels and Zemelman 177).”  This quote highlights the unfortunate reality of how a lot of classes are taught and how information is “covered.”  I recall this sort of teaching being implemented throughout my middle school, high school and college education.  I realize this type of teaching is problematic since personally I would just read the chapter, study for the test, and then forget the information soon after.  As a future educator I want to ensure I stray away from this method of teaching.  The chapter demonstrated a variety of methods and techniques to combat this.  I found the four filters mentioned on page 179 particularly helpful for determining what topics to cover more in depth and fully to ensure students really remember and understand the material covered.  As mentioned in the text, standardized test questions are shifting away from recall, multiple-choice tests and are aiming to measure students understanding of broader concepts.  As a future teacher I was pleased to read this and believe this will help keep me on track to teach the broader concepts in depth and skip assigning students to read every page of the textbook.  Overall, I think it is critical for teachers to provide instruction and assignments that will allow students to have lasting knowledge of the subject material.  Word count: 272