In chapter four of Subjects Matter Daniels
and Zemelman discuss the importance of exposing students to a wide variety of
reading materials. They explain that while textbooks are a useful resource for
teachers they should not be the sole source of reference material for students.
Teachers should try to include other reference materials in their lessons
including news stories, historical accounts, editorials, essays, reviews,
biographies, memoirs, novels, plays, and poetry. Including these materials in
the classroom can help to actively engage students and make it easier for them
to understand the content of the lesson.
I
do agree with these ideas discussed in chapter four of Subjects Matter. I think
it is important to utilize resources other than textbooks in the classroom,
especially in my content area of history. Learning history from a textbook can
by dry and boring. There are so many historical resources that can be used in
the teaching of history. I think it is especially important to teach students
about primary sources in history at the secondary level. I had not learned
about primary sources until I entered college and I find that they are very
useful in the teaching and understanding of historical themes and ideas.
While
I agree that a wide variety of reading materials should be used in the
classroom I do think it could be somewhat difficult for teachers to obtain
these resources. While there are many reading materials that are available for
free such as news articles and essays there are some that would be costly. For
example if a teacher wanted to use a specific novel in their lesson it would be
costly for the school to buy each student their own novel. Like a well balanced
diet of healthy foods a well balanced diet of engaging reading material can be
costly.
I
was reminded that not all school districts have the money to spend on reading
material in the classroom in a recent Huffington Post article titled, “’It’s
not worth it to become a teacher at this point’ Veteran Educator Says.” In this
article a North Carolina teacher explains how she must sacrifice her own money
out of pocket to buy supplies for her students. She also explained that she has
not gotten new textbooks since 2009. With educational budget cuts around the
country it seems as though a well balanced diet of reading might be easier said
than done. It is our job as educators to make this dream of a balanced diet of
reading in the classroom a reality.
’It’s not worth it to become a teacher at this point’ Veteran Educator Says:
I barely read primary sources in high school, which I think is a real issue too. One of the units I planned for SED 406 last semester was filled with primary sources. The professor loved the idea, but quickly pointed out how students cannot easily read those texts. I factored that into my planning by giving shorter texts and extra time in class to analyze the material with the students. Yet, my SPED class is showing me that there are is far more to teaching primary sources than I originally anticipated. Since I am still figuring out how to introduce primary texts into a classroom, I am curious about what approach you would take.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great question Kendra and I'm not 100 % sure how to answer it. I would probably start with teaching students what a primary source is and providing them examples. There could possibly a whole lesson or unit on primary sources. Students could be given examples of all different kinds of sources (primary, secondary, and tertiary) and asked to identify which one is the primary source. Another good idea might be to have students find their own primary sources and do some kind of project or report using them. These are just some ideas that I'm brain storming off hand.
ReplyDeleteI really like your second idea. Giving them the extra outside class time to work with the text would probably be extremely helpful to them.
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