Week 3 Readings

TEXTBOOKS!!!
The ever dreaded high school text book. As stated in the reading some districts will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on new editions of textbooks or adopt new ones every 5 or so years, which means the districts themselves, especially if they are public school districts, must account this into their yearly budget on how to pay for these books that some students wont even open throughout the year.
The students that do though, usually, are expected to return the book how it was given out, with a little bit of wear, and should not write in them, which for many college textbook readers sounds like the worst thing in the world.
We know as undergrad and grad students some of the most accurate and valuable learning comes from the annotative marks that are made in book and without the tool to do this it can sometimes be ineffective for students to gain a deeper knowledge out of their 20 pages of Psychology reading from their textbook.
The authors pointed out 4 key concerns with textbooks.
1: Inconsiderate texts. No sequence in the writing, jumping from topic to topic. This type of writing causes retention rates to diminish in the students and the reading is just rendered useless.
2: Inaccuracy. Not all information is factual. As stated there were 113 errors in a best selling science textbook as found by a concerned parent featured on 20/20.
3: Inappropriate reading level. Up to 40% of students are reading textbooks that are above their reading level; No wonder they don't understand the reading!!!
4: Negative student reactions: Students come into classes dreading textbooks and some don't even attempt to read them because they have a thought that they simply will not understand the information.
Know who will be reading these books. Using Trade Books. Understand your students reading levels and plan accordingly!

Write to learn!
Short, spontaneous, exploratory, informal, personal, one draft, unedited, ungraded.
Writing to learn allows the students to begin to be comfortable, if they aren't already, with their writing. Since it is should be an ungraded activity, it allows the students more freedom to with what they please. This could be anything from becoming more creative, exploring a particular style of writing, or simply being able to state facts about whatever the topic of writing is that day.