Textbook

4 Key excerpts on "Textbook"

• 

  eBook - PDF

  Intercultural Learning in Textbooks

  A Comparative Study of English Textbooks at Upper-Secondary School Level in Germany, Iran, the Netherlands, and Sweden

  • (Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Cuvillier Verlag

    (Publisher)

  Moreover, a Textbook “is a book containing facts about a particular subject that is used by people studying that subject” (Collins Ameri Ͳ can English Dictionary, 2014). In another definition by Doff and Giesler (2012: 88), Textbooks and teaching materials are indirect resources which are at the same time significant scientific, political, and educational media since … [Schulbücher] definieren nicht nur „legitimes Wissen“ und wünschenswerte Kompetenzen, sondern vermitteln auch staatlich bzw. gesellschaftlich gewünschte Identitätsangebote. Sie sind deshalb immer auch ein Politikum und verweisen auf die Kontexte, in denen sie herge Ͳ stellt, genutzt und verhandelt werden. Schulbücher können ethnische, kulturelle, religiöse oder politische Konflikte auflösen oder abbilden, zugleich aber auch als Instrument der Kon Ͳ fliktbewältigung und Verständigung dienen (GEI, 2010, see also Depaepe & Simon, 2002: 10, as cited in Doff & Giesler, 2012: 88) 8 . As McGrath (2013) suggests, a Textbook is a book which is produced by a publisher, the Min Ͳ istry of Education in each country or a large organization, such as a university language cen Ͳ ter, and it is usually supplemented by the learners’ workbook, teachers’ guide, audio or vid Ͳ eo materials, and visual aids. Similarly, Fredriksson and Olsson (2006: 10) argue … 7 The central importance of the course as stabilizing factor, basis for planning, and main medium in foreign language teaching is undisputed. (My own translation) 8 [Textbooks] not only define “legitimate knowledge” and desirable competences but also provide a range of nationally and socially desired identities. They are, therefore, always a political issue and reference the con Ͳ texts in which they are produced, used, and discussed. Textbooks can resolve or depict ethnic, cultural, reli Ͳ gious or political conflicts; at the same time, however, they may also serve as an instrument of conflict resolu Ͳ tion and understanding.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Literacy in Australia 3E P-eBK

  • Amy Seely Flint, Lisbeth Kitson, Kaye Lowe, Kylie Shaw, Susan Feez, Sally Humphrey, Mark Vicars(Authors)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  These developments in literary theory, and what counts as literature, have in turn shaped teachers’ perceptions and the texts they value in the classroom. The definition of literature evident in the Australian Curriculum: English (ACARA, 2018) encapsulates a broader notion of texts that draw from a range of cultural contexts, including those of enduring historical and ‘literary’ value, as well as some more current in the personal and social lives of students. The curriculum embraces a variety of fictional or imaginative forms for both children and young adults, including picturebooks, novels, graphic novels, plays, short stories, poetry, and multimodal texts such as films and songs. It also includes a variety of non-fiction texts that present information in literary ways. However, what do we mean by the term ‘literary’? The Queensland Studies Authority (2007) defines literary texts as: characterised by the aesthetic use of language and the imagination to shape, explore, reproduce understand- ings about, reflect on, represent, and speculate about human experience through the construction of real and imagined (including virtual) worlds. CHAPTER 10 Literature in the classroom 331 So, non-fiction literary texts such as autobiographies or biographies — for example, Mao’s last dancer: Young reader edition (2003), or the picturebook version, The peasant prince (Cunxin, 2007), which uses aesthetic language — would fall into the category of a literary text. Source: Cunxin (2007). Picturebooks, novels and movies are not a genre in themselves, even though this has been debated by authors (particularly in relation to postmodern picturebooks) (Goldstone & Labbo, 2004). They are particular formats of literary texts. Picturebooks can draw from different genres — for example, the traditional narrative, historical narratives, fairytales and folktales, biographies, mystery, fantasy and science fiction.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Literacy 101

  Questions and answers that meet the needs of real teachers in K–8 classrooms

  • David Booth(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Pembroke

    (Publisher)

  Of course, the texts of our reading lives vary in function and quality, and we can categorize them in so many ways: “classic” texts, popular texts, social media, work-related texts, and so on. But schools generally treat “literature” as texts a library would have included in its collection in the past. The literature canon for youngsters has not altered much over the last forty or fifty years. The same novels are used throughout most school districts in North America, without much awareness of diversity or equity or gender issues, or whether young people are being prepared for a life of literacy. They are often read and analyzed chapter by chapter, with too little attention paid to the impact of this teaching strategy on reader choice and on the future literacy lives of the students. But reluctant read-ers tell us they want action, raw humour, familiarity, and complex illustrations; in contrast, many teachers prefer elegance of story structure, sophistication of character development, complexity of description, irony, and references to other literature. What if these readers could find themselves engaged in a powerful book they couldn’t put down? What would change in their reading lives? Would they forget their reading difficulties and simply read? Some teachers are able to find the right books for those students who are at a difficult stage in their reading lives. We can try to find resources that connect to their lives: series books like “Junie B. Jones” by Barbara Park (students can read them all and grow in fluency); read-aloud choices like The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (classics that we bring to 22 them and are also available in film), and leveled books that still have quality, like Arnold Lobel’s “Frog and Toad” series (which works very well with instructional groups). It may be that some schools will have to bear the burden of literature on their shoulders, that teachers will be the storytellers who reach most children.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Our Evolving Curriculum

  Part I: A Special Issue of Peabody Journal of Education

  • Allan C. Ornstein, Linda S. Behar(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  The Textbook-Driven Curriculum

  Allan C. Ornstein

  Textbooks have come to drive the curriculum, and one might wonder why so little attention is given to the position of the Textbook in the process of curriculum making. Reliance on the Textbook (as well as its companion, the workbook) is consistent with the stress on written words as the main medium of education, as well as the way many teachers themselves were educated. Dependence on the Textbook is also linked to the time when a majority of teachers were poorly prepared in subject matter or teaching out of license and read the text one day in advance of the students. Many of today’s teachers, while better educated than their predecessors, sometimes lack the time or training to prepare new materials; thus, they continue to rely on the Textbook and workbook.

  Characteristics of Textbooks

  Good Textbooks have many desirable characteristics. They are usually well organized, coherent, unified, relatively up-to-date, accurate, and relatively unbiased. They have been scrutinized by scholars, educators, and minority groups. Their reading level and knowledge base match the developmental level of their intended audience. They are accompanied by teacher’s manuals, test items, study guides, and activity guides. The Textbook is an acceptable tool for instruction as long as it is selected with care and is kept in proper perspective so that it is not viewed as the only source of knowledge, and it does not turn into the curriculum.

  On the other hand, critics have found that Textbooks in nearly every subject and grade level cover too many topics, the writing is superficial, choppy, and lacking in depth and breadth (the phenomenon is called “mentioning”), and content wanders between the important and the trivial. They fail to capture the imagination and interest of the students or to make students think and spurn current knowledge about cognitive information and linguistic processing. The so-called best Textbooks are often designed to entertain and to be decorative, but they provide only tidbits of information, lack adequate integration of subject matter, and do not stretch the student’s mind. They are unintentionally geared to oversimplify and to limit thinking (see Table 1

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book