We all have had trouble reading, especially textbooks. Sometimes it just seems that teachers choose the most complicated textbooks to teach out of. I have had this problem in many of my college classes. I read a page and have no idea what I just read especially science textbooks. I am not referring to the terminology that is used in the book, but to how sentences are worded. Sometimes I would have to read a paragraph a few times before understanding it, which made the reading endless. At times I would just wonder if it was really necessary to teach from a hard to understand textbook, instead of using a more user friendly one. One of the subjects that Dornan, Rosen, and Wilson bring up in their book, which I thought was very interesting, are friendly texts.
Friendly texts consist of the following:
1. Chapter and section introduction.
2. Chapter and section conclusions.
3. A consistent pattern.
4. Use of meta-discourse.
Dornan et al., 1997, p. 82.
The use of chapter and section introductions are very important. They provide the reader with an understanding of what they will read in the chapter. They also allow students to link what they have previously learned to what they will learn-- they are able to make predictions. Chapter and section conclusions are also very helpful, they let students know what was the most important part of the chapter, or what they should have learned from reading the chapter. Chapter and section conclusions are also a great way to study. When I need to study I go over the chapter and section conclusions, if I know everything in the conclusions I usually just skim over the chapter, but if I do not understand or do not remember anything in the conclusions I take a good look over the chapter before my test. A consistent pattern is another thing that is very important. Consistency makes it easier for a student to learn. There is nothing worse than just getting comfortable with something then you have to switch it up. Meta-discourse is also important. It is important for authors of textbooks to link to their previous chapter. Through meta-discourse writers can provide a link between the text and our daily lives. I do not know how many times I hear kids say, "I'm never going to use this," what better way to engage them in learning than to prove to them that they will use it or it does pertain to everyday life.
I have also come in contact with these evil hard to read college text books. I think that one of the biggest reasons that we are force to read these endless books it because it was written by the professor... money has always been a large motivator unfortunately. I know that when I am a teacher I will try to use friendly texts that you don’t have to read five times to understand.
ReplyDeleteI have also had this problem in college and I am currently having this problem in my anatomy class. None of the sentences makes sense mainly because my instructor wrote it and his grammar is horrible. I have to read the sentences over and over again to get the gist of what he is saying. I have found in my academic career that I do better and enjoy classes that require easier textbooks mainly because I can better understand what is going on while is read.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about college textbooks. If you can really even call them that. I am a history/English concentration and I rarely have teachers who use "textbooks". Usually it is some relevant book written by a guy who has studied this particular subject his whole life. A ton of these books are written in a way that I tend to think we are supposed to be experts in that field to understand it. I agree with Sara, we also have tons of profs that write their own books and then assign them!! I hate that more than anything. Writing a paper about a book that this person wrote. I loved textbooks in high school that had little exerpts that applied what we were reading to our lives. It always made me feel like I was doing something useful.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone's comments. But I wonder if the teacher who assigns these text are just trying to increase our knowledge but giving harder to read texts. If so, it doesn't work like that. Most people shut down and turn off their brains when we can't understand the way it is written. There is nothing wrong with supplying text that is easy to read. I think some feel as though if the text is easy to read, it doesn't have any rigor. Just because a text is written in a readable manner doesn't mean that it doesn't have any rigor to it.
ReplyDeleteI cannot even count the times I have opened a textbook and wondered why I have to read all of this. Most textbooks are bland and hard to read all the way through. There have also been times where I simply skim through it, just to be done. I imagine kids do the same thing, and sadly probably give up sooner. This idea of friendly texts seems really interesting and definitely worth trying!
ReplyDeleteUsually science textbooks are written in a linear style. I don't think they are written unfriendly. Instead, they are. The problem might be that we might have missed the previous charpters or didn't fully understand them, or we couldn't connect the idea there with our life or our expriences.
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