10 CHAPTER 2 Learning with Textbooks, Trade Books, and Electronic Texts PURPOSE The purpose of this chapter is to explore how trade books and electronic texts can extend and enrich the curriculum. UNDERLYING CONCEPTS 1. Trade books and electronic texts offer students a variety of interesting and relevant experiences with text and can be used to effectively enhance content learning. 2. Trade books, including nonfiction, fiction, and picture books, can serve as schema builders for content area learning. 3. Trade books can be used to enhance students interest in content area topics, as well as foster emotional commitment to the subject. 4. Email, newsgroups and chat groups are interactive and can enhance communication about content area topics and foster socially mediated learning. 5. The internet can be used to effectively engage students in inquiry through information searches and retrieval. 6. Media authoring systems can provide students with creative ways to demonstrate content knowledge. STUDENT OBJECTIVES 1. Students will demonstrate an understanding of some of the problems associated with textbook use and internet use. 2. Students will demonstrate how trade books can be used to enhance the curriculum. 3. Students will demonstrate how a variety of electronic texts can be used to enhance the curriculum. 4. Students will gain an appreciation for the changing role of the teacher when trade books and electronic texts are used in the content areas.
11 ACTIVITIES AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS Prereading 1. Using the graphic organizer at the beginning of the chapter, explain how the content of the chapter relates to the chapter title. 2. Have the students brainstorm ways they have observed teachers use textbooks. Have the students classify their observations as positive or negative. Use the results as a springboard for discussion. 3. Have the students share their memories of trade books that teachers have read aloud. Are the memories positive or negative? Explore why. 4. Allow students time to discuss their experiences with electronic text. Are the experiences positive or negative? How might the negative experiences be altered to provide students with a positive learning experience? 5. The authors suggest that electronic text has the potential to alter our views about literacy. Use this statement as a springboard for discussion. 6. Selected true false statements and/or multiple choice test questions might be used as a pre-assessment. 7. Selected true false statements might be used as a springboard for discussion and to determine student prior knowledge. During Reading 8. As the students read the beginning of the chapter, have them generate a list of problems associated with textbooks and/or electronic texts. 9. Refer to McGowan & Guzzetti s (1991) reasons for using trade books across the curriculum [as referenced in the chapter]. Have each student write a letter to a fictitious principal asking for funding for trade books based on McGowan and Guzzetti s reasons. 10. Using the content area web links provided in this chapter, have the students select sites pertaining to a content area and evaluate the site s usefulness for enhancing the curriculum for struggling readers. Is the site user friendly for middle school students? For high school students? For teachers? Is the information accurate? 11. Obtain a copy of the book, One More Border (Kaplan, 1998); model for the
12 After Reading students how to use the trade book to develop background knowledge and schema. 12. Have students select a topic of interest within their content area and locate five picture books related to that topic. Have students share books using a book talk format and explain how each book could be used to build background knowledge about the topic. 13. Model for the students by reading aloud selections from trade books that can be used to enhance a variety of content areas. Have students practice reading aloud in small group sharing sessions. 14. Create a Reader s Theatre script from a picture book. Use the script with the class to demonstrate a way to use trade books in the classroom. 15. Have small groups of students create Reader s Theatre scripts for portions of textbooks. Each group can perform their script to demonstrate how reading textbooks can be enhanced through repeated readings using this format. 16. Have students select a famous person in a content area of their choice. Students locate biographical or autobiographical information about the person and share as read alouds in class or by using authoring software. Discuss how this activity can engage students in learning about the content area. 17. Using textbooks from content areas of their choice, have students work in small groups. Each group should select a chapter from the text and generate a list of questions that arise from it. Students should subsequently search for several trade books and web sites that address the questions and report to the class. 18. Provide small groups of students with a variety of nonfiction trade books and CD- ROMs. Using criteria in the textbook, each group evaluates the literature. Groups may rotate resource material and compare evaluations. 19. Have students conduct a library search of the resources pertaining to trade book selection in the chapter. Reviews of the resources can be presented in class. 20. Have students interview a middle school or high school librarian regarding the process used to select trade books and CD-ROMs for the library. Report findings in class.
13 21. Have students select a poem or lyrics that reflect a content area topic of their choice. Allow time for oral reading. Use the activity as a springboard for discussion on using poetry and music to enhance content area learning. 22. Provide small groups of students with a selection of books suggested in the text. Allow students time to browse through the books and brainstorm ways they might be used to enhance several content areas. Each group can share in a large group setting. 23. Have students respond to the following quotation from the textbook: Reinking (1995) argues that computers are changing the way we communicate and disseminate information, how we approach reading and writing, and how we think about people becoming literate. While electronic texts often enhance learning, Reinking contends that reading and writing with computers have the power to transform the way we teach and learn. 24. Have pairs of students select a topic of interest to search on the internet. Have each student begin with the same web site, and subsequently locate information independently, documenting each step and link selected. Following the web search, pairs of students compare and contrast how they went about the search. Use this activity as a springboard for discussion on how to implement web inquiry with middle and high school students. 25. Using a projector connected to a computer with internet access, demonstrate for the students how to conduct a web search on a topic of interest to the class by using a variation of the think-aloud strategy. Talk as you conduct the search, modelling your reasoning for selecting particular links. 26. If available, have students browse through current teacher manuals in the content areas that have web resource links. Students might evaluate the websites using a simple rubric of : Good Fair Poor and provide reasons for their choice.. Students might also brainstorm ways they would use the websites in their classrooms. 27. Have students create a presentation using authoring software on a content area topic of their choice using information gathered from the Internet. 28. Have students select a painting or photograph related to a content area topic of their choice. Allow time for viewing and then discuss how the image might be used in a classroom.
14 Chapter 2 SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS True/False Test Items 2.1 Most content area teachers integrate trade books into their curriculum. 2.2 Textbooks can treat subject matter with the breadth and depth necessary to fully develop ideas and concepts. 2.3 When teachers combine the use of textbooks with trade books and electronic texts they extend and enrich the curriculum. 2.4 Literature selection for different age groups is often arbitrary and based on subjective criteria. 2.5 Nonfiction books are difficult to use because they tend to be literal and objective. 2.6 Many students do not know how to read to learn with informational texts because their school experiences have been limited to textbook-only reading. 2.7 Reading and writing with computers allows students to access and retrieve information, construct their own texts, and interact with others. 2.8 Textbooks and trade books should be used in an integrated approach to explore a thematic topic and develop concepts.
15 2.9 It is beneficial for the student and teacher when the textbook becomes the curriculum. 2.10 Textbooks alone can motivate students to continue their learning, particularly in the case of reluctant or academic diverse readers. 2.11 Trade books help readers make sense and develop concepts in ways that are not possible with textbooks. 2.12 Picture books should not be incorporated into the curriculum of middle school and high school students. They tend to be too simple for students, unmotivating, and not age appropriate. 2.13 Electronic texts create an environment for social interactions. 2.14 Whenever you plan a lesson or unit that involves students in multimedia learning environments, you run the risk of having them ignore substantive content in favor of superficial discoveries. 2.15 The proliferation of software programs can make it easy for teachers to choose appropriate ones for classroom use. 2.16 Hypermedia is the same as printed text because both are linear in structure. 2.17 Hypermedia enriches but does not extend any literacy learning event in the content area.
16 2.18 The possibility for multiple digressions is the defining attribute of hypermedia. 2.19 Web based advertising has had a negative impact on the classroom appropriateness of using the Internet. Multiple Choice 2.1. The most prevalent forms of instructional material used by content area teachers are: a. magazines b. literature c. textbooks d. multimedia materials Answer: c 2.2 What would be most helpful in motivating students who are not reading their textbook assignments? a. teachers should share personal experiences and struggles with reading b. because the print text may be too difficult, teach concepts through other kinds of text c. give frequent quizzes to help students keep up with readings and discuss them as returned d. activate appropriate student schema before they interact with the text Answer: d 2.3 When integrating stories across the curriculum, which statement is not appropriate? a. The stories should be well written and documented b. The stories should go beyond facts c. The same stories should be repeatedly read in all classes d. The stories should relay information as well as tell a story Answer: c 2.4 Students read pieces of literature because they appeal to two needs. What are those needs?
17 Answer: a a. cognitive and affective needs b. imaginative and affective needs c. cognitive and informational needs d. physical and imaginative needs 2.5 Which of the following is a problem in using the internet? a. variety of material b. quantity of information c. mix of text types d. marketing of products Answer: d 2.6 What is not a rationale suggested by the authors for integrating electronic texts into the curriculum? a. independent learning b. interactivity c. socially mediated learning d. multimedia environments Answer: a 2.7 Literacy learning with computers is all of the following except: a. social b. contrived c. collaborative d. creative Answer: b 2.8 When choosing a textbook, which of the following is the most important consideration? a. what the students already know about the content under discussion b. length of the text c. number of graphics in the text d. publication date Answer: a 2.9 Which instructional tool is least likely to be intrinsically motivating? a. trade books b. electronic texts
18 c. textbooks d. Internet Answer: c 2.10 Which one of the following is not a compelling reason to use trade books across the curriculum? a. variety b. relevance c. comprehensibility d. ownership Answer: d 2.11 In the pictures and text are interdependent. a. wordless books b. picture storybooks c. books with illustrations d. picture books with minimal text Answer: b 2.12 Interactive electronic conversations are least likely to be accomplished through: a. email b. newsgroups c. listservs d. chat Answer: c 2.13 emphasizes that students are capable of manipulating texts, and text is responsive to student's interests, purposes, and needs. a. socially mediated learning b. communication c. interactivity d. information search and retrieval Answer: c 2.14 Which of the following is not a characteristic of electronic books? a. conventions b. organizing theme c. visual features d. broad general information Answer: d
19 ESSAY QUESTIONS Essay questions include a mixture of questions designed (1) to help students apply and synthesize ideas, and (2) to help students clarify and understand ideas. 1. You believe that trade books and electronic texts belong in all classrooms and should be integrated within all curricular areas. Other colleagues of yours, however, do not share this belief and rely solely on textbooks. What would you say to your colleagues when they ask you why you integrate trade books and electronic texts? What recommendations would you give them to help integrate either trade books and/or electronic texts into their classrooms? 2. Is a textbook only a series of neutral, "matter-of-fact statements?" Why? Why not? 3. Compare and contrast fiction with nonfiction. What are the characteristics? Which type should you implement into the curriculum? Why? 4. What role do images play in middle school and secondary classrooms? What picture books would you use? How and why? What other kinds of image texts might you include? How and why? 5. Compare and contrast trade books with electronic texts. What are their characteristics? Which should be incorporated into the classroom? Why? Be sure to discuss both similarities and differences. 6. Students and teachers report that students do not "read assigned textbook material anymore." Discuss this realization. Explain the teacher's role and responsibility with this situation. 7. How might teachers overcome concerns about using the internet as a classroom resource? 8. What is the role of critical thinking in learning with texts? Chapter 2 VOCABULARY AND KEY TERMS authoring software CD-ROM chat desktop publishing program electronic text email home page hyperlinks
20 hypermedia interaction Internet listserv literature multimedia projects newsgroups picture books scanner trade books web sites wordless books World Wide Web (WWW)