Textbooks as teaching resources

LEARNING TOOL 

In the hands of a good teacher, the ubiquitous textbook can transform into a creative tool that can help children learn concepts in a fun manner, writes Sahaya Mary.

Textbooks are the very pulse of learning. It is a paradox that the average student in the primary classes depends more on written class notes rather than textbooks. While the language textbooks are “read” those of other subjects get cursory attention or none at all.

Reading textbooks has several advantages for a student in the primary classes. It is totally objective driven, engaging the learner in the active coding and decoding processes which is a vital component of acquiring effective reading skills. With regular reading, the learner “catches” the sense of the language, as language is the vehicle of transmission for all disciplines. Expansion of vocabulary is yet another dimension

Textbooks are direct examples of organisation of content, sequence, illustrations and a mosaic of different forms of literature, representation of ideas and content in the form of tables, graphs, flowcharts, and many more.  From the point of view of long term gains, the learner develops sound and sure study habits as textbooks are authentic sources of content and age appropriate literature.

Reading textbooks can be woven effectively into the fabric of teaching-learning in joyous and creative ways involving, play, curiosity and collaboration. The key to it is to engage students with the textbooks in a play way.

The teacher is the spark that ignites and fuels all learning. The content, methods and evaluatory items have to be searched and researched, redesigned and customised keeping the current class and the individual needs of the learners in mind.

Organising content from linear sequence to learning sequence: The prior knowledge of the students, which may or not be represented in the textbook, should be taken into consideration, when the teacher starts teaching. Direct relationships and connections between real life and learning need to be established to make the content in the textbooks relevant and interesting to the learner.

Supplementing and supporting: Even the best textbooks have areas that need to be supplemented and supported. Use of parallel poems, stories, concepts, problems from other books not only engage and stimulate but broaden perceptions.

Visualisation through illustrations

Illustrations serve as a great resource for picture based activities, discussions and brainstorming. They are an excellent for broadening student perceptions and integrating them across subjects. Students can be invited to illustrate the learning according to their perceptions or modify the textbook illustrations creatively. For example, a science poem on ‘rice’ can be illustrated in varied ways depending on the learner.

The present merging trend of holistic education in order to educate the whole person advocates the integration of scholastic and co-scholastic domains. Thus drawings, pictures and illustrations are a necessary and powerful part of early learning which can be exploited well by anchoring them to textbooks.

Quizzes, hunts, searches, mazes

Keeping an open book, students can be led to search and select typical terms and new words with visual, verbal, non-verbal, cryptic and contextual clues. A classic example is the teaching of poetry where students of Classes II and III can be led to read and pick lines that correspond to visual clues.

Inclusion

Diversity in student population is a significant challenge for all teachers. Several schools, particularly government-run schools, have 1-2% of differently-abled children in the mainstream classes in accordance with the policy of inclusive education. Online textbooks are a great resource that can be adapted to teach children with special needs.

Content can be made into smaller units for focus, transformed into multimedia formats for aiding the visually or hearing challenged student. Many units of the NCF 2005 based NCERT textbooks are available online as complete texts or audio-video formats online on YouTube, sometimes in bilingual mode. It also facilitates projection of sections of textbooks for classroom transaction in myriad ways according to the needs of individual students and abilities of the students. E-assignments to students preferably for Classes IV and V can involve intensive reading of the textbooks, use of appropriate and accurate language, a little bit of research and referencing, sequencing and organising and a host of other related skills. Use of technology thus ensures inclusion to a very high degree and is a potent tool for teaching as well as learning.

Evaluatory items being based on the content, it is a good idea to use content as a tool for evaluation. For example, learning punctuation does not come easy. Engaging the students to identify the punctuation used in the lesson in an analytical way followed by focussed activity can ensure high learning outcomes.

Textbook-based student activities

Textbooks can be manipulated into a creative base for a host of enrichment activities which are child inspired and fascinating, making the student interact willingly with the textbook in myriad ways.

Some examples are problem solving assignments in languages, creating text-based timelines, sequences, flowcharts, graphic organisers, concept maps and open book assignments. All these bring a variety of life skills to play in very natural and customised ways giving ownership, and luring the learner to not just read the textbook, but revisit it in numerous ways.

The taken for granted textbook can be a treasure in the hands of a creative and well-informed teacher. Teachers who are “text-people” can lead students to authentic learning experiences.