Lies My Teacher Told Me- Ch 13

This chapter talks about why history is taught through tertiary sources. Is using textbooks for teaching the best thing for a class? Having read this, my opinion has changed slightly but not dramatically. I think that textbooks can be effective tools, especially for beginning teachers. In my novice classroom, I was asked to teach a whole unit on Ancient Egypt. Although this was an interesting topic for me to teach, I knew little about this topic. I had to use the textbook to help plan the timeline for my unit. I tried implementing more facts and methods of teaching not found from the textbook but it was always my fall back option in case I needed help. This is why the textbook is effective. It helps teachers who do not know much about a particular topic teach it in a more effective way. As you become more experienced, you should break dependency on the text book gradually.

Big question: How can we keep students motivated as first year teachers who are more dependent on textbooks?

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Link: http://www.iq.poquoson.org/socialstudies.htm