Smokey D and Zemelman certainly made their point in these two chapters. I'm glad that they feel so vehemently against the use of textbooks alone in the classroom. I'm also happy to see that they have outlined some of the hardships which serve as de-incentives to using other sources besides a textbook.
While reading these chapters, I too was brainstorming about what ways I would try to bring extra reading sources into my classroom and ran into some of the same issues Smokey D and Zemelman brought up. Firstly, sometimes there is no budgeting for supportive reading materials making buying your own costly. Secondly, there has to either be student accountability for the returning and condition of borrowed books or some sort of library system where books are checked in and out.
Honestly, I usually agree with the authors of Subjects Matter about many of their philosophies but I think their classroom library idea isn't one of the best.
Just because there are books in the classroom, it doesn't mean kids will want to read them. Also, it's hard to keep books up to date with the newest bestseller lists etc. In turn, it gives students less control over what they're reading...I'd prefer there to be classroom reading and then personal reading that they pick independently. Basically, I think the classroom library idea is dated. A better tool would be to form an online classroom library which students could access through the teacher's kindle account. This way, students could pick from a variety of books which are mostly less expensive...and not have to worry about what condition they are returned in. I'm sure I could develop this idea further if I had more time.
Otherwise I really appreciate what this book is trying to accomplish. I think they're really trying to push the envelope about what it means to be a good teacher.
Hi Emily -
ReplyDeleteI really took to the idea of the classroom library, so it's interesting to hear your take on it - I like the idea of having a digital library and I can see how a non-digital library might be considered outdated - but I still like the idea of having real hold-in-your-hand paper books available for kids in the classroom, especially when there is less and less non-digital text available to them elsewhere and they are spending so much time on screens - I think of the classroom library as a place kids can go when they are looking for something to read (or are required to find something to read), where they can browse and find something that interests them - I don't think you would have to offer all the new best sellers, just a variety of texts - it's a way you can increase their exposure to all the awesome books out there - maybe some books would rarely get read, but even if just one kid gets turned on by a particular book, I think it'd be worth it. I may be too old-fashioned though ... as with all this stuff we are learning about, I can't wait to see how it plays out in my classroom. Thanks for getting me to look at it differently :)