“The best teachers don’t teach from the book”. OUCH!

“The best teachers don’t teach from the book”. This quote from our graduate class has resonated with me all week. The most disappointing part was the general agreement with this statement among the class. The class discussion was not aimed at mathematics nor was mathematics excluded from the conversation. Thus, I feel entitled to be slightly outraged as a mathematics teacher who utilizes a text and as a mathematics text book author (Pre-Algebra, Geometry and Discrete Math). As an educator, I have seen tremendous gains in mathematics education since the implementation of a new series of texts. For example, at the elementary level, Everyday Math has been a tremendous success (yes, I realize some people will disagree with this statement). This series has brought about dynamic change in mathematics education in primary school. Students are leaving elementary school with valuable logic and critical thinking skills. Students’ appreciation of mathematics has grown. Their willingness and ability to struggle with an open-ended question has increased. They are more passionate and better ‘thinkers”. No, this is not solely due to the Everyday Math series. Instead, we must give credit to the teachers who not only have taught from the text but have also taken the time to train themselves to be prepared to teach from the curriculum.

At the secondary level, I have had the opportunity to witness the culture of a mathematics classroom change with the adoption of a new text. Texts that focus on real-world applications excite the students. Texts that infuse technology into the curriculum allow more students access to challenging and stimulating mathematics. Why would we want our teachers to spend their time reinventing the wheel to create worksheets when such rich resources are available? The best teachers utilize the best resources (which are often text books) effectively to address the needs of their students. Of course, this requires planning. A careful dissection of the available material is necessary to ensure that the lesson is suitable for the class. At times, the lessons need to be modified based on the audience. Teachers should dedicate their time to these types of meaningful activities, not the mindless creation of a 20 problem worksheet!

As an author, I can assure you that the best texts are written BY TEACHERS. Author teams are carefully selected to ensure the perfect blend of teachers with diverse strengths. An author’s main goal is to provide a lesson that is both intuitive and imaginative. A single lesson may take an author team days to create and revise. To expect every teacher to be able to create lessons of the same depth without the use of a text is both unreasonable and illogical.

Only recently did I realize that Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe would endorse the process through which the texts I’ve co-authored have been developed. Each text development process began with a group of brainstorming sessions to determine our main objectives (i.e. mission) and the major themes (i.e. essential questions) that would be carried throughout the book. Throughout the summer, we’d meet periodically to discuss the main ideas of a different chapter (mini essential questions) before writing on the chapter began. Between these meetings, each team member worked on original assessments, problems sets and prose. Activities and technology were integrated throughout the prose but only in lessons in which they were meaningful. Spiraling ideas was a main goal in each text to encourage a greater level of “understanding”. Does this all sound familiar? Yes, the texts were developed using Understanding By Design techniques. How can we condemn teachers for using a text that was created by teachers using Understanding by Design?

In conclusion, I would like to commend teachers that utilize a text book effectively. The texts that have the strongest impact on students are often the most challenging to teach. They require teachers to leave their comfort zone to try something innovative (technology, activities, applications, etc). Additionally, they demand intense preparation to ensure that the instructor is prepared to teach the content. To all teachers that use these types of texts: KUDOS!