Tools to Improve Learning: Trade Books and Writing

What is the first thing that comes to mind when someone says the word "textbook"? Most students think of a heavy book that contains dry, complex, confusing, disorganized, and an overwhelming amount of information. Textbooks are used in 75-90% of classrooms across the United States, and most of our students do not know how to think or learn with them. That statistic shocked me. The information points to the idea that textbooks alone are not enriching learning tools in a classroom. What can we use to complement students' learning? Content Area Reading suggests that educators use trade books to be used in tandem with textbooks. Although textbooks provide a wealth of knowledge about an impressive number of topics, they tend to lack depth. I have experienced the feeling of being defeated by a textbook before I have even turned to the chapter I was assigned. It seemed like there was a never-ending stream of information that was, at best, arduous to read and even more challenging to remember and connect all of the facts. Trade books provide an opportunity for students to enter a literary work that has depth and an emotional dimension. They also expose students to many different genres and allow teachers to offer books at many different reading levels which creates more accessible literature. If our students are scared away from textbooks, they might associate those negative feelings with reading in general. Trade books can help to bridge that gap.

There are so many different ways that trade books can be incorporated into a classroom to enrich the curriculum. Once the students read the books, how can we, as educators, follow up on what they learned? There are many effective reader response strategies to engage students. One of my favorite examples is through drama. I will never forget one of my IB History classes. We read an excerpt from a source outside of our textbook about how World War II quickly accelerated to involve almost all of the European countries. My teacher, Mr. Affeldt, separated us into small groups and every group was assigned to be a country involved in the war. We were responsible for listening to his instructions regarding our actions and improvising to recreate what happened throughout the beginning of the war. We would invade other countries by bringing them into our group, and we "bombed" other countries by making paper airplanes, crunching up loose leaf paper to create "bombs" and walking in a formation across the classroom to throw the paper (gently) at the group members of the country being bombed. To this day, I can recall, with nearly perfect clarity, exactly what happened. All of that stemmed from an excellent application of a trade book that gave us in-depth information about what happened during World War II. Our textbook supplied almost no details regarding the same topic. The classroom vibrantly became alive that hour. That is a beautiful gift to give to students (and a gold star to give to the teacher). I hope I can use trade books to create the same sense of joy in learning that Mr. Affeldt gave our class. 

Another effective tool to enrich student's learning, that is also essential to the reader responses to trade books and textbooks, is writing. Writing is an important part of our everyday lives. We use it to make lists, scribble down reminders, express care to the ones we love - it's so useful and it starts at school. Normally, writing in school is associated with formal papers. However, Content Area Writing stresses the importance of writing to learn (WTL). WTL means that students write informal, spontaneous, short, personal, exploratory, and ungraded writing samples. In short, it is free, loosely structured with few rules and no penalties. This form of writing provides students with true learning power. They can write - express themselves - openly and without judgment. It is a wonderful opportunity to encourage writing in a non-stressful setting. Students sit in classrooms for about seven hours a day, five days a week. That is a lot of sitting. Breaking into their monotonous routine gives students' brains a breather that is important so that they can reflect on what they are learning. In my opinion, one of the most effective ways to remember something is to by making learning your own. If students can be proud and unabashed to express their thoughts, they could be more motivated to learn and to stay engaged. WTL is an excellent way to do that, and it can be applied in every content area, especially my own - Spanish.