Monday, July 14, 2008

Do I HAVE to Read That?

The average freshman has to spend a fortune on books. You've already figured that out, and you're probably upset/angry/afraid. (Just to give you some numbers, my students will pay between $66 and $100 for books for our course, but that's only because I'm pretty conservative about ordering).

Do you have to actually read these things?

What an interesting question.

In high school classes, perhaps you would be assigned to read a section, then during class "discussions" parrot back the book's language when called upon. Trivia is great stuff for short answer quizzes: definition of a sestina, name of George Washington's horse. Some courses really need this kind of information. There's not much you can do with organic chemistry until you actually know how carbon atoms work. You'll do a lot better discussing Shakespeare's sonnets if you know how many lines a sonnet has and why they are grouped in a certain way. Many courses, though, don't do daily testing on trivia. The professors expect you to keep up with the reading because it's background information that will help you understand the lecture and/or material that will help you write a paper and/or material that will broaden your understanding of the subject.

But do you HAVE to read the textbook if you're not going to get tested on trivia? Well, no. It does seem a shame, though, to show up at college, pay the money for tuition and books, and make a point of staying ignorant.

Unless, of course, you are just here for the beer and sex.

Now for the rest of you:

Assuming you see more to higher education than just getting high, here's what one teacher thinks you should do with textbooks.

  • When you read a textbook, you get more than one teacher. It's me plus the textbook author. Even better, if you don't understand the textbook author, you can stop and grab a dictionary.

  • Tip of the iceberg. A one-hour lecture doesn't allow me to be as complete as a textbook chapter. The book has examples, illustrations, and even pictures. I'll explain points that seem to be difficult and answer questions raised by the text.

  • Disagreement: Sometimes I do differ from the textbook author, and I'll mention that. You need to see that some issues have more than one side.

  • Basic definitions and explanations. Why should I go into detail about nuts-and-bolts stuff that the textbook has covered very well? I assume you can read and that you've done it. That way I can build on your understanding.

And just because I live in a real world and know that my freshmen need to build a few good habits, I really will give brief reading quizzes, just to make sure you have cracked open the book.

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