Episode 6: How to Make the Textbook Work for You

Are you teaching a course that’s left you thinking, this textbook is the best we could do? Curriculum improvement may not be something you’re naturally inclined to think about, but when material continues to fall flat with students, or it’s been a loooong time since your district invested in new textbooks, you might be spending some time wondering how you can make what you’re stuck with work better.

Very few of us have a lot of input into the textbooks we use with the classes we teach, and even when we do, sometimes things that look or sound good in the sales pitch end up not-so-great in practice. Maybe your school or district adopted the textbook years before you became a member of faculty. It’s possible you’ve recently changed course assignments and you didn’t have an opportunity to give your input before decisions were made.

Some schools and districts will tell you exactly what to teach and when, while others are much more open to teacher-motivated curriculum improvement, allowing you to bring to the table what you think will best serve your students.

If you’re feeling less than happy with what your current textbook curriculum offers and you’re open to making some tweaks and improvements, we’ve got some suggestions for you based on ways we’ve made less-than-ideal situations work for us in the past.

Related Content

Do you have limited options for the texts you can teach? Check out this YouTube video, where we talk through some ideas for making problematic texts more accessible to students.

Got your text and curriculum under control and ready to get started unit planning? Check out this blog post for 8 key elements we include in all our unit plans.