Top 5 Mistakes Teachers Make When Choosing Text-Based Content

As a teacher, how confident do you feel in choosing texts to teach your content? Do the texts you select fulfill your teaching purposes? Do they actively engage students in the content you're trying to communicate? Do students "zone out" when you announce that you're using a text to learn about a new topic? Consider these top 5 mistakes that teachers make when they select texts to teach content, inspired by a reading of Part 2 of Thomas Newkirk's "Minds Made for Stories."

5. 5.) Choosing texts that focus on including as many details about content as can fit on the page.

Just because a text includes every detail any student could possibly want to know about a topic DOES NOT mean that text is best to teach with. Texts that are heavy with names, terms, and processes overwhelm students instead of introducing them to something new and fascinating. Instead, try layering in details about content as you move throughout units and lessons. Think depth over breadth.

4. 4.) Choosing texts without relatable and readable writing styles.

Lets be honest, no one talks (even in collegiate lectures) the way that textbooks are written. Passive, flat text loses the reader's interest faster than anything. Why not insert some life and style into the texts your students are learning from? Check out this example from a tenth-grader's essay on Animal Farm:

"Being power hungry ALWAYS causes problems, and BOY, did Napoleon cause problems."

3. 3.) Choosing texts that make topics look like they exist only in isolation.

Texts that introduce the moon cycle as being only applicable to the moon and outer space help only in making students feel disconnected from the topic at hand. Instead, try reading texts rich in metaphors that compare the moon cycle to riding a carousel - something most students find more relatable.

2. 2.) Choosing texts with no personality - no humor, no surprises, no VOICE.

Choosing texts with no humor or surprises or voice lacks engagement for students and are less memorable. Try adding in funny antidotes that capture students' attention.

1. 1.) Choosing texts that have no "story" - a.k.a BORING.

"The reader is never addressed; the writer is hidden." - Thomas Newkirk

NO story = no memory of the content. Tell me a story about human body cells, and I'm far more likely to remember the content!