Overcoming Textbook Fatigue: 21st Century Tools to Revitalize Teaching and Learning

-ReLeah Cossett Lent

Textbook fatigue is a malaise that negatively affects teachers and students. It is the result of scripted programs and step-by-step teachers’ manuals that dismiss the individualization of schools, teachers, and students. Because textbooks provide a one-way distillation of information aimed at a broad, generic population, they offer little to engage or pique the interest of the 30 individuals in a classroom.

In this example-packed book, ReLeah Cossett Lent shows how educators can reclaim the curriculum by shifting the textbook from sole source to resource. She also gives advice on using Common Core State Standards throughout the school and in the classroom. Teachers, coaches, curriculum coordinators, and administrators will discover proven techniques that will revitalize teaching and learning in every content area:

• Discipline-specific writing activities that extend and deepen lessons.
• Strategies for using content-specific materials that encourage students to “”read to learn””.
• Effective vocabulary strategies that work throughout the curriculum.
• Methods to tap into and build background knowledge.
• Fun activities that use relevant life skills to involve and engage students in learning.

Lent highlights what’s to be gained from loosening the grip on textbooks and provides practical guidance on how to accomplish that goal, using real-life examples from schools that have made the change. Overcoming Textbook Fatigue is brimming with ideas to restore the joy of teaching and learning and, in the process, boost student achievement.

Lent is a 20-year teaching veteran, an award-winning author, and an experienced international consultant specializing in literacy and communities of practice.