How Textbooks Affect Literacy Improvement

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Cover of Confessions of an English Teacher Book 3

About Confessions of an English Teacher Book 3

Confession of an English Teacher: How Textbooks Affect Literacy Improvement and What to Do About It argues that the textbooks used in many average-level classes affect literacy development among high school students. The author argues that textbook literature is ill-suited for most classroom students. He argues that a custom-designed literature program would help students develop their language skills more quickly. He also claims that textbooks are both linguistically and culturally out of touch with today’s students. Instead of a textbook approach to teaching literature, English teachers should design their programs around their students' language levels and cultural proclivities. The literature textbook also tends to dominate class time, thereby leaving other critical literacy components of English instruction unaddressed. The author also argues that a balance of fiction and nonfiction should form the foundation of the reading students do in an English classroom. For too long, literature has dominated the English classroom curriculum, and integrating nonfiction will encourage students to read more texts that reflect the real world. Writing will not have to focus so much on literature, and will prepare students for college with more appropriate writing. The author offers solutions to the textbook-based curriculum by customizing the English program for average students.

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About Richard Sinay

Richard Sinay
Richard Sinay taught English and reading in high school and college in Orange County, California, for 35 years. He spends most of his time reading and writing. His most recent publication is Confessions of an English Teacher: An Analysis of Common Core. His first, Who We Met on the Way to Stanford: A Father's Memoir, tells how he and his son met famous golfers while pursuing a golf scholarship at Stanford. His second publication, How to Get a Golf Scholarship to Stanford: A Parent's Guide, is intended for parents who want to see their golfer play for Stanford. His third publication, Observations of America and My Ancestral Past: An Epistolary Autobiography, is a daily account of a twenty-five-thousand-mile trip around the country. His subsequent work, Crazy Little Children Are Jangling the Keys of the Kingdom: The Estrangement Epidemic in America, examines the phenomenon shattering families across America. Next, his Confessions of an English Teacher: A Memoir of My Teaching Years is his first book about teaching English in California high schools and community colleges. He followed that with Confessions of an English Teacher: How High School and Community Colleges Can Improve Instruction. Then he wrote Confessions of an English Teacher: How Textbooks Affect Literacy and What to Do About It, Confessions of an English Teacher: All About the Teaching of Writing in the High School, Confessions of an English Teacher: All About the Teaching of Reading in the High School, and Confessions of an English Teacher: The Problem and the Solution to Teaching Literature to Average Students. With the completion of Confessions of an English Teacher: The Problem and the Solution to Teaching Literature to Average Students, he has fourteen publications. He currently resides in Palm Desert, California, where he reads, writes, and enjoys life in the desert.

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