7 Reasons to Consider Quitting Your Textbook

Answer honestly:

Does  your textbook make you feel great about student learning more often than it makes you feel stressed out and obligated to cover its content?

Mine didn’t.  So I quit them.

One of the most powerful changes I have made to my teaching in a long time has been quitting a number of textbooks this year.  While my classroom is not ‘textbook free’, my reliance on them on a daily or even weekly basis has ended. 

Now, instead of feeling beholden to the pages in a book written years ago and a world away, my students source information on their devices to solve the problems that they encounter, or receive custom-curated resources created to see to the needs of our particular projects.
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The following are some of the reasons that I have chosen to quit my textbooks and change my practice for the better!

1. Textbooks that contain the answer to every question in your curriculum can make kids see their education as an exercise in collecting and memorizing facts rather than an active process of inquiry, research, creation, success, and failure. 
   
2. Textbooks share only one perspective with students. Not using a standard text allows students to find and compare many sources to develop a broader view. 
   
   
3. Reading straight from a text as an instructional method denies students opportunities to research. Rarely will they encounter a textbook to solve the all problems they will face in their future careers. Students need to learn how to find the facts they need, when they need them.
   
   
4. While textbooks and print media do have value, thanks to the internet, our options are so much broader today than they were in the past. Reliance on a text can result in more engaging, richer media to be seen and used as a supplement when it could (and often should) be favored as the primary source.
   
   
5. The scope of a text is necessarily limited. No textbook can answer all the questions your students might have. Why rely on it at all? Source text and media to answer the questions that come up in your class as you need them.
   
   
6. Standard textbooks make it harder to differentiate. Textbooks are generally written for the ‘average’ student. There is no average student. They’re all different. A text's reading level might be too high for some, and the level of questioning and inquiry may be too low for others. Quitting your textbook and sourcing text as required allows you to differentiate material resources to meet student needs and interests.
   
   
7. Textbooks generally contain more information than required to meet specific learning outcomes for standards. Reliance on texts may result in less checking of standards and the feeling that the whole book needs to be ‘covered’, often resulting in rushed instruction and missed opportunities for authentic learning activities. 

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Textbooks can be a useful resource, especially to new teachers still becoming comfortable in their classrooms.  However, over-reliance on textbooks can hold back your ability to engage students in authentic learning activities.

My classroom isn't entirely textbook free yet, but my goal is to get there soon.  Have you ever considered quitting your textbooks?  Did it work out? Share your ideas in the comments!