Advice about how to use a science textbook needed please...

[LunaLee]

:001_huh: I guess the title makes you just want to say "duh", but here's my problem:

 

Ds used PH Science Explorer last year for Earth Science and we both really liked it. I was going to use it this year for Life Science, but I'm not sure how I should use it. When I assign SE, I have him read the section, define the vocabulary and answer the comprehension quesitons. I also usually have him watch some documentaries, so some expirements, and draw some diagrams. The problem is that he's figured out that the section questions are actually bolded in the text reading. I'm 98% sure he's not even reading the text thouroughly enough, and is just going straight to the questions/answers. He's a smart enough kid that if I ask him to narrate back to me his reading he actually does a pretty good job. So maybe he is reading it, but I'm not sure the section questions are challenging enough. Or because he can more or less narrate back to me what he's read, is that enough?

 

I guess what I am asking is, if you use a text (and this is not a thread debating the issue of using one), how do you use it? Any suggestions on how to make this more challenging for him?

[regentrude]

Ds used PH Science Explorer last year for Earth Science and we both really liked it. I was going to use it this year for Life Science, but I'm not sure how I should use it. When I assign SE, I have him read the section, define the vocabulary and answer the comprehension quesitons. I also usually have him watch some documentaries, so some expirements, and draw some diagrams. The problem is that he's figured out that the section questions are actually bolded in the text reading. I'm 98% sure he's not even reading the text thouroughly enough, and is just going straight to the questions/answers. He's a smart enough kid that if I ask him to narrate back to me his reading he actually does a pretty good job. So maybe he is reading it, but I'm not sure the section questions are challenging enough. Or because he can more or less narrate back to me what he's read, is that enough?

 

I guess what I am asking is, if you use a text (and this is not a thread debating the issue of using one), how do you use it? Any suggestions on how to make this more challenging for him?

 

When we use textbooks, my kids take notes on their reading. The notes should contain the most pertinent information and should be strcutured in some way (bullets, color, levels - whatever helps the kid organize.) This way, they are forced to actively read, not skim, the text.

If the section questions are not challenging, I would skip them and design my own tests.

[KAR120C]

The problem is that he's figured out that the section questions are actually bolded in the text reading. I'm 98% sure he's not even reading the text thouroughly enough, and is just going straight to the questions/answers. He's a smart enough kid that if I ask him to narrate back to me his reading he actually does a pretty good job. So maybe he is reading it, but I'm not sure the section questions are challenging enough. Or because he can more or less narrate back to me what he's read, is that enough?

This is my biggest complaint about the PH Science Explorer series. We have one set of PHSE books, and of all the science books I've seen they are by far the most obvious in their pattern of including answers to comprehension questions in the text. You really can just glance through looking for the bolded words.

 

If you're not looking for a new curriculum, you might supplement with current science news articles (I like the New Scientist magazine myself), and ask him to take notes on those, or write a paragraph about one a week, or something like that.

 

If you are looking for a new curriculum... I like Singapore's middle school and high school sciences. (I like the elementary books too, but they'd be too young for him at this point.) DS has used Singapore all the way through. He takes notes from the text, looks up extra questions from sidebars (they frequently have things like "now that you have read about the excretory system, read this blurb about kidney failure and then go find out about kidney dialysis services in your community"), does the labs and writes them up... and then he can do the workbook. Singapore's style would be quite a shock, I think, after PHSE... they don't have the answers in the text - they rely on the student to make a lot of connections on his own, both within the reading and between the reading and the labs. Sometimes we've both been stumped... It's always in there somewhere, but sometimes it draws from so many places that it takes a thorough re-reading of the whole chapter to figure it out.

[LunaLee]

When we use textbooks, my kids take notes on their reading. The notes should contain the most pertinent information and should be strcutured in some way (bullets, color, levels - whatever helps the kid organize.) This way, they are forced to actively read, not skim, the text.

If the section questions are not challenging, I would skip them and design my own tests.

 

I haven't really started teaching him how to take notes from a text yet, but I guess could...hmmm...thanks for the idea.

[LunaLee]

This is my biggest complaint about the PH Science Explorer series. We have one set of PHSE books, and of all the science books I've seen they are by far the most obvious in their pattern of including answers to comprehension questions in the text. You really can just glance through looking for the bolded words.

 

If you're not looking for a new curriculum, you might supplement with current science news articles (I like the New Scientist magazine myself), and ask him to take notes on those, or write a paragraph about one a week, or something like that.

 

If you are looking for a new curriculum... I like Singapore's middle school and high school sciences. (I like the elementary books too, but they'd be too young for him at this point.) DS has used Singapore all the way through. He takes notes from the text, looks up extra questions from sidebars (they frequently have things like "now that you have read about the excretory system, read this blurb about kidney failure and then go find out about kidney dialysis services in your community"), does the labs and writes them up... and then he can do the workbook. Singapore's style would be quite a shock, I think, after PHSE... they don't have the answers in the text - they rely on the student to make a lot of connections on his own, both within the reading and between the reading and the labs. Sometimes we've both been stumped... It's always in there somewhere, but sometimes it draws from so many places that it takes a thorough re-reading of the whole chapter to figure it out.

 

I'm not really looking for a new curriculum, but I have thought about adding more science reading from magazines and science blogs. I could just have him write a precis once a week.

 

Thanks for the suggestion.

[Myra]

We do the chapter questions together so that I can be sure that we're writing an in-depth answer plus the discussion ensures that the content is understood. Also...see if you can find online website by the publisher as they usually have vocab review, chpt summaries, quizzes, animations, etc. Here's a link for the online website for a history book we used last year (just to give you an idea what I'm talking about)

http://www.glencoe.com/sec/socialstudies/ushistory/tav2003/

 

Myra

[jpklehm]

If you are looking for a new curriculum... I like Singapore's middle school and high school sciences. (I like the elementary books too, but they'd be too young for him at this point.) DS has used Singapore all the way through. He takes notes from the text, looks up extra questions from sidebars (they frequently have things like "now that you have read about the excretory system, read this blurb about kidney failure and then go find out about kidney dialysis services in your community"), does the labs and writes them up... and then he can do the workbook. Singapore's style would be quite a shock, I think, after PHSE... they don't have the answers in the text - they rely on the student to make a lot of connections on his own, both within the reading and between the reading and the labs. Sometimes we've both been stumped... It's always in there somewhere, but sometimes it draws from so many places that it takes a thorough re-reading of the whole chapter to figure it out.

 

Are you talking about Interactive Science for Inquiring Minds? Or are there other books from Singapore Science that I'm not finding?

 

Pam

[KAR120C]

Are you talking about Interactive Science for Inquiring Minds? Or are there other books from Singapore Science that I'm not finding?

 

Pam

Although we used them before that edition came out, so it was just Interactive Science. They look very similar though. The high school science books are Biology Matters, Chemistry Matters, and Physics Matters. We've used Biology Matters, and we're about to start Physics Matters (Monday!)

[jpklehm]

Although we used them before that edition came out, so it was just Interactive Science. They look very similar though. The high school science books are Biology Matters, Chemistry Matters, and Physics Matters. We've used Biology Matters, and we're about to start Physics Matters (Monday!)

 

 

Thank you, Erica! :)

 

Pam

[regentrude]

I haven't really started teaching him how to take notes from a text yet, but I guess could...hmmm...thanks for the idea.

 

I don't think there is much to teach - the student needs to start doing it, try out different formats and see what works. I look over their notes the first few times, because beginners usually write way too much - but after a short time, they get the hang.

[vettechmomof2]

My daughter takes notes, then I ask her questions(she will never know what the questions are until i ask) and she either answers them from memory, from her notes or realizes she might need to read through the section of the chapter better.

It works out very well and then I have her study for her tests from her notes. She has learned that bolded material might or might not be asked about but it should all be read and understood.

[Sunshine State Sue]

I had ds read the section and fill in the corresponding pages in the guided reading and study workbook the first day. The second day (not necessarily the next day), I would have him read the next section, fill in the corresponding workbook pages, then go back and do the section review from the previous day. That way, there was a bit of review which would force him to look over the material one more time.

 

HTH!

[LunaLee]

I had ds read the section and fill in the corresponding pages in the guided reading and study workbook the first day. The second day (not necessarily the next day), I would have him read the next section, fill in the corresponding workbook pages, then go back and do the section review from the previous day. That way, there was a bit of review which would force him to look over the material one more time.

 

HTH!

 

Sue, I had that for the Earth Science last year, but we never used it and I can't remember...how many pages per section are there? And did you have your ds do each activity?

 

Thanks.

[Sunshine State Sue]

Sue, I had that for the Earth Science last year, but we never used it and I can't remember...how many pages per section are there? And did you have your ds do each activity?

 

Thanks.

There were probably 3 or so pages per section. Yes, ds completed the entire workbook. I wrote about how we implemented SE here:

OK. Now That I've bought Prentice Hall Science Explorer, How Do I Plan the Lessons?

 

The word 'activity' throws me. There are crossword puzzles, venn diagrams, outlines, etc. I hope that's what you mean by activity.