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What do you do when you are assigned a text, but you do not feel as though it is easy to understand? Do you go over before the students start to read it or after?
Martin,
This is an important support you are providing your students. This way you are giving them study guides to follow as you are pointing the areas where there may need to be additional explanation for clear understanding. This helps the students to be able to see the value of the course content as well as the resources.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
In the graphic design field, I find reviewing the assigned reading before students read the text is beneficial. I can point out sections that are less clear and point out to the class how the material relates to their work projects. I think this encourages them to do the reading and not be intimidated by it.
Kat,
I would prepare study guides for the students. These guides can be simple outlines that cover the sections in the text that are relevant to the course. This way you can highlight these sections in class and explain the content to the students in understandable language. This way they will get value from the text and won't waste a lot of time going over and over material that they don't understand.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Bruce,
I agree and I think this approach yields the maximum return on student time investment. The more realism they see in what they are learning the more value they associate with it.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
In my field of teaching anatomy & physiology, this problem is encountered with most textbook adoptions since authors are encouraged to challenge the average student. I think the best answer is to explain the text content to the students in plain language and offer them numerous real-life examples and, whenever possible, three-dimensional images and models. This goes beyond simply reciting information from the text.
