Is it okay to use a textbook?

My first year of teaching at U-32, I taught Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and IMP (Interactive Mathematics Program).  Since I began teaching without ever having taken a math education class, I was unclear about the practical differences between Algebra 1 and 2, and the math standards that we were using at the time didn't specify them.  We had no written curriculum, and the textbooks were museum relics.  I spent a lot of time creating resources.  I'm not sure how coherent they were...  IMP, on the other hand, was a program.  It was easy to follow.  The focus and direction were clear to me.  It was research-based.  I trusted it.  It felt purposeful, good.

However, research and policy shifted our definitions of best practice, and new standards became the core of math instruction.  As I adapted to these changes and became more skilled at teaching, I found that I could not simply follow a program.  I had to look at it objectively.  There were some parts I could pull and use, some parts that I needed to revise, and some parts that I needed to scrap and replace.  Being a part of a collaborative team made this work easier and less like a shot in the dark.  Once again, it felt purposeful, good.

In the 2013-2014 WCSU Comprehensive Math Review, it was noted that:

The district should use caution in moving too fast to reduce the teacher’s dependence on a textbook ( i.e., Investigations) program. Although textbooks may not adequately address the CCSS (Wu, 2011), additional instructional support and training will be needed before many if not most of the Elementary School teachers will feel comfortable moving completely away from the textbook dependence that now appears to exist (Greenberg & Walsh, 2008).

We are engaged in a period of transformation again.  We are committed to engaging our students in concept building for our non-negotiable skills by moving them from concrete and pictorial models to abstract and symbolic models to conceptual applications and cogent communication.  We are committed to accomplishing this through the Math Practices as articulated in the common core.  I have yet to see a program or textbook that is fully aligned with this vision, but that doesn't mean that they can't be used as resources.  Yet, I have heard from teachers that they feel that using a  “textbook" has become taboo, a practice relegated to back alleys.

Jen and I have discussed this and want to be very clear:  To the extent that parts of these programs are aligned with the non-negotiables and levels of knowing, we can and should use them.  We can also feel free to use revised versions of them, when it serves our instructional goals.

There will be a time when we will have unit plans and sample lessons for non-negotiables at each grade level, but we're not there yet.  In the meantime, I have been (and will continue to be) posting sample lessons on this blog.  If there is an Investigations lesson that you would like to spruce up, the Math Steering folks and I would love to collaborate with you.  If there is a concept you would like to see addressed, let me know.  If we share the work, we'll develop a bank of solid resources before we know it.

In the meantime, don't feel like you need to completely reinvent the wheel.  Just make sure that wheel is pointed in the direction in which it should roll...

Q:  What is your takeaway?  What questions do you have?  Please comment below...