Textbooks

As a teacher, I learned that I need to be aware of the textbooks I use in class and their linguistic choices. For example, I was not able to realize the difference between exclusive and inclusive imperatives before reading this article. It was interesting to think that these linguistic choices will not only help students reflect on their independent work, but think about their mathematics in the community. This will positively affect their involvement in class and enhance their mathematical thinking. Further, I learned that I need to be aware of the language I use when I give out my own instructions as well. As a student, I believe I will find myself reflecting on my thinking if I am given instructions such as "describe the pattern" or "suppose you use" instead of "make a table" or "graph your data." The verbs such as make and graph are very straightforward and require no thinking. However, describe and suppose are verbs that allow me to expand my thinking process. 

I personally do like textbooks as I believe they offer a guideline for teachers. However, I don't think I will be relying on them too much. Many textbooks that I encountered contain a lot of exclusive imperatives. Further, I think I will be able to allow students to reflect on their mathematics in the community if I give them personalized instructions that contain inclusive imperatives. Finally, I also need to be aware of what textbook I choose to use in class. I would prefer to use textbooks that have a separate section for problem-solving and applications (ex. MathQuest - I examined this textbook last class) as they allow students to make connections and understand relationships between math and the world.