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Think Beyond the Textbook

By Google for Education Published: Aug 27, 2020 17m Beginner (19)

 Expected Lesson Time: 17 minutes

Go through the sections below, then test yourself (and get credit) by
doing the Lesson Check.

Enhance Curriculum with Technology

A lot of classrooms have - and will continue to have - textbooks. They’re an important part of
the classroom, and aren’t disappearing any time soon. But that doesn’t mean you can’t
augment them to further engage students and make connections to the real world. In this
lesson, we’ll look at how technology can support and enhance the current curriculum. We’ll
also consider how to use Google tools to extend, expand, and supplement the great things you
are already doing in your classroom.

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Extending Your Textbook Resources

This YouTube video will guide you through a class with John. He has an assigned textbook but
is going to think of ways to go beyond that.

View Transcript ↗

Ideas for Your Classroom

Now that you’ve seen some ways Google tools can add to what your students can do with a
textbook, and you explored the concept of moving beyond the textbook, consider some
speci c changes that would enhance or extend what your current resources can do.

Jot Down Your Ideas

Use this as your temporary notepad, or jot down your ideas on paper.

Save Clear

See What Other Educators Said

I’ll spend some time searching the web (www.google.com) for more
relevant and contemporary, non-traditional texts with examples of
literary conventions that I’m teaching, such as teaching story arc
through “Kung Fu Panda.”

My students will make comparisons between our textbook chapters

and Wikipedia entries on the same topic. Two potential questions
are, “What’s included in Wikipedia that is missing from our
textbook?” and, “Are there any links in the Wikipedia resources
section that we might want to explore further?”

Instead of handing out the textbook study guide for each unit test, I
will have students collaboratively build the study guide as we go
using a Google Doc (docs.google.com).

I’m already having my students collaborate on building a Google Site

with resources for our class. I think I’ll add a new component where
they are all required to submit one link to a news article per term
that connects a current event to a concept we are studying.

My class will start using Google Sheets and Flippity.net to create

ash cards of the major concepts and vocabulary words from our
textbook chapter. We can rotate the responsibility for creating the
card deck to each student through the semester.

Lesson Check

Now let's do a quick check to make sure you got this lesson (and that we give you credit for it)!

1. Which of the following are drawbacks to using a textbook? (Select all that apply.)

 Textbooks can become out of date

 Textbooks don’t have interactive components

Textbooks include graphs and charts

 Textbooks don’t have links to current events

Check Answer

 Correct!

2. Which tool allows a teacher to put together a collection of videos on a speci c topic?

 YouTube playlists

Google Sheets

Google Meet

Google Docs

Check Answer

 Correct!

3. One bene t of augmenting a course textbook with digital resources is

Costs less

Solves discipline issues

 Increases student engagement

Reduces paper use

Check Answer

 Correct!

4. In what ways could students become pa ners with the teacher in augmenting the
textbook with digital resources? (Select all that apply.)

 Students could help build a Google Site of current events that link to the curriculum

 Students could suggest YouTube videos that connect to the course content

 Students could generate online ashcards or study guides with links to external content

Students can role-play events in the curriculum

Check Answer

 Correct!

Next Activity
Unit 1 Review