Textbooks and Mathematics

The modality of the linguistics is really important for the textbooks to be useful for the readers. It is interesting to notice that the use of the first-person pronouns( I and We) in the math textbooks helps the readers to get involved in the textbooks and make better connections. The absence of the first-person pronouns makes the textbook really dull and it also distances the reader from what the author wants to explain.  Moreover, the use of second-person pronouns( you) connects the reader directly to mathematics. I remember, during my high school days, I use to connect more to the questions which involved first and second-person pronouns. It helped me to imagine the experience what the authors want to interpret. In addition to this, the use of the graphics and the photographs also make a huge difference in the student's understanding. Although I agree with the author of the article that graphics are more helpful as it generalizes the domain whereas the photograph talks about that particular person. For instance, the example of the hand doing mathematics in the article, lets the readers imagine their own hand doing mathematics and helps them to have a better understanding and experience. I remember my mathematics textbooks in my high school and college was all about numbers and variables which would not make sense to any layman reading the textbook. There were no pictures for the reader to make connections to the real world. Therefore, only the students who loved numbers or were interested in math would excel in math, and the textbooks were not good enough to develop anyone's interest.

According to me, the use of textbooks should not be ruled out completely, some good points can be incorporated by the teachers from textbooks for making their teaching and learning better. Especially, the textbook questions can be used to do more practice. I believe a teacher can play an important role in the interpretation of the information written in the textbook, even if the textbook is not good enough for the student readers. As per my recent experience, while making the unit plan for science, I found BC connection 9 textbook really helpful and I was amazed to see how beautifully the author made connections between the science concepts and the outer world.