PrenticeHallArrives

See: SummerSupplement

Ben's new 6th-grade math text, Prentice-Hall Mathematics Course 1, arrived in the mail yesterday. I ordered it so that we could work in it over the summer. I've seen some good things about it, and I liked the table of contents; also, it's the text series that Ben's junior high school will use, so I thought I'd get him accustomed to working in it over the summer.

Catherine, though, who has seen a lot of the math texts that are out there, has been telling me that she hates the look of it, and I can certainly understand why. Even in a world of busy textbooks, this one stands out. It's got text in a thousand colors and fonts, it has multicolored inset boxes everywhere with brightly colored graphs and tables, and photos of jumping happy children or athletes on almost every page. Just looking at it puts me back in touch with my inner ADD child.

I think the intention of designing a book this way is to keep the kids awake and stimulated, but I think it backfires. This book overstimulates me, never mind Ben; I'd have to stick index cards all over the inset boxes and jumping kids just in order to focus on the text (I do have a touch of ADD, so normal types might not be so rattled). The contents do look pretty good, when you strip away the excess.

What do you suppose is the ideal balance to strike between monotony and overstimulation in a math text? You don't want to blow the kids away with dry monocolor text and equations (at least not until they get into grad school!), but you don't want to overwhelm them with trimming either. The principles of good graphic design surely apply here as much as they do elsewhere. Is there a related principle of good textbook design waiting to be discovered?

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Comments

I can't tell you how much I loathe the standard American textbook page, especially in math.

For me, it is utterly draining to look at these pages. (And this is the book we're going to be using assuming Christopher is in Phase 4 math next year. I've already got it here at home.)

You should check out the Teacher's Edition. It's even worse, because there's lots more stuff on the page. All the regular, student text is there, along with all the teacher answers and teaching hints. It's the book equivalent of spending an afternoon at Dave & Buster's.

No wonder nobody can teach math.

My sister told me that when she taught math in elementary school she photocopied all the pages, cut out the photographs, then re-photocopied the pages without the pictures, and without the color.

I'm going to try to teach Andrew using the Singapore Math grade 1 books this summer, and the horror is that they've introduced color into the texts.

They look awful, and I know they're going to be confusing (though he's such a visual genius, maybe not).

In any case, I feel 'crowded' looking at those pages.

-- CatherineJohnson - 11 Jun 2005

Wayne Wickelgren says that the cognitive challenge in learning math is that so much of it looks alike. (I'll pull the quote sometime today and put it up front.)

Basically, when you see a number or a variable all kinds of extraneous circuits are getting activated inside your brain, and you have to fight your way through them, suppressing the ones that shouldn't be activated.

That's what happened to me when I saw the pan balance problem; my 'ratio problem' circuits were activated.

This is a constant problem in teaching children, Wickelgren says (and I certainly believe him).

It's something Liping Ma & the rest don't talk about: it's the opposite of 'fragmented knowledge' in a way (which I also suffer from . . . )

In any case, I'm coming to the conclusion that studying and learning math places an especially heavy demand on . . . attention??

Maybe just on brainpower, in the sense of brain energy being used.

So when you throw all that other stuff on the page you have to not only suppress 'ratio problem,' you have to suppress 'early adolescents jumping for joy,' too.

I've written about the brain for long enough that I KNOW that any task involving the suppression of thoughts or impulses eats up brain energy.

-- CatherineJohnson - 11 Jun 2005

I love Saxon's design, and the Singapore design (before they started getting fancy).

But I love, love, love the Russian math book.

It's increcible.

The layout & graphics almost require you to learn math.

It's exquisite, it's soothing, and it makes you happy.

(Have I mentioned I'm a teensy bit obsessive on the subject of graphic design?)


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-- CatherineJohnson - 11 Jun 2005