Last year my district adopted a new Social Studies series. We all got our brand-new textbooks that crackled when we opened them. I am not a big fan of textbooks, and I rarely use them with my kids. However, I decided to use this new one during an activity that followed my direct teaching about kinds of communities. The students were to look at the different pictures in the book that showed the characteristics of various communities. Afterwards, they were given some old magazines from which they were to choose some pictures that showed things that they see in our community. They were to create a collage that would reflect their understanding of the concept.
As I walked around talking to the kids and monitoring their progress, one little girl proudly held up her collage for me to see. Smack in the middle of her collage was a large glossy photo of a city's skyline. I had one of those "Uh Oh!" moments when I saw it, but I asked her anyway, "Where did you find that picture?" She smiled and opened that new textbook to a page with a gaping hole in the center and said, "Here's where I got it. It looks a lot like Downtown!" I just smiled back and congratulated her on her wonderful collage, but I did tell her not to cut out any more pictures from the textbooks. I couldn't be mad with her, because I was that kind of kid too and I can picture myself going along and thinking I was doing the work just fine! (Although my teachers were not that forgiving.)