- Houghton Mifflin Harcourt launches first interactive full-curriculum algebra app for iPad
- Transformative new publishing model gaining traction with faculty, students, authors
- Virginia State University, Flat World Knowledge sign textbook licensing agreement
- Hull and Dominguez awarded $75 TAA Publication Grant
- Need motivation? Listen to motivational podcast by Pronagger
- Busy TAA People: Jacques Drabier, John Hodges
- Busy TAA People: Mary Kay Switzer
- Notable Author Profile: Tara Gray, Scholar devoted to helping academics succeed
- How-to Article: Book promotion strategies: Participation in national sales meetings
- Authors Asking: Should I receive royalties on products such as Vango Notes and other derivative products?
- New TAA workshop: 'Book-worthy: How Smart Academics Write To Get Published'
- TAA Article: Faculty success, developing a research and publication agenda
- Notable Author Profile: Laurie Boswell, Math author translates classroom experience to the textbook
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt launches first interactive full-curriculum algebra app for iPad
Global education leader Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) announced a year-long pilot of the first-ever full-curriculum Algebra app for the Apple iPad. The pilot also represents the launch of HMH Fuse™, a new mode of curriculum delivery where interactive platforms and mobile devices bring learning to life for students by moving beyond the one-way experience of a print or digital textbook. The HMH Fuse: Holt McDougal Algebra 1 app will be the most sophisticated use of the iPad’s interactive technology in K–12 learning to date.
Through the revolutionary iPad environment, students will receive feedback on practice questions, write and save notes, receive guided instruction, access video lessons and more with the touch of a finger. The app’s multi-dimensional functionality combines instruction, ongoing support and intervention, allowing teachers and students to customize learning and meet individual needs.
California Secretary of Education Bonnie Reiss, Long Beach Unified School District Superintendent Christopher Steinhauser, HMH Executive Vice President of Content Development and Publishing Operations Bethlam Forsa and Holt McDougal Algebra 1 author and Williams College Mathematics Professor Edward Burger, Ph.D. joined together today at Washington Middle School in Long Beach to launch the pilot and provide students with a demonstration of HMH Fuse’s interactive technology.
“As the digital age reaches our classrooms it will transform education, allowing for teaching our students in ways not before imagined, and California is poised to lead the way,” said Secretary of Education Reiss. “This pilot project represents an important step toward embracing a more interactive learning environment that will help our fantastic teachers and school leaders meet the changing needs of California’s students in the 21st-century economy.”
“The launch of HMH Fuse and this app signal the beginning of a new era in curriculum development, where the goal is not just providing world-class content, but also delivering it in a variety of ways so that students and teachers can individualize the learning experience,” said Barry O’Callaghan, CEO of HMH. “We believe this pilot will provide the nation with a glimpse into the future of education.”
In total, HMH is piloting 400 iPads across Washington Middle School and Hudson K–8 in Long Beach Unified; Kings Canyon Middle School and Sequoia Middle School in Fresno Unified; Amelia Earhart Middle School in Riverside Unified and Presidio Middle School in San Francisco Unified School District.
“This is an incredible opportunity to be on the cutting edge of teaching and learning, and our students and teachers are really excited,” said Long Beach Superintendent Steinhauser.
The app provides the year-long Holt McDougal Algebra 1 course plus ancillary materials and resources. The app’s highly developed comprehension tracking tools provide students with customized support and teachers with real-time student-specific performance feedback.
“The app allows students to engage in the learning process and move from being passive receivers of information to active learners who determine how to display concepts, progress through equations and interpret information,” said HMH Executive Vice President Forsa. “The app’s interactive format will resonate with teachers, students and parents because it mirrors the multi-dimensional digital environment they interact with on a daily basis.”
To learn more, visit: http://hmheducation.com/fuse/algebra1/index.php
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Transformative new publishing model gaining traction with faculty, students, authors
Flat World Knowledge (www.flatworldknowledge.com), the leading publisher of commercial, openly-licensed college textbooks, reports that this fall semester, more than 800 colleges will utilize Flat World textbooks, up from 400 in the fall 2009 and up from 30 colleges in the spring 2009.
Flat World estimates their textbooks save the average student $80 per class, and projects its textbooks will save 150,000 students $12 million or more in textbook expenses for the 2010/2011 academic year.
Flat World's year-over-year growth is fueled by the company's innovative "free and open" textbook publishing model that allows students to acquire complete, high-quality, peer-reviewed textbooks at prices ranging from free for online access to only $30 for a softcover print book. Other formats include PDF downloads, audio and e-reader versions for the iPad and Kindle, as well as digital study aids.
"It's gratifying to see the tremendous response to our textbooks and publishing model across a wide range of academic institutions," said Jeff Shelstad, Flat World Knowledge CEO and co-founder. "By preserving what works from traditional publishing and changing everything that's broken, our open textbook publishing model is providing substantial benefits to students, faculty and authors."
For the 2010 fall semester, more than 1,300 educators representing 800 major state and private research universities and community college systems have adopted Flat World textbooks, including the University of Maryland, University of Texas, Carnegie Mellon University, multiple California State University campuses, the Foothill DeAnza Community College District in Calif., as well as institutions in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
With a growing roster of top authors and more than 24 published titles and 50 more in the pipeline, Flat World expects to publish textbooks for the 125 highest-enrollment college courses in the next few years. New subjects in the immediate pipeline include algebra, psychology, chemistry, statistics and English composition.
Flat World's approach begins by keeping what works in traditional publishing. The company signs top scholars and successful authors to write exclusive, high-quality textbooks using industry-tested product development best practices.
But instead of adopting the industry-standard "all rights reserved" copyright license, Flat World publishes under an open Creative Commons license. The open license, combined with a highly-automated publishing platform that keeps costs low, transforms a static text into a dynamic learning resource that is automatically available in multiple low cost formats.
"The future is about creating better value, not making it more cumbersome and expensive for students," said Kyle Blake, a returning business student at Minnesota State University Moorhead. "Flat World understands that students want to be treated as consumers who deserve really good books in any format they wish."
While many students take advantage of the free online option, more than 50 percent purchase a physical book or other format that fits their individual learning style. To date, the most popular choice is a black-and-white softcover book for $30 -- significantly less than most textbooks. Online and interactive digital study aids are also top-sellers at $1.99 per chapter or $14.95 for a subscription.
Softcover books are printed on demand and sold directly to students or through their campus bookstore, minimizing conventional manufacturing and inventory costs.
Flat World has agreements with Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, Follett Higher Education Group, and NACS Media Solutions to distribute their open textbooks to more than 3,000 college stores across the US.
The company anticipates that more of its sales will transition from print to various digital formats over the next few years.
Since publishing its first commercially available books in 2009, Flat World reports that one third of its faculty adopters have used the online platform and customization tools to modify their textbooks to reflect their individual approach to their subject -- something they can't do with a conventional text. The open license approach gives them freedom to reuse, revise, remix and redistribute the book -- the 4 R's that define open -- so long as they attribute the author and publisher and don't engage in commercial activity.
Flat Word anticipates that 50 percent or more of faculty will customize their textbooks by the fall 2011 semester. This growth in faculty customization will follow the release of enhanced customization tools later this year. Faculty will be able to edit at the sentence level, creating the potential for a richer learning experience for both students and educators.
This semester, Dr. Scott Hunt, professor of economics at Columbus State Community College, and his colleagues created their own version of Principles of Macroeconomics by rearranging content and writing new sections.
"In all the years I've been a professor, we've never had the perfect book," said Dr. Scott Hunt, professor. "Now we do, and it's affordable."
Many authors have been hurt by the textbook industry's current business model. Royalties are dwindling from fewer new book sales. And non-royalty-paying used book sales, book rentals and online piracy sites take a greater share of the market. Authors also face internal competition with titles in their discipline from the same publisher.
Flat World is attracting top scholars and best-selling authors by offering a different experience: a new model that allows for faster market entry and a better royalty rate for a bigger return over time combined with a rigorous editorial development process and sales and marketing support. Flat World authors earn 20 percent royalties (the standard is 12 to 15 percent) on all revenue generated around their work, in all channels, sold anywhere in the world. In the open model, authors can benefit from a consistent revenue stream over time since sales don't drop off dramatically after the first year due to used books sales and rentals.
"I have full confidence in this model because it makes so much sense for students, faculty and authors," says Steve Barkan, professor of sociology at the University of Maine and author of Sociology: Understanding & Changing the Social World, soon-to-be published by Flat World. "Students, many of whom work part-time jobs, can finally get low-cost access to knowledge. As an author, I feel good about 'doing the right thing' and I stand to be well-compensated for years to come."
A sustainable model for the future of publishing
While the textbook publishing industry struggles to adapt to the Internet's impact on the way learning materials are consumed, Flat World has seized on the opportunity to bridge the value gap with a sustainable and profitable revenue model for publishing in the 21st century.
"The future of textbooks is all about choice," said CEO Shelstad. "By giving educators and students high-quality, affordable choices, Flat World Knowledge is helping thousands of students gain access to the education and knowledge they need to realize their potential and succeed in the global economy."
Virginia State University, Flat World Knowledge sign textbook licensing agreement
Virginia State University's Reginald F. Lewis School of Business today announced a groundbreaking textbook licensing agreement with Flat World Knowledge, a leading publisher of commercial, openly-licensed college textbooks. As part of a broad initiative to deliver an integrated core business curriculum to all its students, the business school has purchased a digital site license for Flat World textbooks that's cost-effective, environmentally sustainable and attuned to the demands of an increasingly mobile generation.
The agreement will also play a key role in the business school's "revolution of excellence" goal to increase retention and graduation rates at the historically black university through technology-based solutions. The Flat World agreement removes textbook costs as a barrier to higher education. Many conventional textbooks cost more than $200, and students often spend $1,000 or more per year on textbooks. The cost of textbooks is also a major reason that many students drop out of college, according to a Public Agenda research report for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
"We are in the business of education and must seek innovative ways to ensure the success of our students, especially during these times of severe budget cuts and economic uncertainty," said Dr. Keith T. Miller, VSU President. "The licensing agreement with Flat World Knowledge meets the needs of our business students and faculty for high-quality, affordable textbooks, and serves as a model for how academic institutions and innovative publishers can partner to solve critical higher education issues."
Under the agreement, VSU will purchase seat licenses for students enrolled in eight courses in the core business curriculum. More courses will be added next year. Each site license will cost VSU $20 per student per course for digital access to all learning content for the core business curriculum, while preserving affordable print options for students.
The licensing model approaches textbooks as intellectual property that can be delivered in a variety of formats for greater convenience and at a more affordable price. VSU students and faculty will have choices to access and use the texts in ways that aren't possible with conventional textbooks sold under a traditional publishing business model.
Students, faculty benefit from format choices, content control
Students can read their textbooks in the format that best fits their individual learning style. The pre-paid license includes web, PDF, audio and e-reader versions for the iPad, Kindle and other e-readers. Online and interactive study aids are also included. Students with print disabilities will have access to the texts in DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) and BRF (Braille Ready Format) formats.
The digital files do not have an expiration date nor are they encumbered with digital rights management (DRM) copy-protection, giving students unprecedented freedom to transfer the content from device to device for as long as they wish, even after they graduate. For students who prefer a physical book, softcover textbooks will also be available to VSU students for $30.
VSU faculty will benefit from Flat World's open Creative Commons license, which unlike an "all rights reserved" copyright license, transfers control of the content to faculty. Flat World provides a suite of online editing tools that makes it easy for faculty to customize and tailor a textbook to meet their individual teaching goals.
VSU students can save more than $900 per year
While the university is covering the initial roll-out costs, going forward VSU will explore various options to transfer the license costs to students. Depending on their course load, VSU estimates that students could save $900 or more per year on textbooks.
"Less than 50 percent of our students buy textbooks because they can't afford them, and this causes students to fall behind," said Dr. Mirta Martin, dean of VSU's School of Business. "Through this licensing model we hope to break that cycle, improve retention and graduation rates, and create a pipeline of student success. Our students have always had the ability and intellect, now they will have the resources."
"The economics of textbooks is hurting students, faculty, institutions and authors," said Eric Frank, president and co-founder of Flat World Knowledge. "This new model lowers the cost barrier to college, increases choices for students, and gives faculty more control over the content they use in their classes. This new approach to textbook publishing also provides authors an opportunity to earn fair compensation for their hard work. And it points the way to a sustainable revenue model for a new publisher in the 21st century."
Hull and Dominguez awarded $75 TAA Publication Grant
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Elaine Hull, professor of psychology and neuroscience, and Juan Dominguez, assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin, have been awarded a $75 grant from to TAA to cover the cost of reprints for their article, “Serotonin impairs copulation and attenuates ejaculation-induced glutamate activity in the medial preoptic area,” published by Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol. 124(4), Aug. 2010, 554-557.
Hull and Dominguez said they were delighted to receive the publication grant from TAA. Said Hull: "We had decided not to order reprints, because my grant from the NIH, which had paid for the research, was running out of funds. However, upon reading in the TAA newsletter about the publication grants, we decided to apply for funds to pay for the reprints. Even in the days of electronic access, reprints are useful to distribute at meetings and to students who may be interested in pursuing similar research, perhaps in our own labs. We are grateful to TAA for making it possible to purchase the reprints."
Hull's childhood enthusiasm for science was fanned at Austin College (Sherman, TX), where excellent biology and psychology teachers channeled her interest into neuroscience. In graduate school at Indiana University she studied the neural bases of color vision in monkeys, using single-neuron recording. After she and her husband obtained their Ph.D.s, they took jobs at State University of New York at Buffalo, where they worked for almost 35 years. "However, electrophysiology is expensive, and I was unable to continue the single-neuron recording," she said. An undergraduate Honors project led her to study hormonal and neurotransmitter influences on sexual differentiation in rats. "I then asked which neurons were permanently affected by our perinatal manipulations," she said. "Answers to each question led to more questions, until we developed a relatively complete story about how testosterone, which has mostly slow, genomically mediated effects, could set the stage for a behavior as rapid and interactive as mating. Juan Dominguez played a major role in the development of that story. He was an undergraduate, and then a graduate student in my lab. After a postdoctoral appointment in another school, Juan returned to my lab in 2004, just as we were about to move to Florida State University. The work for which we received the publication grant showed that the neurotransmitter serotonin, levels of which are increased by certain antidepressants, inhibits the release of the major excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate in a brain area that controls male sexual behavior and thereby inhibits mating in rats."
Dominguez said that working with Elaine Hull as an undergraduate helped galvanize his passion for understanding how hormones and the brain regulate mating behavior: "My interest in better understanding the neural regulation of behavior led me to stay in SUNY Buffalo in the Hull lab for my Ph.D. While in Buffalo, I studied how integration of pheromonal cues can alter reproductive behaviors and the brain mechanisms that regulate this behavior."
After receiving his Ph.D. in 2002, Dominguez went on to study these same mechanisms but using anatomical and molecular approaches at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. The work performed during his postdoctoral training, he said, yielded a very interesting paper delineating the role of an excitatory brain chemical in the expression of mating behavior. "I then returned to work with Elaine Hull, when she moved to Florida State University, where we further explored influences of brain activity on behavior," he said.
His first tenure track faculty position came with a move to American University in Washington DC, before moving to his present position of assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at The University of Texas at Austin, where he heads a laboratory studying the neural and hormonal regulation of mating and other motivated behaviors.
TAA Publication Grants are open to member and non-member authors. Authors can apply for a Publication Grant of up to $750 to cover the cost of publishing already accepted journal articles, or for the preparation of artwork or other charts, diagrams or images to be included in accepted articles or academic books. For more information on TAA Publication Grants: Click here
Need motivation? Listen to motivational podcast by Pronagger
 Rachel Z. Cornell |
The podcast of "Motivational Techniques: 'Professional Nag Uses Creative and Innovative Tricks, Tools & Techniques to Motivate Authors," presented by Rachel Z. Cornell, is now available: Listen online or download as an mp3
Busy TAA People: Jacques Drabier, John Hodges
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TAA members Jacques Drabier, age 88, and John Hodges, age 51, will be giving presentations to senior citizen audiences on War Pilot Memoirs: A Mirror on 1939, which was penned in French then translated by John, pen name J. Anomdeplume. The first presentation is on Friday, September 17, at 2 p.m. at Gencare in Sun City, Arizona.
An excerpt from their talk: ” Young aviators must be a fascinating group in almost any setting, but France of the year 1940 takes ‘fascinating’ to a whole new level. Aviation itself was only a generation and a half from Kitty Hawk, by God! The little Potez 25’s and such that you’ll read about were immensely popular ‘stunt’ planes of 1930s aero clubs, but they surely were little… like underpowered Cessnas, say.”
Busy TAA People: Mary Kay Switzer
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TAA Vice President Mary Kay Switzer co-authored an adaptation of “An Evening with Mark Twain: His Own Words and Works.” Catch a Star Theatrical Players will present the play at The Beaumont Women’s Club (Beaumont, CA) September 24-26 and October 1-2. Of his writing, Twain had this to say, "If I had known what trouble it was to make a book, I wouldn't have tackled it. But I made the great discovery that when the tank runs dry you've only to leave it alone and it will fill up again in time, while you are asleep--also while you are at work at other things and are quite unaware that this unconscious and profitable cerebration is goin on. Fools who never wrote a book are always giving me their infernal advice about how to write."
Notable Author Profile: Tara Gray
Scholar devoted to helping academics succeed
By Leanne Silverman
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Tara Gray grew up in an academic family and always wanted to pursue a life in higher education. In one sense, everything has proceeded exactly as planned: today she directs the Teaching Academy at New Mexico State University and retains a tenured position there. But Gray’s career path could also be described as a long and winding road that took her places she hadn’t imagined—and turned her into an advocate of professional development designed to help fellow academics achieve their goals.
After high school, Gray joined the second class of women ever admitted to the United States Naval Academy. “I loved it,” she said. But as her sophomore year drew to a close, she realized “I didn’t want to have a five-year detour” in the Navy. She transferred to a college in her home state of Kansas and went on to pursue a Ph.D. in Economics at Oklahoma State University.
Gray landed a tenure-track position in economics at Denison University. Her early focus was on the prison system. “Most economists study the business sector,” she said. “What I studied fell into ‘public economics’ so it was outside the norm, but not beyond the pale.” When she was denied tenure at Denison—the market had become significantly more competitive between her hiring and the tenure decision—Gray found her background and training to be a better fit in the field of criminal justice. “I would rather teach criminal justice anyway, so I switched,” she said.
In shifting fields, Gray also shifted academic environments: from a small liberal arts campus to a large state university. “I came from a school with unlimited faculty development for each professor,” she said. “I was shocked to discover that my new college had no funds for faculty development whatsoever. I said to the Dean, ‘We’ve got to do something about this! We have to do some home-grown faculty development!’”
She began a peer-coaching program for teachers during her third year at NMSU, and the next year started offering workshops called “Publish and Flourish: Become a Prolific Scholar.” Those programs and others met with great success, mushrooming from on-campus workshops to national and international presentations. In 2003, she applied and was hired to direct NMSU’s new Teaching Academy, a center devoted to supporting all campus faculty through training, mentoring, and networking. TAA sponsors Gray’s workshops as part of its workshop program.
Why the devotion to professional development? “I’m trying to provide what I needed as a new faculty member,” said Gray. “They say that every great institution is powered by somebody’s anger. I have some resentment about being denied tenure, so I want to help people get a leg up on the process.” She invoked Robert Boice’s definition of “quick starters”: the 5-7 percent of faculty who do everything necessary for tenure easily and well ahead of time. “The things that those people do are teachable,” she said.
Gray’s book Publish & Flourish emerged from the workshops she offers by the same name. It serves not only as a guide for academics unable to attend in person, but also to flesh out the ideas introduced in the workshops. One key recommendation she offers is to write for 15-30 minutes daily. It is a habit that has become routine for Gray, like brushing her teeth: “My norm is to write for 15 minutes first thing each day. Some days I far exceed that. Occasionally I do skip a day, but it’s not usually because I don’t want to write.”
She encourages authors to pay close attention to every substantive comment readers make. “I don’t necessarily do exactly what the reader recommends,” she said, but she recognizes that when readers raise concerns, they are honing in on places where a manuscript should be clearer. “Try something different for every comment you get,” she advises.
Gray has worked successfully with a multitude of co-authors during her career: “I think you should pick your co-authors much more carefully than most people do. It’s not like you meet someone at a conference, you both have the same interests, and you decide to write together. You’ve got to really find out about and get to know these people before you go into a co-author relationship.” She advises academics to seek co-authors with similar levels of productivity and attitudes toward deadlines.
When she’s not writing or advocating for campus teaching centers to expand their focus into faculty development, Gray takes time to rejuvenate by exercising regularly and connecting with friends. She also enjoys teaching parenting skills to incarcerated women and Sunday school at her local Unitarian church.
Leanne Silverman hung her shingle as a freelance writer and editor in Denver, CO after leaving a 12-year career in academic publishing.
How-to Article: Book promotion strategies: Participation in national sales meetings
By Leanne Silverman
How to advocate for your book—before, during, and after a national sales meeting |
The success of any textbook often originates at the national sales meetings held by textbook publishers and larger academic presses each year. But what, exactly, is a national sales meeting (NSM)?
“They’re huge events,” said Reid Hester, a 15-year veteran in textbook sales and marketing. Each January and August, the publisher’s marketing teams, editors, and sales reps gather to review the season’s textbooks—and to establish what’s a priority for the reps to sell.
Authors Asking: Should I receive royalties on products such as Vango Notes and other derivative products?
Q: "I have a business textbook with Pearson/Prentice-Hall. I picked Pearson for this book because I really like the level of development they invest in new projects, and now that we are in the second edition, the book is doing reasonably well. With the second edition Pearson also launched a VangoNotes version of our book..."
Click here for answers from Paul Rosenzweig, Marilyn Fordney, and Ric Martini.
New TAA workshop: 'Book-worthy: How Smart Academics Write To Get Published'
TAA is sponsoring a new workshop by former university press acquisitions editor Rachel Toor entitled, 'Book-worthy: How Smart Academics Write To Get Published.'
This workshop is designed for people who understand that all writers, especially good ones, struggle to be better. It will assist writers in determining whether their topic is actually book-worthy (and adapt it if it’s not); how to write so that others want to read their work; how to approach publishers and what to expect from the process; and what attitudes, behaviors and disciplines are required to write and publish a book.
“We’re all enamored with our topics,” said Toor, who currently teaches creative writing in Eastern Washington University’s MFA program and is on the faculty of Pacific University’s low-residency MFA program. “Most academic writers deliver content in a way that fails to keep the reader in mind. This workshop will address, in a way that should not be too painful, how to move through your infatuation—or desperation—to figure out what is worth writing about, how best to present your material, and how to get it published.”
Toor’s workshop will focus on the craft of writing--Who are the good writers in your field? What makes reading their books a pleasure? What tricks and moves do they use that you can steal in your own work? What are the practices and habits of successful writers?-- and discuss the publishing process. “This will include how to talk to editors at conferences (please do not try to give them copies of your manuscript), how to write query letters, how to respond to reader’s reports, what you need to know about contracts, and the sad fact that your work isn’t finished when you hand in a final manuscript,” she said.
A cum laude graduate of Yale University, with an MFA from the University of Montana, Toor is the author of three books, Admissions Confidential: An Insider’s Account of the Elite College Selection Process, The Pig and I, and Personal Record: A Love Affair with Running, and writes a monthly column on issues in writing and publishing for The Chronicle of Higher Education. Her work has appeared in Inside Higher Ed, Glamour, Reader’s Digest, Ploughshares, The LA Times, JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) Running Times, Marathon & Beyond, and Runner’s World among other publications.
TAA’s Academic Authoring Workshops assist authors in jumpstarting their writing and getting it published.
TAA sponsors these workshops by covering the domestic travel and lodging costs of bringing a presenter to your institution, including air, ground transportation, lodging and food. The host institution pays the speaker's fee. The speaker's fee will depend on the length of the workshop, the content and the number of participants of each workshop.
To learn more about this workshop or to bring this workshop to your institution, visit www.taaonline.net/workshops/academic_workshops.html
TAA Article:
Faculty success: Developing a research and publication agenda
by Dr. Kathleen King
Anyone associated with higher education will acknowledge that tenure track faculty have to perform a fantastic balancing act. Compared to an administrative or line role in an organization, higher education faculty have tremendous autonomy and freedom. However, they face competing demands of many different (and good) opportunities, and for them the stakes are always high. Help is here! This article introduces a powerful strategy for staying on track in the research strand of this competitive journey.
Notable Author Profile: Laurie Boswell
Math author translates classroom experience to the textbook
By Leanne Silverman
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Laurie Boswell, a math teacher and headmaster of the Riverside School in Vermont, says “if you really listen to the kids, you will become a better teacher and, I think, a better writer.” In Boswell’s case, that advice certainly holds true: her outstanding teaching garnered the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics Teaching, and the three-book middle school series, Big Ideas Math, she co-authored with Ron Larson received a 2010 Textbook Excellence Award from TAA.
“I’ve known since 5th grade that I would be a math teacher. I’ve never had a doubt,” said Boswell. After high school, she pursued her B.S. and M.Ed, then plunged into what a 30-year career in teaching. Will she ever leave the classroom? “If I didn’t have the enthusiasm or the energy, or if I feel like I’m not being effective any longer. But right now, I’m still having a great time with the students. They inspire me! I’m always getting ideas for my writing.”
Boswell often draws her classroom experiences into her writing. “There are times when I’m actually thinking about a particular student or a particular lesson,” she said. “It might have been ten years ago, but I remember the kids’ reactions and the questions that they asked.”
She uses those moments to uncover students’ assumptions and misconceptions and makes them an essential part of a special feature called “Laurie’s Notes” in the teachers’ edition of Big Ideas Math. Unlike the typical teachers’ edition, every page from the student edition has a corresponding page where Boswell “talks to the teacher about how you teach this in the classroom: What would you do with this example? How do you motivate the kids? How do you close the lesson?” The “Laurie’s Notes” feature of the series has received rave reviews, said Boswell, “because it’s essentially professional development for teachers.”
Another innovation of the series also ties back to Boswell’s teaching experience: each lesson is designed to be taught over the course of two days. The first day focuses on “an activity or an investigation that helps the student make sense of the concept” before moving into the formal lesson on the second day. “Instead of teaching into a void, the lesson combines a hands-on investigation with the mathematics itself, all built right into the book,” she said.
Boswell has written with Ron Larson for 20 years; together with Lee Stiff and Tim Kanold, they are a formidable textbook-writing team. Their many co-authored texts include Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry: An Integrated Approach, Middle School Math, and Passport to Mathematics. But when it came time to work on Big Ideas Math, their publisher went through a merger, and the project no longer seemed like the best fit for the publisher’s list.
Larson believed so strongly in the books that he started his own publishing company, Big Ideas Learning, and asked Boswell to work on the series with him. “I couldn’t say no, so we struck out and did it ourselves,” chuckled Boswell. Initially, the pair released an edition of Big Ideas Math tailored to Florida’s standards. “They were extremely successful,” said Boswell, “so then we did a national edition.” The books have done so well, in fact, that Harcourt Holt ultimately contracted with Big Ideas Learning to market and sell the series for the next four years.
State support of national education standards—“the third rail of education” as Secretary of Education Arne Duncan put it—is growing, but the lack of a single national standard still proves challenging for textbook authors. As Boswell explained, “Every state has its own framework. The challenge is that while a particular math standard might be a 5th-grade topic in Kansas, it might be a 6th-grade topic in the neighboring state of Nebraska.”
She continued, “You have to make sure that your book covers the greatest numbers of standards without becoming redundant.” Traditionally, math teachers cover all four operations (add, subtract, multiply, divide) each year at the middle school level: “You do it all in 6th grade, and then you do it again in 7th grade because some kids didn’t get it and you have this repetition of standards.”
With Big Ideas Math, Boswell and Larson chose to base their books on the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Focal Points, which outlines the central ideas in every grade level from kindergarten through 8th grade. “What we need to do is focus on one topic. Teach it once and teach it well, then use that content in subsequent years instead of re-teaching every year.” Besides, laughed Boswell, “who wants to do long division three years in a row?”
Between teaching, running a school, pursuing a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, and spending time with friends, her husband, and her two children, Boswell has a very full schedule. She advised would-be authors that writing texts “takes a tremendous amount of time” and sometimes “it is hard to find balance. You really have to protect and pay attention to all aspects of your life. Including getting enough physical exercise!” That, and “it all revolves around deadlines.”
Leanne Silverman hung her shingle as a freelance writer and editor in Denver, CO after leaving a 12-year career in academic publishing.
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