Boehm & Hoone. Stories in
Time: Meeting Many People. Harcourt
Brace & Co., 1997.
Garcia & Gelo. People and Places. Silver Burdett Ginn, 1997.
Each of the textbooks that were analyzed had both positive and negative qualities. Comparing the two was difficult because they were both published in the same year and for the same grade and both consisted of up-to-date information. These textbooks are already adopted in North Carolina, but they should be in the process of being updated soon, with more recent news and current events. It has been four years since they were published.
In regards to the overall structure
of the books, they both were organized with a Table of Contents, Glossary
and Index, but lacked an Appendix.
In comparing each of the texts to the
standard course of study for second grade social studies in North Carolina,
I discovered that they both cover every aspect of the curriculum in the
scope and sequence. Each of the books has their own sequence all
the same. Stories in Time teachers map-reading and making after the
students learn about their community, and People and Places focuses on
these same ideas, but they are the first concepts in the textbook.
The chapters in People and Places directly address the students. For example, “What types of buildings do you see in your community?” While, on the other hand, Stories in Time basically states the information to be learned; however, they do tell the stories of people that have usually the same answers to the questions asked in People and Places ask.
Stories in Time has a main idea and supporting details in every paragraph. The main idea is always stated as the first sentence of each paragraph. People and Places does as well, but the detail words was a bit higher level than the other textbook. In both books, the main headings support the paragraphs.
The sentence patterns of both books are consistently short and simple. For example, in Stories in Time, “You are making a prediction when you say what you think will happen next. One way to make good predictions is to follow steps.” This is an example of a direct definition. In People and Places, an example of this same type of defintion is, “A community is a place where people live, work, play and help each other.” Most of the definitions are simple, because this is on a second grade level.
People and Places uses a great deal of visual aids. They have photographs, paintings, drawings, charts and graphs. They have so many, that not every one of them is labeled appropriately. Stories in Time however, uses the same types of visual aids, only fewer and they are all labeled with accurate descriptions so children can always, if they were not familiar with the visual, figure out just what it might be.
Textbook evaluations are a part of every
teacher’s life. In my opinion, the correlation of these two texts
would be more effective than simply using one in my classroom. Although
the main difference between the two is that there are more illustrations
in one than the other, there are major benefits to always having two different
types of texts. Students learn differently. Some learn visually
and would need a book like People and Places, while others could gain intellectually
be reading Stories in Time and applying the student’s experiences in the
text to their own. Using People and Places also can stimulate
thinking because the text frequently asks the students questions relating
to their lives that tie in to the lesson. No matter which of these
texts one looks at, they both stimulate thinking, which is the number one
purpose.