Kelly Grissom
 September 5, 2001
Textbook Analysis

    I did a comparison between two fourth grade Social Studies textbooks: North Carolina: The, Tare l State published by Jarrett Publishing Company and North Carolina: Living in Our World published by North Carolina State University. Students in the fourth grade are supposed to do a intense study of their state, ours being North Carolina.
    North Carolina: Living in Our World is complete with a table of contents, glossary, index, and appendix including maps. The content is arranged in a combination of chronological order and topics. The content is up to date, however in the book what they write as the future is now the present. Each chapter is broken down into lessons which break down the main points of the chapter. Each chapter has study questions which, not only search for comprehension, but also require students to generate their own ideas. Main ideas are conveyed in an understandable manner. There are good details and the sentence level is usually on grade level. Concepts are explained completely with questions and review concepts. The vocabulary is very appropriate for the fourth grade level.
    North Carolina: The Tarheel State includes a table of contents, glossary, and index, but is lacking an appendix. The overall content follows the Standard Course of Study pretty closely, however it is not very recent. The organization of the book is a little hard to follow at times. The content constantly connects with real?life situations. There are many activities in the book that go along with the chapters which students can do in class or at home. Main ideas are not clearly specified in the chapters, however details are adequately provided by example. There are several challenging words in the text.
    If I had to choose one of these books to use in my classroom, I would definitely use North Carolina: Living in Our World. The chapters are very organized and easy to understand. Whereas the other book is very sketchy. It is scattered and extremely hard to follow and confusing. The book I would choose includes lesson preview questions. I think they are good because it lets students know what they are going to read about in the chapter. It also has review questions at the end of each section and chapter. There are questions that also cause the students to think about what they should have learned and apply it to answer a problem. I looked at a sample of the text about mountain culture. It was very thorough. The book gave examples of music, stories, entertainment, natural resources, and other things. A sample question offered at the end of a chapter is as follows: "Imagine you are a young African American living in NC in 1900. Make a decision?making diagram to help decide whether to move or not." The book is just very precise and easy to follow.
    North Carolina: The Tarheel State is not a very good instructional book in my opinion. It is full of activities and fun things to do, however, it does not include a lot of information. The book would be a wonderful tool to use with another text. It just does not stand well on its own. The main thing that bothers me about the book is that the only colors are blue and white. It does not encourage learning at all. It does not make a person want to learn or get interested in anything. It's also extremely confusing. It is very hard to find a specific place that you need in the book. I do not think this book would go well with my instruction in my class. The other book is more my style.