Artifact # 5
Social Studies Textbook Evaluation was performed to gain practice in analyzing textbooks for classroom use. I evaluated two second grade Social Studies books to become more critical of strengths and weaknesses of texts.
Context
I created this textbook analysis, using Microsoft Word, to meet the
textbook evaluation requirement in the Social Studies Methods course of
my Block at Appalachian State University. In order to make a good
evaluation of the second grade textbooks, I had to consider the textbooks’
strengths and weaknesses, difficulty or ease, well-developed concepts or
poorly specified ideas, text organization, visual organization, readability,
using the Ragor Readability Estimate, and more. I compared and contrasted
the two textbooks to determine which one I would choose to use in my classroom.
Impact
This evaluation allowed me to become more familiar with the second
grade curriculum and the instructional level of second grade students.
I was also made aware of the various types of textbooks that are available
and the standards upon which those books are chosen for use in a classroom.
I learned the value of a teacher’s manual with the cornucopia of resource
materials, including the Internet, other textbooks, magazines, newspapers,
etc, and lessons that compliment the textbooks. This experience has
helped me realize the importance of textbook evaluations and allowed me
to perform an evaluation on my own, so that I can evaluate the textbooks
in my classroom.
Alignment
The textbook evaluation allowed me to analyze two second grade Social
Studies textbooks to determine which would be more appropriate for teaching
and learning according to the curriculum guidelines for Social Studies.
I was able to make a conclusion about which of the textbooks I would choose
to use in my classroom (Tech. Competency 10.6).
The textbook I chose, as the better of the two I evaluated, had a large
variety of resource materials and lesson plan ideas from a range of sources.
One of these sources was the Internet. Here I found information that
would both compliment and accompany the curriculum material covered in
the textbook in the form of lesson plans and activities that can be found
at http://www.ncss.org/ (Tech.
Competency 10.3). The process of textbook evaluation is valuable
to teachers as it aids their instructional planning skills. Analyzing
textbooks will help me, as a teacher, to become more aware of the subject
matter contained in the textbooks. Deciding upon which textbook to
use requires knowledge of the students, the community, and the grade level
curriculum. A solid knowledge base in these areas will help me to
make a more appropriate decision concerning which textbooks to use in my
classroom (INTASC 7).