In today's classrooms, textbooks serve as tool and tutor, guidebook and gauge.
Teachers throughout the world use texts to guide their instruction, so textbooks greatly
influence how content is. Textbooks play an important role in making the leap from
intentions and plans to classroom activities, by making content available, organizing it,
and setting out learning tasks in a form designed to be appealing to students.
To make the most effective use of a textbook, however, teachers must decide which
textbooks are appropriate for their needs. A teacher needs to determine the extent to
which a textbook focuses on and is aligned with a coherent set of significant, ageappropriate student learning goals that the teacher, school, or district has identified as
integral to the understanding of and progress in a particular academic subject. They must
also assess how well a textbook's instructional design effectively supports the attainment
of those specified learning goals. The only way to gain this information is through careful
evaluations of textbooks and other curriculum materials.
The evaluation process includes both content analysis and instructional analysis.
The first step in evaluating a textbook is to identify the learning goals with which the
textbooks should be aligned. The learning goals should came from the curriculum of
study that the Board of Education has approved as well as state and national standards.
Instructional analysis included an examination of each textbook’s instructional design
using criteria derived from research on learning and effective teaching, as well the
knowledge of experienced teachers. Textbooks are rated according to both its degree of
alignment with the selected learning goals and the quality of instructional support in its
student and teacher materials.
Textbooks are reviewed every six of seven years. The curriculum office
maintains a schedule of when and which textbook(s) get evaluated each year.
When it is time to evaluation a new textbook, a textbook evaluation committee is
formed from teacher volunteers. All teachers are given the opportunity to be on this
committee. Within the district, there must be one representative for each elementary
school and all grade levels should be represented. .
The curriculum office gets previous materials from three to four of the major
textbooks suppliers such as Houghton Mifflin and Harcourt Brace. There is one set of
preview materials in every building so committee members must share. Typically one
teacher is selected to pilot the materials during the year. Textbook representatives hold
meetings throughout the year in which the textbook is being reviewed to answer any
questions committee members might have.
Textbook evaluation committee members fill out an evaluation form. The
textbook evaluation committee meets providing opportunities for reviewers to defend
their own judgments about materials and to question those of other reviewers. Once the
committee selects a textbook, it must be adopted by the Board of Education. If the Board
of Education adopts the textbook, it may then be purchased and used in the classroom.
Five Points Elementary in Fairborn, Ohio is not currently evaluating Social
Studies textbooks. Next year, Math textbooks are to be evaluated.
Things that would make a good social studies text…..
1. Examine the series to assess readability. In some cases the readability has been
calculated by a formula which might be reported in the teacher's edition.
Readability formulas, however, are only rough measures and they don't take into
account issues such as "concept density." Render your opinion of the overall
readability of the text. Is the book attractively laid out? Do photos correlate with
the narrative? Give examples of how they might enhance concept development.
2. What are the goals of the text? Do they focus on "Big Ideas". What thematic
strands from the National Council for the Social Studies are evident. List these
thematic strands and provide the pages where they are found.
3. Is the content adequate? Does the sequence of ideas or events make sense? Are
prior knowledge and/or experience issues recognized? What specific concepts are
being taught ( e.g., cooperation vs. conflict, families, democracy, isthmus, or
scarcity)? Identify five concepts and describe how they are presented.
4. Pick a lesson and match it to a state of Ohio Outcome/Academic learning
benchmark. Explain why you think the lesson will help students meet the
outcome/benchmark.
5. Where appropriate, are multiple perspectives provided? Is there bias in the
treatment of racial minorities, ethnic groups, females, the poor, or the
handicapped? List as many examples as you can find and identify the type of bias.
The typical ways that bias manifest itself include: exclusion or invisibility,
stereotyping, imbalance, unreality, fragmentation or isolation, or linguistic bias.
6. What special resources provided or recommended: Identify and evaluate records,
filmstrips, manipulatives, photographs, or CD-ROM/software that may
accompany the text. Do the authors give suggestions for additional resources.
7. What suggestions are made for the teacher to incorporate this text into the social
studies program? These usually appear either at the beginning of the teacher's
edition or are included with each page. In what ways arethe suggestions useful?
Are there planned discussions of key ideas? Will the plans yield sustained,
critical, and reflective dialogue? Are there opportunities for student to student
discourse?
8. Are the activities and assignments goals driven? Are they at the appropriate level
of difficulty and scaffolded? Do the activities focus on concepts, generalizations,
and applications? Do they tie into current events? Are the integrated activities
focusing on social studies?
9. Do the assessment items and activities clearly reflect the social education goals?
Do they focus on major social studies understandings instead of miscellaneous
facts? Do they incorporate skills that mesh with the content? Is there an absence
of memorization and regurgitation of miscellaneous facts?
10. Adoption consideration: Identify particular strengths and weaknesses of the series.
Would you recommend it as part of the social studies curriculum? What goals and
outcomes/benchmarks from the State of Illinois would be minimally addressed by
the text? How could these be met?
Information regarding the current social studies text for grade 5 that Houghton Mifflin is
offering.
http://www.eduplace.com/ss/hmss/5/
Unit 1: The United States: Past and Present

Activity: Understanding Primary Sources: Reading a
Historical
Photograph

Activity: Learning from Maps

Internet Resources
Unit 2: Exploring and Settling America

Activity: Understanding Primary Sources: The Mayflower
Compact

Activity: Lacrosse — An Iroquois Game, Then and Now

Internet Resources
Unit 3: Life in the English Colonies

Activity: Understanding Primary Sources: Evaluating John
Smith's Description of Indians in Virginia

Activity: Roger Williams — Puritan Dissenter

Internet Resources
Unit 4: The Struggle for Independence

Activity: Understanding Primary Sources: Exploring the Bill
of Rights

Activity: Benjamin Franklin — A Man of Many Talents

Internet Resources
Unit 5: Life in a Growing Nation

Activity: Understanding Primary Sources: Benjamin
Banneker's Letter to Thomas Jefferson

Activity: Life in New England in the Early 19th Century

Internet Resources
Unit 6: A Nation in Conflict

Activity: Understanding Primary Sources: The Mill Girls of
New England

Activity: Uncle Tom's Cabin: A Statement Against Slavery

Internet Resources
Unit 7: Toward the Modern Age

Activity: Understanding Primary Sources: Examining the
Emancipation Proclamation

Activity: A Civil War Conference

Internet Resources