Textbook Assessment

READ 440 | James Madison University

Annie Banton
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Hart, D. (2005). In Alavosus L. (Ed.), History alive! the united states through
industrialism (1st ed.). California: Teachers' Curriculum Institute.

Overview of Context

This textbook would be suited for a middle school or high school United

States history class. I chose this specific textbook because I am currently student

teaching in a sixth grade U.S. History class and will most likely teach U.S. History in

my future placements and career. There are a lot of ways that U.S. History can be

misconstrued in textbooks, so I decided I wanted to investigate this book further.

The cost of this textbook is $56.

Readability Test

I got this textbook from the Memorial Hall ETMC, and a sticker in the front

said that it was rated a 7.04819 using the New Dale-Chall readability test. I decided

to investigate this method further and figure out the reasoning and logic behind this

rating. The Dale Chall method was developed by two professors and instead of

judging texts readability by word length, they compiled a list of hard words that

are used to determine texts readability. The New Dale-Chall method increased the

list of hard words to over 3,000. (Chall, Dale, 1995) According to the New Dale-Chall

readability a score between 7.0 and 7.9 puts a book at a ninth or tenth grade

Figure 1: Sticker in front of book.

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readability level. Therefore, this book rates at a ninth or tenth grade level, which is

higher than the intended grade level given by publishers, which is a seventh or

eighth grade level. Readers should be more focused on difficult content rather than

focused on the lack of readability. This textbook mixes difficult content and a high

readability score. (Beers, Probst, 2016) With a readability of a ninth to tenth grade

level, this ranks higher than publications such as the New York Times.

Content

This textbook covers quite a bit of United States history, starting with the

first humans to exist in North America, spanning all the way to World War I and

present day connections such as the illegal immigrant crisis. It provides a thorough

examination of U.S. history, including subjects such as the American Revolution,

multiple presidencies, the Civil War, and everything in between. Due to the vast

amount of information included in the text, it lacks a good balance between depth

and breadth. While there is a whole chapter dedicated to events such as the

American Revolution or the Civil War, each smaller event within these larger ones

are only given about a paragraph of explanation. For example, the First Continental

Congress and the Battle at Saratoga are given a paragraph each, which is small

considering the impact these events had on the Revolution as a whole. While the

lack of density on these topics seems concerning, one must also consider the fact

that most seventh or eighth graders would be unfamiliar with these topics. In my

sixth grade classroom, most of the students have not heard of the French and Indian

War, the Indian Removal Act under Andrew Jackson, or many aspects of the Civil

War. So, a simple explanation of history can often be necessary for students of this
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age. The book also attempts to make connections to things students might already

know about, such as featuring George Washington or Harriet Tubman, which most

students would already have knowledge about. I

In my analysis I wanted to focus on two areas of content that are often

misconstrued or incorrectly taught. These two groups of people are the Native

Americans and African Americans. While this book attempts to cover these two

groups of subaltern history, they are lacking in their efforts. One of my biggest

concerns in the texts treatment of these two groups is the usage of Indians to refer

to Native Americans, and Blacks to refer to African Americans. This can be seen as

offensive and is not the correct terminology. Often, these groups are only provided a

small amount of space in the book and these parts are very underwhelming. For

example, when discussing relations between the first colonists in Jamestown and

the Native Americans, the author says, the people of Jamestown lived in constant

danger of Indian attacks. While this is correct that there were some Native

American attacks, the book makes no mention of the violent acts the settlers

conducted against the Indians. Later in the book it says, slaves seldom went

hungry, which is an untrue assertion. Slaves often went hungry and masters would

withhold food from slaves as a form of punishment. The atrocities of slavery and the

treatment of Native Americans should not be downplayed. On that note, this book

could go deeper with harder subjects such as civil rights, slavery, and class systems.

From my experience, even sixth graders are able to think and respond about these

difficult subjects.

Figure 2: Comment about Slaves and Hunger

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Format

This textbook does a wonderful job of having a clear, easy to read layout that

encourages students to make connections to the images and graphics provided. A

huge strength of this text is that all the images used are primary source images. So,

they are photographs, drawings, or paintings from the actual time period being

discussed.

Unlike many

textbooks, this

one does not use

any pictures

from

reenactments.

This is a great

tool for teachers

to utilize, as they

Figure 3: Primary Source Image

of Slaves
Figure 3: Slave Image can have

students analyze and discuss these graphics. The book also includes many maps that

are well labeled for student understanding. All maps and images are properly

captioned and labeled, which makes them much more useful for both teacher and

student.
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Each chapter starts with an introduction that is denoted by a blue border

around the text. The introductions are sometimes a narrative from a first person

account or the author brings up ideas for students to consider about the upcoming

chapter. For example, the chapter

about reform in the 1800s includes

an account from Sojourner Truth

and her experience fighting for

womens rights. In each chapter the

topics are broken up with many

subheadings, which makes the

information easier to chunk for

students. It also allows students to

Figure 4: Subheadings read at their own pace and

provides good stopping points. The sidebars only provide unknown terms that are

also provided in the glossary. The definitions are easy to understand in both the

sidebars and the glossary. The sidebars could include extra resources for students,

such as websites for more information or other texts. But, the lack of sidebars does

make it easier to focus on the text and students often ignore the sidebars anyways.

Utility

This entire book is centered on a curriculum created by the Teachers

Curriculum Institute, which relies heavily on the use of an interactive notebook.

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While this curriculum could be useful, I did not have the opportunity to obtain the

teachers handbook so I am unsure of what all it entails. I find it unlikely that most

teachers would use this premade curriculum word for word, so some parts of the

book would not be useful to students that are not using that specific curriculum. For

example, the book will reference graphic organizers students would have in their

interactive notebooks, so if students do not have the notebook they could be easily

confused. As the Ansary article describes,

many textbooks are geared towards the

three big states, because they are the

moneymakers for companies. At the end of

this book it provides a connection the

California state standards, but this would be

relatively unhelpful to other states. This

book also does not include any end of

chapter questions or activities. But, the

Figure 5: Graphic Organizer to be completed in
Interactive Notebooks.
resources at the end of the book are a

treasure trove of primary source material and activities. Primary sources are

included for many of the topics in the book, along with questions that encourage

students to analyze and synthesize the information they read. For example, letters

from a Yankee and Confederate soldier are provided and then students are asked to

write their own letter to family, detailing what they thought was right during the

war.
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Style

The syntax of this text is one of its more concerning aspects. Its readability

level rates at a ninth or tenth grade level, while the publishers argue it is for a

seventh or eighth grade level. This means that according to the New Dale Chall

readability test it has more hard words, increasing its readability level. The

sentences are also quite lengthy which could hinder some students. If this book was

going to be assigned to seventh or eighth graders, I would be concerned about those

students who struggle with reading or are ELL. The primary source readings would

especially prove difficult for these types of students and may not be as beneficial to

their learning if they were unable to properly read them.

Strengths

One of the biggest strengths of this textbook is the use of primary source

photographs and images. A way to enhance this strength even more would be to

utilize these images as a bell ringer activity where students would have to analyze

them. For example, in Figure 2, one could ask students what life was like for the

enslaved on tobacco plantations in the American south. In Figure 5, the teacher

could expand this map activity by printing out a photocopy for each student and

have students also label the movement of settlers in the West or locations of battles

between settlers and Native Americans.

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The chapters

are broken into small

chunks of information

by the subheadings, so

a way to enhance this

would be to have

students use graphic

organizers when

reading the text. It

could be a simple

Cornell notes or a

chart they had to fill

Figure 6: Map detailing the Removal of Native Americans
in. This would allow

students to easily organize the information they were reading and have a better

understanding after reading.

The primary sources available at the end of the book are a great resource for

teachers. These sources could be used in many different ways, but some examples

would be using some of the letters and transcribed interviews so that students could

write letters as if they were a person of that time period. The government

documents included give a good explanation of what the source is about, so teachers

could use these to lead bell ringer activities or discussions.

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Weaknesses

The treatment of Native Americans and African Americans is one of this texts

most gaping holes. In order to mitigate this problem, a teacher could conduct a

discussion with students about why it is important to be politically correct when

talking about minority groups. At their discretion, teachers could also provide

students with extra primary source material that describes the real lives of these

two subjugated groups. The teacher could lead a discussion about the source

material, especially to make sure that students participate in the discussion in a

respectful way.

The readability level of this text is also concerning. One remedy for this

would be to assign this text in a ninth or tenth grade classroom rather than a

seventh or eighth grade classroom. Another way to aid students in reading this

difficult text would be to use different before, during, and after reading strategies. A

read aloud could be beneficial for ELL students and those who struggle with

reading. A read aloud could be especially beneficial if the text was broken into

smaller chunks so that it would be less to process for students. Having students read

in partners could also be helpful, so that they could explain the reading to each other

without added pressure.

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References

Ansary, T. (2014, ). A textbook example of what's wrong with

education. Edutopia Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/textbook-

publishing-controversy

Alvermann, D. E., Phelps, S. F., & Gillis, V. R. (2010). Content area reading and

literacy: Succeeding in todays diverse classrooms (6th ed.). New York: Allyn &

Bacon.

Beers, G. K., & Probst, R. E. (2016). Reading nonfiction: notice & note stances,

signposts, and strategies. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Chall, J. S., & Dale, E. (1995). Readability revisited : The new dale-chall readability

formula Cambridge, Mass. : Brookline Books, c1995.