Book Description

This book is intended as a resource for teachers and curriculum developers who select textbooks for secondary English courses. It includes a compilation of 32 factual textbook reviews obtained from the application of a review instrument, which was based on the California "Model Curriculum Standards: Grades Nine through Twelve, English Language Arts" and the "English-Language Arts Framework for California Public Schools: Kindergarten through Grade Twelve." The instrument described in the book was applied to selected English composition/grammar and reading/literature textbooks. The book suggests that the resulting reviews can be used by teachers as a screening device to reduce the number of books they review and pilot studies they conduct; thus educators will have more time to do in-depth reviews of two or three textbooks which appear to match their course requirements and their students' academic needs. The book also states that the review instrument can be adapted by districts to reflect their own English objectives and test results. Every review in the book includes two parts and a publisher's description (which appears in the Appendix)--a section which depicts the extent to which the emphasis on content and process is given to each of the topics in the textbooks reviewed, and a section which includes topics on content and processes which might be found only in teachers' editions. The book does not make assessments regarding the quality of the books reviewed, but rather provides information which teachers may find useful in making quality judgments and selecting specific textbooks for English programs. (SR)