Textbook Analysis

What is Textbook Analysis?

Textbook analysis is the systematic analysis of the text materials including the
structure, the focus, and special learning assists. Teachers may assume the text is
sacred" and follow it without thought or write it off as useless. Either approach is a
disservice to students. Many textbook publishers and writers have developed texts
with useful elements, if we are willing to figure out what they are.
How can Textbook Analysis help your students?
Students in the general learning population may have an easier time of "figuring
out" how to use the textbook than those in the special education population. With
help from the teacher, the text materials can begin to make more sense. If structure
is explained students can get a better idea of where they are going in the course. If
the teacher understands focus or bias, he/she can make additions or deletions as
needed to keep the presentation balanced. If Learning assists are understood, they
have a better chance of being utilized.
How can you implement Textbook Analysis in order to effectively meet the diverse
learning needs of students?

When a new textbook is adopted, it can be helpful if you can hear what the
sales staff has to say about the book. You will discover what their intent was with
organization as well as with particular features of the book.
If sales staff is unavailable, take a look at the promotional materials. See what
they are proud of. It may be useful in your planning.
Study the Table of Contents to see the content scope and sequence. Have
students look at this organization with the idea of figuring out patterns. Cooperative
Learning groups can be effective in comparing observations. Organization may be
simply chronology for a history text, but is the same period of time covered in the
same number of pages? If not, why not? In Geography, are the headings all
continents? Or are there some chapters on entire countries? What does this say
about the focus of the text writers?
By looking at Unit and Chapter headings, can you tell anything about the
focus of the textbook author? Is there an area that is emphasized while another is
underemphasized? E.g. in a Psychology text, does the author give equal treatment
to different Personality theories?
What are the special assists associated with the text. Often a Social Studies
text at the senior high level is a major tome. It may be intimidating for the teacher
as well as the student. The teachers edition, with all the ancillary extras is even
more imposing. It is helpful if a teacher takes the text home and just looks at the
component parts. E.g. If you thing timelines are helpful in a history class, are there
chapter timelines? Unit timelines? Which are going to be useful? If they are not
useful, how am I going to compensate for that deficiency?

What are the different types of Textbook Analysis?

There are many ways to analyze a textbook, depending on the intent of the analysis.
Purchasers may want to know reading levels, costs, ancillary costs, etc. After the
text has been purchased, however, the analysis by the teacher, which can help
instruction include the Structure of the Text, the Focus of the Author, and the
usefulness of the learning assists.
Where can you find more information about Textbook Analysis?
http://www.englishcompanion.com/pdfDocs/textbookanalysis.pdf

Bias/Prejudice
An important skill of critical reading is the ability to detect an
author's bias and prejudice. The reason you need to be able to do this, of course, is
that bias and prejudice may invalidate an author's claim.
There are several ways to detect an author's possible bias and prejudice, for
example:
1. the author uses inflammatory language: in the most extreme cases, racial
epithets, slurs, etc.;
2. the author consistently makes claims whose larger purpose is to elevate (or
demean) one social, ethnic, national, religious, or gender group as compared
to another, or all others;
3. the author consciously presents evidence that serves to tell only one side of
an event or issue, purposefully withholding or ignoring information that may
shed the opposing view in a more positive light;
4. the author manufactures, falsifies and/or dishonestly cites evidence in order to
present his or her case in a more positive light.
Bias and prejudice may be the result of national pride and chauvinism (as may be
the case for Japanese scholars' denial of the Rape of Nanking) or personal or
professional rivalry (as in the Browning-Goldhagen controversy; on both of these
issues, see Evaluating Contradictory Data and Claims); perhaps an author's bias
and prejudice is a result of a specific agenda he or she wishes to support
(see Historiography); or perhaps it simply reflects the author's ignorance and
resulting ignorant worldview. When writing about history, our ability to detect and
identify such bias and prejudice is a valuable and necessary skill.
Please note that bias and prejudice, although they may invalidate an author's claims,
do not necessarily disqualify that author's work as a suitable subject for

consideration. If you do include references to biased and prejudiced works, however,

be sure to qualify your references by pointing to the works' underlying bias.
Note that even secondary sources written by reputable authors are not immune to
bias and prejudice. Be sure to carefully examine any author's premise, argument,
and methodology to ascertain whether he or she has consciously or unwittingly
pursued the above strategies.
You are even more likely to encounter prejudice and bias in primary sources:
newspaper editorials, political cartoons, and "private" sources such as letters,
diaries, etc. are often blithely biased, as they are generally intended for a specific
audience that is assumed to share the author's view. (On this, see also fiction.)
Finally, beware of presenting biased or prejudiced views of your own, or
manufacturing dishonest evidence. When writing, seek to avoid the pitfalls of the four
negative strategies described above - on which, see also Don'ts and The Ethics of
Quoting.
We conclude this section with an obvious example of bias and prejudice - one that
again falls within the parameters of our larger theme of the events leading up to
World War II - from a well-known source: Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.
Hitler's Mein Kampf (1924) was written during his brief period of incarceration
following the failure of the beer hall putsch, his abortive effort in 1923 to overthrow
the post-World War I German government. The book amounts to a detailed manifesto
in which Hitler articulates his theories of history, politics, nationhood, and race.
Historians recognize in the book, written ten years before Hitler assumed control of
Germany, a blueprint of the basic strategies, both domestic and foreign, he was later
to pursue. The following excerpts refer to his views on nature and racial mixing,
specifically, his views on the possible union of non-Jewish Germans ("Aryans") with
Jews (whom Hitler routinely refers to as "a pack of wolves," a "herd of rats" and
"parasite[s]" [301, 302, 304]):