Nakama 1: Japanese Communication Culture Context
Core Code Alignment
Foreign Language
Japanese
03050000011: Japanese - First year
Japanese
03050000011: Japanese - First year
Recommendation
Recommended Primary
Evaluation
This is an excellent textbook that aligns well with all core objectives, provides a variety of excellent scaffolding material, assessment material, audio, written, and more. If I were adopting a new textbook, this would be at the very top. The online materials are the best I've seen to date, and the integration is top notch.
Educators Using These Materials
No educators found.
Rubric : Generic
Content
| Item | 3 - Extensive | 2 - Adequate | 1 - Inadequate | 0 - None | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alignment | The content of this resource aligns with appropriate grade-level core standards and is current, well-researched and referenced from reliable sources. | The content of this resource aligns with most grade-level core standards but will need supplementary materials to ensure coverage of all the objectives for this course. | The content of this resource aligns with a few grade-level core standards for a portion of the course. | The content of this resource does not align with standards and objectives for this course. | ||
| In all honesty, every language textbook aligns to the core. The foreign language core is broad to capture every language. Thus, everything language related generally meets the core standards. That being said, I feel Nakama does an exceptional job of uniting communication with culture. | ||||||
| Scaffolding | Scaffolding supports for these materials are complex and challenging, engage learners from various skill levels, assist all students in enhancing conceptual understanding, and offer opportunities for students to share evidence and research. | Scaffolding supports for these materials engage learners from various skill levels and assist students in enhancing conceptual understanding. | Scaffolding supports for these materials engage learners from various skill levels. | Scaffolding supports for these materials do not engage learners. | ||
| This should probably be closer to a 2.5. Nakama provides a variety of scaffolding tools from flashcards to culture reading questions that dive down a little deeper and require/provide a more in depth level of understanding of language and culture. There are a variety of activities in between as well. My biggest problem is jumping straight into all Hiragana. It appears this book requires teaching Hiragana right out of the gate, which is almost what most teachers do. Most prefer providing a little language, even if it is just greetings and self-introduction before Hiragana so there is some practical use and excitement to learning Hiragana. They know a few words already. Being able to write what they know is exciting and helps scaffold the learning. I enjoy limited use of romaji, but something is needed to scaffold beginning learners. I'm going to keep the above comment as I believe it still has merit, but I looked a little more closely at the supplemental material (it's hard to access in this format. It doesn't download very easily) and there are some great tools available! Add a teacher's skill and there are no scaffolding issues. | ||||||
| Navigation | Students can navigate the material independently. Instructions are clear and understandable. | The material contains instructions that are understandable and easy to navigate. Students may need educator support to navigate material. | The material may be used with direct educator support but lacks clear instructions. | The instructions in this material are unclear, and navigation is difficult. | ||
| Pretty straightforward and easy to use. | ||||||
Accessibility
| Item | 3 - Extensive | 2 - Adequate | 1 - Inadequate | 0 - None | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physical Characteristics | The design of the material is ADA-compliant and can be utilized by all students. In physical terms, this material is durable, interactive, and provides high-quality audio-visual and tactile experiences for all users. The material contains modern, up-to-date, and relatable visuals, including diverse groups of people. | In physical terms, this material is durable, interactive, and provides high-quality audio-visual and tactile experiences for all users. | In physical terms, this material is fragile in construction, and provides limited tactile experiences for students. | In physical terms, this material is designed to be disposable and temporary. | ||
| Online resources are very interactive. Stop and go video like Neopod would increase the interactive nature of the video content. Online images are high quality. I would assume the physical textbook is as solid as previous additions. | ||||||
| Technical Standards | The material goes above and beyond meeting all the technical standards, ensures student data privacy is safeguarded, and can be easily installed or accessed without technical assistance. Licensing information is clearly stated in the description. | The material meets all the requirements of federal and state laws, along with the accepted technical standards (ISTE Standards and VPAT Compliance). Additional technical specifications and limitations, including hardware requirements, bandwidth demands, student data privacy, and software/ web access restrictions, are adequately noted in the description. The design of the material allows for error-free installation or access without purchasing additional components. | The material is limited by specifications requiring additional materials, technical assistance, hardware, software, or infrastructure. Student data privacy could be at risk. Resources within the material end after a trial period. | Student data privacy is at risk. | ||
| I don't know what the federal bandwidth standards are, but this works nicely with all the platforms I use. Audio on videos has some white noise in the background. Audio quality on the videos could be better. | ||||||
| Adaptability | The material is currently relevant and adaptable for teacher and student use in individualized or group instructional settings across multiple content areas. The material can be customized for the needs of diverse learners. | The material is currently adaptable for a teacher or student to use in a limited instructional setting across a few content areas. The material can be utilized by diverse learners (not customizable). | The material has some features adaptable for students in at least one content area. The material has limited options to address the needs of diverse learners. | The material is not adaptable or easily incorporated into various educational settings or with various diverse learners. | ||
| I needed a little more time and access to fully flesh this out, but there are options for creating quizzes, assignments, adjusting assignments, etc. in the material. What would make this more valuable would be online updates similar to apps. Obviously major tweeks would require a new hard copy of the text, but it would be nice to get an online text that offers updates as part of a subscription price. Edit: I played with this a little more and it allows for the best adaptability I have ever had. It's easy to add assignments and take them away. You can add your own content easily. Well done. | ||||||
Pedagogy
| Item | 3 - Extensive | 2 - Adequate | 1 - Inadequate | 0 - None | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instructional Support | The material provides multiple examples and strong support to educators of ways to deliver instruction. These may include: -Scaffolding Lesson Plans, Personalized/Differentiated Instruction, Experiential Learning, Concept Mapping, Questioning Techniques, or Family Involvement. Furthermore, this material has content that can be problem/project-based, with incorporated skills and concepts that are integrated with all disciplines equally to support student sense-making. (Transdisciplinary/ Interdisciplinary Content Integration) | The material provides some examples to educators of ways to deliver instruction. It contains a few of the following: Scaffolding Lesson Plans, Personalized/Differentiated Instruction, Experiential Learning, Concept Mapping, Questioning Techniques, or Family Involvement. | The material contains limited instructional support on using the material with diverse groups of students, various skill levels, and student needs. | The material does not provide instructional support or examples for the educator. | ||
| There are flashcards, vocabulary lists, alphabet references, audio, labs, writing exercises. etc. that are all solid and very helpful. There is not much reference to any go to sources outside of the provided materials though. I would prefer to rank this a 2.5 | ||||||
| Supplemental Resources | The material provides a wide variety of supplemental resources that are evidence-based and are linked to real-world circumstances and current events. | The material references numerous available supplemental resources. | The material references some available supplemental resources. | The material does not refer to any supplemental resources. | ||
| See comment above. | ||||||
| Assessments | The material contains a variety of formative and summative assessments aligned with Utah Core Standards, Personalized Competency-Based Learning, and Universal Design for Learning. It provides appropriate intervention strategies that lead to observable performance and real-world experiences for students. The assessments are ADA-compliant. | The material contains summative assessments aligned with Utah Core Standards with few interventions and is ADA-compliant. | The material contains a limited number of assessments without intervention strategies but is ADA-compliant. | The material does not provide assessment materials. | ||
| There is a wide variety of assessments that are aligned to the core objectives. Very well done. The format is different than what I have used in the past, but I would put this textbook at the top of my list if I were to adopt a new text. | ||||||
Culture of Learning and Belonging
| Item | 3 - Extensive | 2 - Adequate | 1 - Inadequate | 0 - None | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bias Free | This material is free from bias and is in compliance with all relevant federal and state laws, rules, and regulations, as listed in the next “2-Adequate” section for this item. Furthermore, this material focuses on shared identity and includes the unique characteristics & cultural differences of students in Utah. (53E-4-204.1) This material supports civic and character education. (53G-10-204) | This material is neutral and is in compliance with the laws, rules, and regulations below: -It can be used by all students regardless of sex, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or membership in any other protected class, such as ethnicity, or disability, as described in (R277-328). -This material supports educators to be in compliance with (53G-10-202.4), where they may not use their positions to endorse, promote, or disparage a particular religious, denominational, sectarian, agnostic, or atheistic belief or viewpoint. -The material is free from discrimination and does not support stereotyping of character traits, including hard work ethic. (53G-10-206) -It is free from advertising, e-commerce, or political interest and is in compliance with the law and community standards. | This material may be interpreted as biased. Or promoting advertising, e-commerce, or political interest. Or maybe considered to regard or treat some groups unfairly. | This material does not comply with federal and state laws, rules, and regulations. This material is biased and favors a point of view that may be distracting to the educational experience of students. | ||
| All good! | ||||||
| Cultural Awareness | This item has not been graded. | |||||
| Inclusive Components | This item has not been graded. | |||||
| Shared Values and Character Traits | This item has not been graded. | |||||
UTAH STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
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Salt Lake City, UT 84111-3204
Phone: 801.538.7807