US History I
Core Code Alignment
Social Studies
History
09050000050: U.S. History II
History
09050000050: U.S. History II
Recommendation
Recommended Primary
Evaluation
Instructional Materials Review Form
ISBN: Title:
Publisher: Date:
Rating: Primary Limited Teacher Resource Student Resource Not Reviewed Not Sampled ____Not Recommended
The statements below are arranged in ordered value, with the statement listed first ranked high and the last statement in the group ranked low. Reviewers select from these statements for the review and add comments in the Notes and Narrative area for each section.
CONTENT
Alignment XThe content of this resource aligns with appropriate grade level Core standards, 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 insure 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 ob
Educators Using These Materials
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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. | ||
| Textbook is almost completely aligned with Utah State United States History II curriculum. Particularly, the text engages students in civic debate surrounding the core goals of civic preparation guidelines: Engage in deliberative, collaborative, and civil dialogue regarding historical and current issues. Apply knowledge of governmental structure, historical concepts, geographic interrelationships, and economic principles to analyze and explain current events. Identify local, state, national, or international problems; consider solutions to these problems; and share their ideas with appropriate public and/or private stakeholders. Develop and demonstrate the values that sustain America’s democratic republic, such as open-mindedness, engagement, honesty, problem-solving, responsibility, diligence, resilience, empathy, self-control, and cooperation. Engage in dialogue regarding American exceptionalism, in the sense of the special character of the United States as a uniquely free nation based on democratic ideals and personal liberty. The text reads like a series of individual articles that are linked mostly by the timeline of history. For example, the article on speakeasies (ch 9, 1.3) is almost as much about caves as it is about the speakeasy culture. I think it is interesting, but ignores other important ideas that aren't addressed here, and aren't found elsewhere in the text. | ||||||
| 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. | ||
| With detailed lesson plans and differentiated instruction within each unit, scaffolding for both student and teacher is incredibly beneficial for learning the material. Reading is on target for grade level. Addition of reading the text aloud is incredibly helpful for below-grade-level students. Teachers still have the flexibility to implement academic conversations scaffolding and writing format that they deem best for their students. | ||||||
| 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. | ||
| Navigation from teacher to student is quite cumbersome. If the section that was being looked at could automatically link to the same page in the student view, it would help tremendously by cutting out many steps or having to keep both windows open. | ||||||
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. | ||
| Many grammatical, punctuation (commas), and spelling errors rife throughout text (Georgraphy and the Environment Handbook - Download in General Resources of Teacher text). | ||||||
| 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. | ||
| Graphics for textbook readings do not show and, therefore, make pausing or starting the audio difficult to understand at first (missing pause/play button, image for reading doesn’t load). Online textbook can be cumbersome to learn and use if longer passages of the textbook need to be covered (meaning you can’t just read the whole chapter or link pages/thoughts together without multiple clicks to navigate). All National Geographic Atlas Maps are inaccessible and unusable due to technical difficulties. | ||||||
| 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. | ||
| Extra videos to pull students further into their learning would help with adaptability. Expansive lesson plans definitely make the textbook adaptable to multiple student levels and even make a point to differentiate instruction for the visually impaired and gifted and talented in multiple units. | ||||||
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. | ||
| The lesson plans already integrated into the platform are wonderful for teachers because of the relatively low prep and thoughtful connection to different levels and styles of learning. Would be even more effective to have documents linked to the DBQ sections of the textbook for easy printability and reference in creating a key that is specific to the vocabulary the teacher uses in class with students. | ||||||
| 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. | ||
| Supplemental resources of audio reading for students with blindness or reading impairments is a wonderful facet of the technology. The textbook is visually appealing with main vocabulary terms highlighted in a fashion that is easily discernible from the rest of the text. Being able to assign certain passages to students and to check their progress and note taking is incredibly helpful for teacher feedback cycles. Wish there were more readily accessible videos for the more modern periods of time to engage the students in another form. | ||||||
| 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. | ||
| Tests take form of written responses without rubrics/keys connected to them for the teacher. Opportunities of class group projects and research assignments make assessment variability an easy and accessible possibility for teachers, though interspersed multiple choice knowledge checks would be helpful for students and teachers for informal evaluation. | ||||||
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. | ||
| The textbook takes a decidedly honest look at some of the possible failings of American history, such as racial segregation or gender discrimination. There are many pictures of and references to diverse minority groups and how they helped shape American culture and history. One group that is wholly underrepresented in the student version of the textbook is the LGBTQ Community. In the student book, the movement and history of this community is covered in two simple paragraphs: one 4 sentences long, the other 6 sentences. Despite NatGeo making their “National Geographic Features” banner the picture of the White House lit up in a rainbow, that seems to be the most that the students will get on an issue that is unfolding in front of them still today. The teacher resources that are companions to these short 10 sentences are wonderful, but without much for the students to read about, the onus is completely on the teacher to make a specific mention of this historical topic with information that the students cannot find in their own books. Of the few questions that were found relating to the LGBTQ Community, one is particularly concerning: “Why might a lack of openness and honesty about their sexual identity hinder members of the LGBTQ community in their quest for equal rights?” This is particularly concerning because, although the intent is to discuss how stifled discussion leads to stifled rights, upon reading, the blame is placed on the LGBTQ Community being the source of thier own issues in not being honest (insinuating that the community is at fault of not only lying, but putting themselves in their situation instead of equal rights being a societal issue for many groups). | ||||||
| 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