Critical Analysis of the Book

Critical Analysis of the Book:

    We are going to look at some of the criteria of criticizing a book. This book is an 8th grade biology book. First, we are going to take a look at the external characteristics…

    The cover of this book includes a big title, “Life and Earth Science”. It includes three drawings that are supposed to reflect the three units of the book. However, they do not reflect them clearly, as they are somehow vague and not clear what they resemble.

    Now, we talk about the internal characteristics of the book. As you flip through the pages, you find the preface that explains the aim of this book, perspectives and the objectives, which includes several communication skills by using different methods oral and written skills. In addition, to the ability of thinking, analyzing and connecting the facts that are presented in the documents.

    Then you flip the page to the table of contents and you will see that the pages are reversed so that page 7 is before page 6. It lists clearly what each unit and chapter had in addition to the names. 

    This book has two chapters only, which are Earth and Environment, and Immunology. Although in the preface, the book mentioned having three units. We have to mention here that in the national standards they include the chapter of the human reproductive system, and have its own objectives, goals, and standards. So this part does not comply to the national standards, where a complete unit is cut out of the book.

    Each of the two units has a brief explanation about the terms and definitions of the subject; and presents some interesting things that are presented in the following chapters. In addition, it includes the list of the chapters that are in that unit. As well, there are pictures that are added relating to the subject on the next page.

    As a new chapter begins, you find the title of that chapter, and a brief explanation of what is discussed in that chapter. Also, there is an area called problems to discuss which includes a list of questions that could lead to classroom discussions and questions asked. And on the next page, you will have a page that has all the titles of the activities and under them a picture that represents that activity.

    As you flip to the activity, which is the daily lesson, you will find the title of it. And under it is an introduction to that activity and what it is going to talk about. At the end of the introduction, it introduces the big idea of the lesson, and sometimes in a form of a question, so that the students think about it, and refresh their prior knowledge. Then the activity is organized in such a way that each idea is expressed by pictures, where they are real pictures or drawing. Then there is the section of the “Vocabulary”, that explains the scientific words in the activity. Then the section of the “Probing the Activity”, where it asks the students questions about what they have learned in this lesson. They are mostly recall questions that depend on listing, labeling, and drawing. Rarely does it ask the students to explain or create a hypothesis relating to what they learned. Then at the end, there is a section called “Don’t Forget”, it summarizes briefly the lesson in a few sentences.

Issues regarding to the content of the book and the national standards:

    As said previously, this book contains two units instead of three. The book of national standards includes standards for the three units. Therefore, there is a unit missing from this book, which is about human reproduction. However, the other two units comply with the national standards, including the big ideas, goals, and objectives. They include all the big ideas of the national standards with the specific detailed ideas under it, but with the use of different wordings.

The positive contents found in this book:

-The book used real Arabic names in examples and questions.
-The book used many pictures in the activities.
-The book included an introduction, a section called “Don’t Forget” (a summary of the lesson), a vocabulary section, and a question section called “Probing the Activity”.
-The book included a good introduction for each activity and presented the big idea of the lesson at the end of it.
-There are ten chapters in this book, in the first unit the teacher has an advantage of picking which chapters she wants to teach the students, out of the seven chapters for that unit (since quality and not quantity that is important).
-There is a good arrangement of the order of the chapters.
-There are questions to solve at the end of each activity.
-There are several exercises at the end of the chapter of the different levels of difficulty.
-It includes specific details and main points in the explanation in the activities.
-This book contains a content map using figures at the end of the chapter.
-At the end of the chapter, there is a revision section using words and not digital figures.
-In some chapters, there is an extra page having more information about the specific material in the chapter.

Now, we will look at the negative contents found in this book:

-There are many pictures and not a lot of text for the students to rely on.

-The questions at the end of the activity are low levels, reaching a maximum level of difficulty where the questions are of explanations.

-There is no variety in the questions between the several activities and chapters. All the questions are similar and ask the same question, which is to list, label, and draw.

-It includes a lot of spelling mistakes.

-It includes many grammatical mistakes.

-It includes words in French.

-It includes a lot of mistakes in the given of the exercises.

-In the first chapter of the immunology unit, the activities are not arranged well. They can use some modification to keep the same thought and not shifting between several topics.

-There are no questions to check for prior knowledge.

-The book does not include the unit of the reproductive system where it does not include anything about reproduction. It is only stated in the table of contents. This part does not comply with the national standards that clearly state some standards that are related to the human reproduction system.

There are some things that need to be changed in this book. Some of these things are:

-Correcting the mistakes that are included in this book, which are grammatical, spelling, mistakes in given, and mistakes with the use of a different language.

-The book should include more text to explain the pictures and the documents that are used in the activity. This way, students can have a clear text to rely on instead of taking notes all the time. In addition, the parents will be able to help their children at home when the activity supplied with the text.

-There should be a use of easier vocabulary explanations. Some of the explanations are very complex and complicated that sometimes itself needs further explanation.

-The questions that are found in the “Probing of the Activity” should tackle all the different levels of knowledge and not just the lowest levels, which are from memory.

-They should fix the table of contents. They should change the order of the pages and remove the part of the reproductive system, or include the unit in the book concerning reproductive system.

-There should be a change in the order of the activities in chapter 1. The third activity should be the second activity and the second activity should be the third.

-There needs to be a section of questions that should check for the students’ prior knowledge.

-The content map should be at the beginning of the chapter instead of at the end.

-The section of “Questions and Problems to be Discussed” which is put at the introduction of the chapters, it should be put at the end of the chapter so that the students and the teacher will remember these questions and discuss them in the class. Because this way, they are never discussed.

Conclusion:

    This book contains positive and negative aspects as seen above. It lists clear objectives that are related to the national standards and comply to it. It contains rich documents and figures that motivate the critical thinking of the student. Although, including a text as a description for each document would benefit the students more since they will have a solid source of correct information to rely on. In addition, it includes several activities that are stated as documents that contain core ideas relating to the chapter. These activities could be done in real life depending on the school’s financial situation, like observing a blood smear under a microscope or doing the blood typing and even visiting a blood bank. All of these activities will bring the idea of the blood types and blood transfusion, which are important topics in the first chapter bring them to life so that they are easier to be understood.

    If there are no other textbooks that have the corrections that are needed in this book, then this book is a decent book. As a critical observer of this book, I do not recommend this book unless there are serious changes that are done by the teacher. The teacher should supply the students with the text that is in accordance to the documents and the figures that are in each activity. This will aid the students in understanding the activity better. This way, if they missed a class, they are fully able to understand the figures and the documents just as if they were in class. The teacher should also include in the text the notes that each student should write example, the characteristics, and the differences of the white blood cells. In the book, you can only find three pictures for the three kinds of white blood cells. There is no text or a list of the characteristics and differences. The teacher explains them orally in class and the students are asked in exams what these differences and characteristics are. Not all students are able to keep up with the teacher, so they cannot take notes all the time. As a teacher, I also recommend not explaining the first unit of this chapter, which is about earth and environment, because it includes seven out of ten chapters of the book. This is not a topic that will be discussed again in secondary classes. Also, the part of the immunology is difficult at first for the students, because it represents ideas that are given to the students for the first time. This is why I would recommend not giving the part about the earth and environment, and focus more on the part of the immunology unit. In the time a teacher would be explaining concepts and facts that won’t be used later in the next few years, the teacher could use this time and make some activities that would help the students in the understanding of the lesson that are important and the base for the next years. Like observing a blood smear under a microscope or doing the blood typing and even visiting a blood bank…

    I would suggest that a group of teachers would take these notes into consideration, to create a new book. This group of teachers would take these negative aspects of the book that are presented previously, and change them into positive ones. And try to emphasize the positive ones, like having exercises that include a variety of level to test the students knowledge and understanding. This is all in order to create a more comprehensive and complete book that would be of most benefit for both the teacher and the students. Because in the end, even a bad book  is a good one in the hands of a good teacher.