December 25th,

2022

Textbook
Evaluation

Prepared by: Asma

Abbassi
 Introduction
1. Case Study:

 I choose to work on the textbook, which is designed for young learners in the 6 th year of the Tunisian basic
education.
 “Learn and Grow” is designed for 6th grade in primary schools. They are familiar with the English Language
since two years . This textbook is new, and its first publish is in 2022.
 Students are supposed to deal with this Textbook twice per week. Each session last one hour. And, each lesson
must be taught in one hour..
2. Objectives of the study:
 3. Evaluative Criteria:

A. The General Criteria:

C1: The layout is interesting, colorful and informative.

B. The Pedagogical Criteria:

C2: The Textbook enhances Student-centeredness.
C3: The activities provided in the textbook engage students to participate in meaningful conversations with the English
Language.
C4:The textbook introduces new vocabulary items, and grammar rules in each new lesson.

C. The Technical Criteria:

C5:The book is accompanied by audio- materials
C6: The book is suitable for mixed-ability classes and classes of different sizes
 4. The Macro procedure of Textbook Evaluation:
I interviewed a teacher of primary schools who teach the English Language. This teacher deals with the new book
during three months.
 Survey:
The survey of the textbook “Learn and Grow” is based on an interview with one teacher who deals with
this new book during 3 months:
I ask the teacher the following questions:
1- Does the methodology of the textbook suitable to enhance students’ participation?
2- does the textbook provide different activities to encourage student to communicate with the English Language?
3- Are the vocabularies in the textbook suitable for all students’ levels?
4- are there activities to develop the learners’ four skills?
5- Is the textbook suitable for mixed-ability classes?
6- Is there smoothness between the lessons in the same unit?
7- does the textbook encourage student-centeredness, or teacher- centeredness?
8- is the Input provided encourage students to produce a rich Output?
10- Do you remark any progress in learners’ level after dealing with the new book?
11- what you think if you have the opportunity to change, add to this book?

 Analysis

 Judgment
 Based on the interview with the teacher, and my own point of view, and
knowledge, I develop the following rating scheme of 6 th grade textbook.

VS Criteria MS VMP

2 Is the Layout interesting, colorful, and attractive 2 4

2 The activities provided in the textbook engage students to participate in
meaningful conversations with the English Language
2 4

4 Student-centeredness 5 20
3 The textbook introduces new vocabulary items, and grammar rules in each new
lesson
2 6

2 The textbook provide activities to deal with the four skills. 3 6

1 The book is suitable for mixed-ability classes and classes of different sizes 3 3
The Evaluation of the Textbook:

1- the Layout is attractive, interesting, and colorful:

According to the interviewed teacher, and my own point of view after reading, and looking to the textbook, the layout
is attractive to an extent. It includes the characteristics that attract the learners when they study with that book.

Eg1:Unit2, Lesson5: How to stay fit, Eg2: Unit3, Lesson4: Having fun in
Activity2: Let’s read. Autumn, Activity1: Let’s get started.

Eg3: Unit3, Lesson5: Having Fun

in the Winter, Activity1: Let’s
get started. The pictures in the textbook are
colorful, meaningful, and
somehow attractive. They are
suitable for young learners to
convey the meaning.
2- The textbook enhances student-centeredness:
According to the teacher and my own knowledge about Student-centeredness, and my research about “Learn and Grow” I
found that the majority of the activities in the textbook encourage learners to be active in the classroom, to participate, and
to interact with his peers in pair work, or group work. It also encourage students to be creative.
Eg1: Unit2, Lesson2: Eat Well, Live
Well, Activity1: Let’s get started, b. Eg2: End of unit 3: Project Idea.

As it is mentioned in the examples, the activities

encourage students to be active, motivated, and express
themselves.
 3- Development of the four skills:
After having a look on the activities provided in the textbook. It is very clear that the book somehow works on
developing the four skills of the learner. In fact, in some lesson we have activities that enhances the Those activities are
distributed in the book , not in the same lesson but they are in the textbook.
Eg1: Unit2, Lesson4: How Are You Eg2: Unit3, Lesson2: Having Fun in
Feeling, Activity4: Let’s speak. Spring, Activity5:Let’s Write.

Eg3: Unit3, Lesson3: Having Fun in Eg4: Unit2, Lesson5: How to Stay
Summer, Activity2: Let’s Read. Fit, Activity7: Let’s pronounce
4- New vocabulary items, and Grammar rules:
According to the teacher, it is noticeable that in each lesson there is a new grammar rule , and new vocabulary items.
The majority, if not all vocabulary items are introduced in an intentional way. From the beginning of the lesson . And all
the grammar rules are introduced in an intended way. There is a fixed activity in each lesson called “Let’s Complete the
Grammar Rule”.
Eg1: Unit3, Lesson1: The Four Eg2: Unit2, Lesson5: How to Stay Fit,
Seasons, Activity1: Let’s get Activity3: Let’s Complete the Grammar
Started, 2-a. Rule.
5- The activities provided in the textbook engage students to participate in meaningful
conversations with the English Language
According to the teacher my knowledge, the textbook “Learn and Grow” engage students to an extent to participate,
and communicate using the English Language. It encourages learners to use English in an authentic context through
the use of role plays, dialogue, and through the warm-up activities, which are mainly about reflecting on pictures. So,
students communicate, and negotiate meaning with each other, and with their teacher.

Eg1: Uni3, Lesson1: The Four Eg2: Unit3, Lesson4: Having Fun in
Seasons, Activity4: Let’s the Autumn, Activity1: Let’s get
speak. Started.

This type of activities enhances students motivation, engagement, and their

love to communicate with the English Language.
6- The book is suitable for mixed-ability classes and classes of different
sizes
In just two hours, it seems impossible to cover all the students needs. There are many students who are
not intelligent enough to understand in just few minutes. Added to that, crowded classes are a big
problem. The teacher cannot cover all the activities in a good way, and cannot engage himself with all
the students, or even scaffold them all.

Eg: The textbook is full of activities, the teacher should cover all the activities in just two
hours. Of course in a class with mixed-abilities students, and with crowded classes . How
ca a teacher scaffold, monitor, know the needs, convey the message of the course,
develop the four skills… in a crowded class with a short period of time?
Based on the rating scheme, I develop the following rating chart:

30

25

20
Textbook 6th
15 Grade
Ideal
10

0
c1 c2 c3 c4 c5 c6
Judgments
The new 6th grader’s book “Learn and Grow” is suitable for 21st century learning to an
extent.
The textbook is full of activities. I think they must minimize the activities, and simplify
them to be suitable for mixed-ability classes.
The textbook is too long, and full of vocabulary. The must reduce its length because two
hours per week and one hour for a lesson are not enough to acquire a lot of vocabularies.
The activities must encourage incidental learning, rather than intentional learning.
There are activities based on drilling rather that scaffolding .
Grammar, and vocabulary are not given in context.
Teachers must attend seminars, and conferences to know about the qualities of the
learning process in the 21st century.
 THANK
YOU FOR
YOU TIME