Grade Six Textbook Evaluation

A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning. Her ability to create an effective learning environment is an indicator of how successful she is but this isn’t easy because it requires the combination and integration of several skills and teaching methods all together. One main factor which strongly affects the learning process is the textbook which the administration selects for students.

The book which I selected to evaluate is for grade six students. It’s from the Oxford Discover collection which I found very helpful and organized. It also includes different tools which allow the teacher to show and tell students using the poster pack and class audio CDs which come along with the book.

Oxford Discover book  also taps into children’s natural curiosity, enables them to ask their own questions, find their own answers and explore the world around them. This is mainly done by having a big question in the beginning of each unit like in the image bellow which includes a picture and the big question: “Why do people build bridges and tunnels?”.



However, there are few points of weaknesses in this book. At first, not all of the topics of this

books’ lessons are relevant to students’ culture and native language because most of them are

selected based on the American culture. For example, the first unit is about overcoming earth’s

obstacles (using bridges and tunnels) which are not found in our culture so students’ won’t be

able to connect such information with their background experiences or real life.

Moreover, grammar is introduced deductively in this book by providing students with the

grammatical rule and then with several practices on it. This way isn’t very effective because it

doesn’t involve students actively in the learning process.

To sum up, the Oxford Discover book is a really effective one which I would like to teach using it but of course extra activities and practices will still be needed.  Also, I'll make some adjustments to change the weak parts of the book and to improve its quality.