Activity- Physical Presentation of Text

[Admin]

Task:

1. Examine the features of a prescribed textbook for one of the subjects you teach.

2. Identify the different text features found in the text. Provide appropriate examples.

3. Do you think that your selected textbook is well presented for the target group? why. If not, make suggestions for improving its overall presentation.

5. Share your ideas here.

[mjoseph]

For my subject area, Electricity and Electronics Technology, a TVET subject, the textbook that students are expected to use as well as me for further clarification to my students, is called " Understanding Electricity & Electronics Technology, written by the authors, Buban,Schmitt & Carter(1987). Well, firstly, I would like to say that this is one of the three textbooks that students are required to purchase and this is the only book which covers all the topics in the curriculum. After analysing the text presentations found within the book, I realised that the authors used a variety of features namely, table of content which presented the sections in which information will be arranged as well as the main headings and subheadings that will be found in the book. Diagrams and illustrations were also used which made the book more reader friendly to indiduals reading the content and the authors ensured that the diagrams and illustrations depicted the information found within the written text which can appeal to visual learners. Also, the authors used different text colours and fonts to represents important words that students must be aware of as well as to show the main headings and subheadings. I believe that this textbook does cater to the targeted individuals or students that may use this book for information because it caters to different learning preference of students, it uses authentic illustrations which students can limk to what they encounter in real life but I also believe that the book should be revised so that more colour can be used throughout the text to appeal better to readers and to show more diagrams and illustrations that depicts the changing trends in technology as this is a subject that deals with technology.

[law]

My Science Textbook by Jim Clark and Ray Oliver "Longman Chemistry for CXC" is very well presented, particularly since it addresses one of the most challenging sciences, chemistry. I value this presentation because of the well detailed table of contents which lists all the subtopics under the main topics and their corresponding pages. The index in addition is very rich in data in order for the students and teacher to source necessary information. A glossary is not present. However, a dialog is present at the end of each chapter which summarizes main points and definitions. The colour coding used is also ideal. The text is based on a purple theme. The font sizes used to present main headings and subheadings are ideal, making it easier for readers to track and trace essential information. Furthermore, supplementary information to the text is provided in purple dialog boxes, which I find is an appropriate strategy to catch the attention of the reader. The diagrams and flowcharts used should also be commended as they serve as a simplified alternative for the reader to understand certain processes. A combination of black and white and coloured pictures with appropriate captions are also available, which makes this science text more reader friendly. In addition, everyday experiments and illustrations make the textbook more convenient to the students since they will be able to appreciate the content being presented.

My main concern with this textbook is that I find some of the information is too detailed. The verbose paragraphs could have been simplified with points highlighted by bullets. Also more spacing should have been used so that the long texts would not detour students' interests to read.

[kthomas]

The name of my textbook is Log on to I.T. by Roland Birbal and Michele Taylor. The book entails full illustrations of the various text presentations that are required for learning the basic aspects of Information Technology at the forms one and two stages, starting with the table of contents. It depicts pictures of the various parts of the computer, and flow chart which shows the stages in processing. I like the idea of the book having activities for the students to do after each chapter. Also, the back of the book shows the students the various ways in which they can use the microsoft office programmes as well as applications found of the computer such as Paint. In addition, the textbook allows students to see what their posture should look like at the computer desk rather than just telling them. In a nutshell, I do think that it is appropriate to the students' level although more pictures should be present to make the book more attractive since the students are more technologically inclined and they are more eager to know about it.

[sjustin]

My subject area is English Language. The name of the prescribed text is " English Grammar for Students". This text is prescribed for forms 1- 3 however it can be used for all forms as students in the upper forms often forget the basics of grammar as they progress into their upper school.

It must also be noted that though English Language is not a Content based subject, this text book sure seems to present the learning of proper grammar with a lot of content however it is structured in such a way that the learner will find it very engaging to read. The text features found in this texts consists of the following:
1. Headings
2. Sub headings
3. Text ( Bold, Italic and colored)
4. Photos
5. Activity boxes
6. Exercises

For example In the activity boxes are interactive and fun exercises for students to do as part of their learning experience. In each activity box the heading is called "Did You Know". Under the topic Common Nouns an example of the names of relations in the family is used for example uncle, cousins, sisters, brothers etc. In the Did You Know box is the activity " You can make a chart to show the relationship between members of a family. You call this chart "Family Tree." Activities such as these makes the learning of nouns and other parts of speech very engaging.

This text is appropriate for early writers of forms 1 to 3. I also believe that this text is well presented because it has a simple timetable along with a side time table which makes finding the topics very easy.

However I do not particularly like the color scheme of the text. The three main colors used are green, black and white. Green is an attractive color however the black and white down played it and so the exercises and activity boxes may be over looked by students. A color such as red along with the green would definitely attract readers to engage in the activities and exercises derived from the text.

[cfrancis]

I am a TVET student and my subject area is Technical Drawing. As the name implies, a text book for this subject must contain drawings/ diagrams. The text book that I use is called Technical Drawing 1, Plane and Solid Geometry written by A. Bankole and S. Bland. The table of contents is complete with headings and sub-headings of various font sizes to distinguish among section names, chapter names and the contents of each chapter, each with their page numbers. Within the body of the chapters, the diagrams are captioned. Since this subject is all about the construction of shapes and objects and the steps involved in the process, many flow charts can be found in this text. The entire book is printed in black and white. Therefore, my only advice on the improvement of this text is the addition of some color pictures to bring them to life.

[andre]

For my subject area, Equipe 1 written by Daniele Bourdais, Sue Finnie and Anna Lise Gordon, which is used in form one classrooms across the island. This text could be seen as one which is well presented. It includes all the text features mentioned in class today besides flow charts and cut away diagrams. This is because the topics covered here can not be explained through the use of these text features. To the back of the text, there is a grammar section which comprises of a small glossary of terms and an index.
In a sense this text could be seen as one which is very student friendly because of the multiple pictures , diagrams and colourful headings and sub-headings. Just one concern, listening exercises should be made available to students with the text in an attempt to allow students to through them on their own time.

[sregis]

In my search for text books, I came across "Espanol para la vida" book one (1) 1994 edition. Out of the list of text features discussed in class, this book possessed nine of them. For example a table of contents, which can be found at the front of the text, contained the different chapters in numerical order. Accompanying the chapters, were the different subtopics and the pages where the different chapter can be found. In addition, the text contained text boxes, some of which had a heading called "Nota Cultura". These were descriptions of real life events in the Spanish speaking countries. The aim of this text box was to link the content in the chapter to that of real life situations. Likewise, maps were for the topic "Countries and Nationality" to help students identify countries and see the relationship between countries and nationalities. However, i identified two flaws in the text book. The first one being that the number of drawings out way that of real life photos. This cheats learners out of a near real life experience with the content. Secondly, at the beginning of dialogues there was a cassette symbol but the book was not accompanied buy a cassette. Therefore, students maybe not be motivated to independently use the text book because they do not have the necessary aids, such as the cassette which will guide them through the dialogue. I would however recommend the text book since it contains a vast number of text features. I also recommend the use of more real life photos rather than drawn colourless photos and the addition of cassettes to the revised editions, if the book s to be more learner friendly.

[mbutcher]

The Modules of Social Studies by Rampersad Ramsawak & Raid R. Umraw, 3rd edition is a SS text book with excellent text organization. It contains all the physical features of text that was discussed in class yesterday. This text appeals to the students because it has lots of pictures and illustration students can relate to. It is very colorful and consists of lots of charts and tables etc.

[Admin]

Hi Students

You have made an excellent attempt at evaluating the physical presentation of a textbook in your content area . A critical examination of the text is always useful as knowledge of this text organization will influence how you will tailor content area literacy instruction to meet the needs of all students in your class.

I would like to encourage those who examined the same text to simply add to previously stated comments.

[jwilliams]

Heineman Physics for cxc contains various text fetures. They include the table of content which is seperated in sections A-E. Each section has a broad topic and under each sections are chapters and subtopics that coincides with this broad topic. It also contains the page where these chapters and subtopics can be found. These chapters and subtopics are bolded and are of a larger font size when the page is navigated to.
This book also contains an index which has key terms found in the book and the page where these terms can be located. Some page numbers are bolded which indicates that the definition of the term can be found on that page. On that page the word found in the index is also bolded which is another text feature of this book, key words are bolded.
Another text feature of this book is that of photos, illustrations, maps, graphs, flow charts. They are named as a numbered figure and a caption saying what it is is provided under. Similary tables are named and a heading saying what the table is about is provided.
Text boxes which are placed at the side of the text provides notes, promblem to get students thinking and things to do are also part of text features encompassed in this book.
Generally I think that the text is presented in a manner that enables students to navigate and better understand the text. However I do believe that the use of colour will enhance the appeal of the book and will give students a better view of the details of pictures which will increase retention.

[jcsa]

Since English and English Literature are not content subjects, most of the prescribed texts for English are 'reinforcers' for what is taught in class or novels, compiled lists of short stories and poems and plays.

The text that I selected is a prescribed play for form 4 CXC English Literature Students - "The Merchant of Venice" by William Shakespeare.

In my opinion, the text is appropriate for its function. It consists of textual notes that help students better understand the language of the play, rather than just depending on their own interpretations.

It also contains page-by-page summaries of the plot as the student reads the play, so the students will hav an idea as to what to expect when they're reading.

The text also has different activities to encourage students to interact more effectively with it.

Although it is not your average content textbook, I believe that this text is appropriate for its function.

[cglasgow]

My area of specialization is Foreign Language (Spanish) and the recommended (very overrated ) textbook is the Viva by Moodie & De Rondon with Bartley & Maharaj.

The text structures include:
1. A Table of Contents
2. Headings
3. Subheadings
4. photographs
5. Textboxes - which provide immediate vocabulary and grammar points found on the page or in the chapter.
6. Footnotes- these generally contain cultural notes on most topic areas
7. Maps- at the beginning or ending of every Viva contains a map (of Spain, South America, or other countries where Spanish is spoken). Maps are also found in the text where students are to provide directions and identify the location of things.
8. Diagrams - these provide vocabulary in the form of diagrams
9. Vocabulary Glossary - every Viva contains a vocabulary section which gives new vocabulary words and their English equivalent for every chapter.

The general organization of the text is well-structured, however, the text lacks sufficient features for the learners. The vocabulary section at the end is a great feature as it helps build on student's knowledge. It acts as a quick access dictionary for new vocabulary found in the text.

the text lacks sufficient colour, in terms of photographs and font. The actual text (font) is unappealing and dull and can cause students to lose interest easily.

SUGGESTIONS:
more pictures can be used with more colour
different font types, colours, sizes etc.
can make use of more diagrams (to aid in vocabulary retention)

[mmathurin]

The textbook from my area of specialization I.e. Mathematics is very colorful. The text features that it contains are bold, illustrations, tables, pictures, diagrams, textboxes, topics and subtopics. I like the features because it caters to all learning styles so as to allow everyone to get an equal opportunities to learn. The visual displays of information accomdates learners who are visual. Also the vocabulary is reader friendly.

[tedward]

For my subject Social Studies, one of the two required text books is the Social Studies Essentials writing by Mervyn C. Sandy and Stephenson C. Grayson. This prescribed text book has many text features which can assist students when they are navigating through the text. The fist key feature of this text is the cover page, which highlights the name of the book and its authors but is also attractive with the presentation. Still on attractiveness, I would like to make reference to the type and quality of paper used. The paper used is not our "traditional" paper but instead a "glossy" type of paper. This can be inviting to students since they are presented with something new on a different type of material, thus making them wanting to read simply because the paper is different. Moreover, this quality of papers allows students to highlight and underline in the text without the ink permeating from one page onto the other. This allows the text to remain tidy.
the text also presents a detailed table of contents which provides a detailed explanation of what one is expected to find within the text and on what page the information can be found.
There are also dividers within the book which identifies what is to be found within that part of the book. The author uses a number of shapes to identify the main topics of each page so students are able to identify the broad topics easily. There is also a use of a lot of pictures within the text and what makes those pictures relevant is that makes reference to the countries that students know about the most; The Caribbean and in some cases other countries. By using pictures students can make a better connection. All the pages in the text are written in bold and found at the bottom of the page. This bold type pages will make allow students to see the pages easily. To the back of the text is a concept bank which acts as a glossary. Here, the main words or concepts that are common and identified within the text are listed and defined for the students. Following this, an index is provided to students and this can be used to identity the location of concepts within the book. These are some of the text features that are prevalent in the Social Studies Text.
i would definitely advise the use of this book but the only change that i propose the authors should make is to add some color to the text because there was one color theme through out the text and this might get boring for the students. Also, the authors can also add a few text boxes to some of the chapters as well but all in all, I would recommend this text in the teaching of Social Studies mainly because of the effective text features that are predominant in the text