Been a while since my last blog post..... but you know as soon as we get back from break we hit the floor running. Our principal just told us at the last faculty meeting that we are looking at new social studies & science books kindergarten though eighth grade. I teach 4th & 5th grade and currently do not really use a textbook for science but I use Our Nation for 5th grade social studies.
Ok maybe I have never really been given the chance of picking out new textbooks but they have the exact same topics in each. What????? Different pictures & text but the exact same topics/ chapter. I actually could just purchase one grade level and use it for both and I would have to still add my own stuff to fill in what they do not cover. Boo!
Do these textbooks companies really know what common core is? Isn't common core suppose to stop all the reteaching on the same topics year after year? Ugh!! Hellooooo textbook companies!
I then looked at their social studies series the typical topics were there Early People through the Civil War. Ok did they forget 5th grade CC history strand stops at colonization of the U.S. in regards to the history strand. So I would use 2 chapters out of a 6 chapter textbook. What a waste of money.
Yep they had all that fancy technology stuff but not the content. I LOVE technology but it won't blind me in what I really need. Content!
If you have a science or social studies textbook that you love or feel is useful would you leave it in the comments or email me. The person who orders our textbooks said she would request series for us to look at and so far I am not impressed. I know my principal will push us to pick something but I do not want something that will just gather dust on my bookshelf.
Ok I am off my soapbox. I promise next time I will write a post on the activities in my classroom.
Stay warm tonight!
We use Science Fusion 5th-8th grades and I like it alot; it is better than the previous series. However, there are so many units, there is no way to cover it all in a year. I will get through maybe half. I have actually considered talking to the fourth grade teacher about splitting the 5th grade series, and each of us taking half the units, since Science Fusion is a stronger program than what the 4th grade is using.
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