Evaluating Textbooks

Textbooks are a great resource for students to use when learning material about a class… or are they? Having the ability to evaluate textbooks is extremely beneficial when picking out a textbook to use in the classroom.  It is really important to be sure that the book is at an appropriate level for the students who are going to be using it… For instance, in my classroom, I would not give a college level French book to people who are just looking at the french language for the first time.  It would be next to impossible for a student with no background in French to learn it from a textbook that has no English in it whatsoever.  Also, in French textbooks used in schools, one of the really nice aspects of them is that there are often pictures in the book.  A lot of people are visual learners, so it helps them to see a visual of what they are learning, and it will be more likely to stick in their head.

For example, here is a labeled picture that similar to something that is likely to be found in a French textbook when talking about how to say the parts of the face: