I've read several articles this week about online and e-books for the K-12 market. The current Texas governor recently stated that he doesn't see any reason for Texas to have printed books in four years. That's a pretty big statement in support of online learning.
What do you think about taking elementary education books, secondary school textbooks and the like and putting them in the digital world? At Kendall Hunt Publishing, we're big fans of digital learning for PreK-12. Let's face it, many printed textbooks are dated the minute they come off the press. School textbook publishers face this issue all the time. But if your "books" are online, especially if they're in a learning portal that can be continually updated, students can learn about the latest discovery in science without waiting for the next printing of their high school science textbook. That's only one of the many benefits to digital learning.
Do your schools use all printed material? Or a combination of print and digital?
We are pleased to offer several secondary school textbooks and digital learning products that align with courses being added as fourth year options for science. These programs include Global Science for Environmental Systems, Forensic Science, and Starry Night for Astronomy and Earth and Space Science.
Please contact me for more information about these, or any other programs from our comprehensive line of science textbook publishing products. I will be happy to provide correlations with the TEKS or the standards in your state.
Teachers listened with great interest as Kelly detailed how her experience as a classroom teacher, combined with extensive research, led to the development of this highly-engaging high school chemistry textbook. Attendees were extremely impressed with the program's concise, practical approach to teaching chemistry. They said it was so unlike the encyclopedia-type of textbook published by other educational book companies. They knew their students would be able to make real-world connections with this high school chemistry textbook.
Dr. Deters truly showed how this approach allows teachers to teach chemistry without hearing "When am I ever going to need to know this?" (which just happened to be the title of the workshop). I enjoyed speaking with many attendees following the session, and look forward to working with them as they implement the program in their schools next year!
It is also fun to cruise the exhibit hall, mingling with other school textbook publishers, and seeing who has merged with whom in this ever-changing world of school textbook publishers! It makes me appreciate working for a stable company like Kendall Hunt, which has been family-owned for more than 60 years, and is still going strong.
But the best part of the conference for me is getting the chance to sit down and talk with teachers who are interested in, or currently using, our secondary school textbooks. Among educational book companies, the word "inquiry" gets thrown around a lot. It is always rewarding to hear directly from teachers that Kendall Hunt truly has the material to back it up. As one teacher from Massachusetts put it, "I know that when you say 'inquiry' you MEAN inquiry!"
This week I get to pack up my elementary school science textbooks too, as I head out for the Colorado Science Conference. It is at the Denver Merchandise Mart November 19-20. Hope to see you there!
As I was browsing my local newspaper this morning, I was excited to see an article about a school here in Denver that is involved in the FBI's Adopt-a-School program. This program brings FBI agents into the classroom to talk to students about the real-world applications of their education in Forensic Science. The school is Career Education Center (CEC) Middle College of Denver, and guess what book they use in their Forensic Science course? That's right, Forensic Science for High School! It was wonderful to read about how students at this school are looking forward to careers in science and investigation.
Congratulations to teacher Stacey Hervey and her students on the article and excellent Forensics program!
Click here for the article:
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_13759155
Click here for more information on Forensic Science for High School:
www.kendallhunt.com/forensics
I may be showing my age here, but when I was a student in high school, no one thought to ask the question, "What is a textbook?". The definition was fairly straightforward, and all textbooks looked pretty much the same.
Times have changed. I recently attended a webinar hosted by the Texas Education Agency outlining processes and procedures for textbook adoption to school textbook publishers. We were reminded throughout the presentation that the definition of a textbook had been broadened to reach far beyond the traditional printed book. The term textbook, whether it refers to textbooks for elementary school or secondary school textbooks, can include nearly anything that "conveys information to the student or otherwise contributes to the learning process" (retrieved from http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/textbooks).
This leaves the door open for all types of digital media and certainly some formats we haven't even though of yet! How does your school or district define the textbook?
About EDC
The Center for Science Education (CSE) is a division of Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC). CSE’s roughly 35 staff members comprise a diverse group of professionals—scientists, science educators and administrators, curriculum writers and developers, policy analysts, journalists, social and educational researchers, and educational program evaluators. We count among our staff experts who have an almost unrivalled depth of experience in the improvement of science education, here and abroad, and authors who have created some of the most highly regarded science instructional materials in the field. Together, our CSE team develops and supports projects and programs that are internationally recognized for their innovative approaches to the teaching and learning of science.
From after-school science programs to teacher mentoring to research into pedagogy, CSE’s work covers a broad range of science education initiatives. Most often, our initiatives fall into the following three categories:
- Research and evaluation of such facets of science education as inquiry teaching, teacher retention, capacity building, and the sustainability of reform efforts
- Professional development and technical support programs—online, and in-person—to encourage leadership and to build the capacity of teachers and administrators
- Development of science instructional materials, resources, and tools both for use in school for grades preK–12 and out of school
Working with funders, foundations, and corporations, we identify needs in the science education community and respond with programs and initiatives. Through this work, we develop resources and publications, provide customized services and support, and conduct comprehensive research and evaluation studies covering topics such as assessment, curriculum implementation, leadership, literacy, and that cover all grade levels—early childhood through high school.
Instructional Materials
Since 1958, EDC has produced high-quality science instructional materials. An in-depth understanding of education and scientific research and knowledge about how students learn and teachers teach continues to provide the foundation for all of our curricula.
Our materials are not only about students; they also support teachers. We acknowledge the professionalism of teachers by offering strategies to enhance their own skills and knowledge in science teaching and learning.
All of our curricula reflect the National Science Education Standards, adapted to the needs and interests of all students. They have been extensively pilot- and field-tested in classrooms across the country. All of our materials reflect:
- a focus on depth of understanding, rather than breadth of information.
- academically rigorous content framed in contexts relevant to students’ lives.
- a focus on scientific thinking and reasoning through a careful balance of direct experience with phenomena, use of secondary resources, discourse, and writing.
- close attention to the needs of a diverse student body.
- the use of formative assessment to guide instruction and learning.
We know that knowledge of science has many facets and to attain science literacy, students must master the concepts of subject matter, understand the nature of scientific inquiry, and gain insight into the many ways scientific knowledge affects them and their world.
Previously I posted information regarding the various steps it takes to turn a manuscript into a secondary science school textbook. In my last post, I talked about the state adoption requirements NASTA guides.
Files/Specifications
Once the composition is complete and the cover design has been finalized, the production editor gathers the final files for the cover and the final files for the interior. She would have also received a hard copy printout of the cover and each of the interior pages. She also finalizes the specifications and details about the product in our computer system to print a manufacturing turnover sheet (MTS) and request the manufacturing purchase order. Various details to be included are size of the text, final page count, type of binding, type of interior and cover paper stock, whether or not the book is to be drilled or perforated, any special effects to be used on the cover, whether it includes any CDs, and so on.
Checksheet
The Production Editor would complete a checksheet. The checksheet is a series of pages showing page numbers and blank lines; roman numerals for "front matter" (title and copyright pages, table of contents, etc.) and regular numbers for the body of the text, all with a blank line for notes. She would do one final check of each page of the book and make notes and/or check mark on each line verifying that each page is included and meets our standards. For a blank page, she'd simply indicate that on the line next to the page number. The manufacturer would use this guide in order to determine the "imposition" of the text. I'll touch base on this further in a different post.
She then sends the package on to the manufacturer.
Some of our titles are perfect bound (paperback or softbound) and some are case bound (hard cover). There are also other types that we may use for different uses, for example, wire or plastic coil (spiral bound), saddle stitched (all pages are folded with staples at the fold), side-stitched, loose leaf for a three-ring binder, and so on. Most of our secondary science textbooks are case bound. It doesn't matter what specific discipline applies (physics, chemistry, biology, etc).
Our student textbooks need to meet the manufacturing standards and specifications for textbook (MSST) NASTA (National Association of State Textbook Administrators) Guidelines. This is a requirement for state adoptions. These are various rules and regulations for several states pertaining to funding school book's budgets. It ensures that the books are physically sturdy and of high quality and will withstand several year's usage.
The various rules apply to printing, paper type, binding and cover requirements and include specifications for the different types of books. The requirements primarily apply to the physical attributes of the textbook, not the content.
The guidelines are contained in a document that is almost 100 pages long!
You can preview most of our K12 textbooks at Kendall Hunt Publishing Company's website.
In the previous article, I spoke about the beginning stages of creating a high school science textbook: acquisition and planning, as well as the development of the manuscript and art package. In this article, I'll introduce the design process that we, as an educational publishing company, use.
Around the same time that the copy-editing is being done, we coordinate with a designer to develop the cover image/design. When selecting a cover image for a high school biology textbook, high school chemistry textbook, or any of our textbooks, we look for a good balance of gender and ethnicity in an photos of people that we use. We also consider age-appropriateness for grade-level, whether it’s a primary school textbook vs. secondary school textbooks and whether it’s a product targeted to a specific ability, such as a curriculum for high ability learners.
The cover image needs to be strong and eye-catching and express the concept that we are trying to project for our target market. We want to draw the student into the content. The text/logo-type needs to be nicely balanced and eye-catching as well. We usually request 3-4 choices and may go through several "proofs" to complete the front/spine/back panels of the cover. The text on the back cover is another tool used to interest and draw students into the content. The saying, "you can't judge a book by its cover" is certainly true, however, we need to show something dynamic in order to have potential customers review our products in the first place!
I was just updating the elementary school, middle school and high school pages on the Kendall Hunt website to include cover images for each of our programs when it occurred to me how great our primary school textbooks, middle school textbooks, and secondary school textbooks look. (Check out the Global Science cover to the right.) For this, I must give a shout out to my talented designer friends here at KH. They’ve won many Addy awards for their outstanding work, and if you look around our website, you can see why. They have the ability to take a high school physics textbook, or a teacher edition textbook (books not normally oohed and aahed over for their visual appeal) and create a cover that jumps right off the shelf and grabs you. Certainly you can’t always judge a book by its cover, but seeing the quality, care and effort that go into the outside is usually a pretty good indicator of what went into the inside.
But for book junkies like me, there’s nothing like a book hot off the press, as it were. Opening a new book for the first time is a sensory experience. The first crackles of the adhesive in the spine as I flip open the cover. The feel of the crisp, new pages as I rifle through them, and the smell. Oh, that printing press smell. You’d laugh at us here because we all do it. We get in a new high school science textbook, for example, and the first thing we do is stick our noses in it to get a whiff of the fresh ink on the new paper. And I’d hazard a guess that you’d find employees at any other educational textbook publisher doing the same thing.
This has been a lifelong thing for me. As a child, my mom always wanted me to get books from the library. Okay, fine, I did, and I love the library, but I wanted to own the book, to keep the book, to watch my books line up on my bookshelves like a literary growth chart, showing me where I’d been and where I might be going. My son has inherited this from me. He told me once when I was ranting about the mess in his room, that I could, “get rid of everything but my football, my baseball glove, and my books.” I almost took him up on it. It’s no wonder I ended up at a school textbook publisher, my love of books brought me here. I wonder where his love of books will lead him.
I work in the Pre-K-12 Division. We produce programs for pre-kindergarten as well as textbooks for elementary school, middle school and high school. We work in various disciplines, but concentrate mainly on mathematics, science, gifted education books and custom publishing. We also develop various ancillary materials to go with our textbooks to create solution-based programs.
For this series of discussions, I'll concentrate specifically on the development of a high school science textbook.
Acquisition and Publishing Plan
The initial step for the education textbook publisher is the acquisition of a new product. This would include discussions between the author or curriculum developer and the publishing acquisition editor to determine whether or not it is feasible to go forward with new product. This would include discussions on the physical specifications of the book (size, number of colors, number of pages, etc.) and number of ancillary components (teacher edition textbook, test generator, website, and so on). At KH, the acquisitions editor would work with a project manager to determine a budget. We would also work with marketing and sales personnel to develop a publishing plan. The publishing plan may include review stages and/or field testing. The project manager would also create a schedule for the program.
Step 1a: Development of the Manuscript and Art Package
Once a contract is signed for a project, we begin with manuscript development. The project manager works with the author to ensure the manuscript and art package is being prepared properly. We may have the author work within a template in Word or just directly in Word or a similar word processing program. The art package needs to be kept separate from the Word document. One mistake new authors sometimes make is that they try to make their manuscript "pretty." That's our job! We want our authors to concentrate on the writing and we'll concentrate on the publishing.
The high school science textbook is usually submitted by batches of chapters. The chapters are then run through a safety check to be sure the experiments are safe and to add any cautions or warnings that may be needed. They would also develop a materials list for the kit component of the program.
We would also have the manuscript copy-edited. A copy-editor reads the manuscript and checks grammar, spelling and sentence structure. They may also cross reference the student and teacher editions and any other ancillary components to be sure everything makes sense. They will also watch for consistency in the writing style and may be asked to adjust the sentence structures to lower a a certain reading level, if needed. The terms within the content will also play a role in the reading levels. We would have authors review and approve the copy-edits.
At the same time the manuscript is being developed, we work with designers to create the cover and interior designs. I'll discuss that more in my next submission.
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