I just returned from the NABT Conference in Denver, Colorado. It is always so inspiring to see educators taking time out of their busy schedules to focus on their own professional development. We enjoyed talking with teachers from around the country at our exhibit booth, as well as in workshops for our
BSCS Biology: A Human Approach and
Forensic Science for High School programs.
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!
What does inquiry science mean to you and your students? How does it differ from, say elementary school science textbooks to high school science textbooks? Obviously the levels, intensity, etc. are vastly different. But do you do inquiry based science differently in third grade than tenth? These are some questions I’d love to hear from teachers about.
I was looking at A Human Approach, one of our high school biology textbooks the other day and thinking about my high school biology textbook, which I happen to remember because I LOVED biology, and wondering how much textbooks had changed over the years. It seems like today’s high school science textbooks, and I guess, textbooks in general, have much more visual organization and interest, for one thing. And it’s obvious that the activities and the pedagogy are so much more engaging to students. I found myself being drawn in pretty quickly. Offhand, I would think that’s all good, right?
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?
Looking to learn about more about what science education textbook publishers had to offer for your classroom? Want to attend some content specific professional development workshops?
A great opportunity to do both is just around the corner. Take time to head out to one of three NSTA regional area conferences going on in the next two months.
2009 NSTA Area Conferences (http://www.nsta.org/conferences/default.aspx#)
- Minneapolis: Oct. 29–31
- Ft. Lauderdale: Nov. 12–14
- Phoenix: Dec. 3–5
Here is a great list from NSTA of why you should attend one of their conferences:
Top 10 Reasons for Attending an NSTA Conference
- Performance—You and your students deserve to be excellent in science
- Leadership—Because new skills, knowledge and activities help build educational leaders who influence others to do extraordinary things
- Discovery—Because looking at the world with a new perspective brings innovation and creativity in the classroom
- Motivation—Because expert speakers, educators, and scientists serve to inspire and stimulate
- Passion—Because sharing it with your peers, your mentors, and the leaders in science education is contagious
- Expertise—Because educators are the best when they are well versed in their field
- Inspiration—Because you will hear stories from the likes of renowned author Richard Louv that will move you to act.
- Growth—Because your conference experience will expand your world personally and professionally
- Freebies—Because exhibiting companies from across the nation will offer you hundreds of classroom giveaways, new products and samples
- . Connections—Because you’ll meet peers, mentors, leaders, and acquaintances for support and friendship
Stop by the Kendall Hunt booths to see the different textbooks for elementary school, middle and high school. This includes science curriculum for high ability learners.
In response to my post To e-Book or Not To e-Book, one of our readers, Marixi, posted a comment (check out the comment
here) wondering whether it's safe for students to be accessing primary school textbooks via the Internet. I explained that most e-books, whether elementary education books, middle school textbooks or other textbooks, are accessed via a secure portal which is often the only thing the child can login to on the school computer.
But I'm wondering, for those of you whose school districts use e-books, do they use them exclusively or is there, a printed version of, say, that high school chemistry textbook, and the e-book is just an option. And is it more common with high school textbooks, or primary school textbooks? And when they do use e-books, are they part of a learning portal? Is that portal proprietary to the school district, or do your school textbook publishers offer access to their portal upon adoption? Wow, lots of things I want to know!
I got to wondering this week, is creating lesson plans based on books for gifted students different than planning for a regular class? What brought this to mind was a discussion with my fourth grader about the work teachers must put into their jobs beyond the classroom. We talked about grading papers, creating parent newsletters, where tests based on, say, elementary school science textbooks come from, and lesson plans.
This then led to a discussion of what lesson plans are and how they come to be. I explained that many primary school textbooks offer guidance in this area, but he wondered how his gifted teacher (note to self: review sentence structure rules...while I feel all his teachers are gifted, I'm referring to the one who teaches the gifted classes) does it when they don't have gifted education books or a curriculum for high ability learners in his school. :-( I told him I was sure she probably uses the Internet for ideas and planning, but I thought I'd ask you all...those of you who do it without a "program" - how do you create your lesson plans for gifted and talented classes? I'd love to know!
Have you been reading Susan Rusts’ posts here? She’s been taking us through the essential features of inquiry based science one step at a time. I always thought I knew what inquiry based science was - you know, hands-on, engaging, get students to actually “do” science. But Susan’s posts really describe the nitty gritty of what’s makes science truly inquiry based.
Step by step it’s become clearer to me how each of these features, when incorporated in a high school chemistry textbook or in elementary school science textbooks can help students develop a real understanding of science. What could be more important in science class than that? I’ll be awaiting the next feature, Susan!
Okay, so that’s pretty bad paraphrasing of The Bard, but my point is, what do you think of e-books anyway? Certainly the electronic book reader a certain online book vendor has taken off, but that’s more in the trade book market. I like the idea of going on vacation and taking one little rectangular, electronic thing instead of a stack of books. But what about when it comes to textbooks for elementary school, or high school science textbooks?
My son’s fourth grade math book is available online. They sent home the access instructions this week. Kind of a cool idea, especially with a fourth grader who forgets to close the freezer, feed the dog, and take his shoes upstairs (and that’s just the first five minutes after dinner!). He can forget his book at school, but still get his homework done.
I can see where having your high school chemistry textbook online would be a great option to lugging it home. Is there a certain level for which it works best? Maybe education textbook publishers should be making all elementary education books available in e-book format. Or perhaps it’s more appropriate for high school science textbooks, and middle school math. I don’t know. What do you think?
They’re here, they’re here!! The 2009-2010 PreK-12 catalogs are now available on our website! Chock full of high school science textbooks, primary school textbooks, accelerated learning resources, and much, much more.
There are two catalogs, available via pdf download: the first showcases our outstanding elementary school textbooks for grades PreK through 8th grade. The second catalog covers our offerings of high school science textbooks and programs, math, health & fitness, and talented and gifted resources. Best of all, you can be green and still see the catalogs if you just download them here: http://www.kendallhunt.com/index.cfm?PID=5970&PGI=0. From this page you can also download our Reading Resources and Gifted Education catalogs. Check them out!
As many of you know, the review of High School Science Textbooks can be very overwhelming and emotional undertaking. Have you ever considered first looking at the comments from impartial reviewers to narrow down your search?
Washington state is considered one of the leading states in science reform. In May of 2009, 69 reviewers reviewed 85 individual products from 20 educational book companies. The books levels included:
-Elementary school science textbooks
-Middle school science textbooks
-High school science textbooks
Below is a link to the summary:
http://www.sbe.wa.gov/documents/Science%20IMR%20Preliminary%20Report%20with%20Initial%20Recommendations%206-30-09.pdfIt's exciting to see how well many of the Kendall Hunt high school programs did (see Part 2 for a complete listing). Surprisingly, none of the elementary programs submitted met the composite score threshold so none were on the recommended list. Note that Kendall Hunt did not submit our elementary programs.
So as you begin your review, it may be worth your while to check out the WA review.
Hello.
I’ve introduced various steps in the publishing process for a high school science textbook. These same steps would apply to elementary textbook or talented and gifted textbook or any school textbook for that matter. You are wecome to review some of our Kendall Hunt Publishing Company's textbooks at our website.
The next big step in developing a high school science textbook is composition. Composition also known as typesetting, is the process of taking the manuscripts and loading them into a paging program, usually Quark or InDesign. Then they “format” the document. They add all of the design features that were determined based on the different elements within the manuscript. This would include various levels of headings, bulleted and numbered listings, table styles, chapter and unit opening features and so on. It also includes pulling the art features into the program and placing those in appropriate places per predetermined style guidelines and adding the captions.
As a general rule of thumb, we want the figures placed as close to the callouts as possible, usually top or bottom of the page. This is so that they are easily accessible after they are mentioned within the text so that the student can review them and then quickly find his/her place where they were reading. Comprehension is the key and you want to keep things as clear as possible. A good design holds and draws the student in and retains interest without making things confusing. You need a good flow. The design would vary based on the intended audience; whether it is for elementary students, high school, and also whether it is intended for a broad range of students or specifically for high level learners.
School started today for my 4th grader. Last night we went to "Back to School Night" so he could meet the teacher, take his supplies and start to get settled in. First thing I went for, being in the science textbook publishing business, was the elementary school science textbook sitting on his desk. Felt like a brand new one too. Love those new books!
Then we stopped by the GATE room where the teacher showed me some of the new accelerated learning resources that she was able to purchase with some stimulus funds, including a few Kendall Hunt items from our
Project M3 program, a math curriculum for high ability learners. She also found some new lesson plans for gifted and talented classes that she's going to try out this year.
Project M3 has some great modules, like "At the Mall with Algebra" that let students use real life experience to learn math. They're not just gifted education books, they're gifted education adventures.
With the new school year approaching more quickly that we think, our PreK-12 group is getting ready for an intensive week of product training next week. Wayne, Jeff, Don and Jodi have had their noses literally “in the books” preparing for the training, so if you’re wondering why you haven’t heard from them for a few days, that’s why.
What they’re learning is all about the new inquiry based science programs we’ll be bringing you this year. And it’s not just elementary school science textbooks or high school science textbooks. In fact it’s not even just inquiry based science products. There’s math, health, fitness and physical education, and a dose of new digital learning products for good measure. Watch this space as we detail some of these exciting new programs in the next few weeks!
In the meantime, if you haven’t had a chance yet, Marla has written an excellent post about inquiry based science. Check it out!
Well, school registration is complete. One week from today, my son will be safely ensconced in his fourth grade classroom surrounded by elementary school textbooks of every subject: reading, math, science, social studies. He’s looking forward to what his gifted teacher has in store this year. The school was able to get a few new books for gifted students along with other accelerated learning resources.
Here at Kendall Hunt, our brand new Distribution Center (it’s huge, and I love it when I have to go down there…it’s the coolest place!) is shipping out books like crazy…by the palletful, actually, just like every other educational publishing company, I suppose.
Soon students around the country will be cracking open a new high school physics textbook, or opening a well-used primary school textbook. Whatever the case, this time of year always feels new, it’s a time of fresh starts, friends to be made, lots to teach and much to learn. To all the teachers out there who are responsible for our children learning, thank you for all you do. To all the students out there, learn everything you can, and have fun while you’re at it!
Last time I started explaining the role of permissions in the publishing process. As a school textbook publisher, like any other publisher, we must get permission to use other people’s material in our products, be it elementary school science textbooks, or a high school physics textbook. We’ll finish this discussion in this post about fair use, public domain and citations.
Fair Use
The "fair use" clause comes into play if the writer wants to use an excerpt or quote from a work of substantial length; they still need to cite the source. Generally, we consider up to 250 words from the text of a book, magazine or journal fair use.
Public Domain
There are some items that are considered "public domain." These are works that have either expired or were not protected by copyright. They can be used freely with applicable citation. Once they become public domain due to expiration, the copyright protection cannot be restored.
Works that cannot be copyrighted are those consisting of information that is common property with no specific authorship such as calendars, height/weight charts and rulers. Also items with standard information such as tables, schedules of sporting events, blank forms designed to record rather than convey information are also public domain. Official U.S. government works cannot be copyrighted, but the original source must be cited, for example NASA photographs.
Citations
The materials that are borrowed require a credit line list to be published within the textbook. Some require the credit line be printed with the actual image/article; others are generally listed in the back of the book or on the copyright page.
Next time, a few words about our Permissions Department.
In my last post, I talked about the cover design process that school textbook publishers, like Kendall Hunt Publishing, use on products. Additionally, whether it is books for gifted students, high school science textbooks, or textbooks for elementary school, the interior of the book must be designed. We submit to a designer a portion of the manuscript that contains the majority of the elements we want to incorporate: unit/chapter opener, different levels of headings, art/photos, tables, listings, and so on. We give the designer some instruction on the grade level and type of theme we want to achieve. The or subject is important as the cover of a high school physics textbook would obviously differ in many ways from a high school biology textbook. If the cover is in advanced stages, we may also submit that as a reference. Again, we begin with a few different choices and narrow it down. It's important to create a design that enhances the pedagogy and readability. Additionally, in the case of, high school science textbooks, we want to draw the student in, but don't want to overwhelm or confuse them. The designer usually submits about eight two-page spreads. In addition, they submit a general color palette for the project. We sometimes go through several proofs, making additional suggestions to get to the point that we are satisfied with the design.
Again, the design phase happens at the same time as the copy-editing and art package preparation phases. Hopefully, they all come together around the same time so that we can proceed with composition, which I write about the next time...
It’s almost that time of year, the time we all look longingly forward to in the summer. No, not Christmas, the start of school! Kids back on a schedule and in a routine, that’s always a good thing, right? My son seems ready for fourth grade. Yesterday I came home to find a note on my desk, it said, “Mom, can you please get me a high school biology textbook, a high school chemistry textbook, and any other high school science textbooks you have at your company? Thank you.”
When he came in from outside I asked him why he needed them. “Well,” he said, “at football camp this week they told us about one of the seniors from last year who made the Academic All American team. They said he’s really good in science so I thought if I got ahead in science then I’ll be able to make the Academic All American team too.” You have to love the innocence of kids, it never occurred to him that he will have to make the football team first. And who am I to discourage? I love that he wants high school science textbooks in fourth grade. But I think we’ll just go to the bookstore this weekend and find something closer to the level of elementary school science textbooks. It’s a start!
If you're looking for outstanding high school science textbooks for your classroom, particularly those that teach using inquiry based science, check out our offerings
here.
Reviewing textbooks for elementary school is never an easy assignment. Many times the first step is deciding what type of pedagogy your textbook should follow. I am a firm believer that everything in life changes: the way we wash our clothes, the car we drive and yes even the way we teach our children. All thanks to great research and the development of technology.
If you are looking for elementary school textbooks for math begin with a great article which not only summarizes some of the most recent research on education but some really good links to additional information. Check this out!
Research Supporting NCTM-Standards-Based Mathematics Education Reform
http://mathematicallysane.com/evidence/researchbase.asp
It’s almost time for our new Kendall Hunt PreK-8 and 9-12 catalogs! I was just looking at the proofs, and they look great. I always love this time of year, new catalogs portend a new school year, new books, and new supplies. This year’s catalogs are full of books for gifted students, elementary school science textbooks, high school science textbooks, math programs, health & fitness curricula, teacher edition textbooks, kits, games, technology, and much, much more. Once the catalogs are complete and up on our website, I’ll provide a link for you to go to and download them. Watch this space!!
Have you checked out our gifted and accelerated learning resources lately? Whether it's elementary education books for gifted students or high school science textbooks for accelerated learners, we have something that will meet your needs. One of our partners is the Center for Gifted Education at the College of William & Mary with whom we publish a curriculum for high ability learners that spans the subjects of Language Arts, Science and Social Studies and grades 1-11. Additionally, the program offers teacher resources and lesson plans for gifted and talented. You can find the program 
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