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Text Assessment
My practicum Experience this semester is in an 8th grade Physical Science
classroom at Thomas Harrison Middle School. The textbook that this particular class uses
is Holt McDougals Virginia Science Fusion: New Energy for Physical Science (2013).
The publisher of this text is the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company with a
recent copy write of 2013. There are a total of 4 consulting authors as well as 11 content
reviews that created this text. This text is considered an Interactive Student Edition.
Readability:
Using a random word generator from Random.org, I was able to select three
different passages within the text. I used readabilityscore.com to find readability statistics
such as grade and reading ease. I chose to record the number of words, syllables, and
sentences in each passage of text. I created a chart as shown in figure 1 with these factors
as well as the Flesch Kincaid grade level and Flesch Kincaid reading ease scores from the
passages. Readability is exceptionally important to consider when determining what text
would be most beneficial in a specific classroom. While analyzing the readability
website, I noticed that reading time and speaking time were taken into account which I
would consider quantitative measures of the text. I also noted that syllables per word,
characters per word, and words per sentence were taken into account in the statistics;
these factors relate to vocabulary and sentence structure which are both major parts of
determining readability. Vocabulary content is a major factor taken into account when
determining readability because younger students, or students at lower reading levels,
may not be able to comprehend what the word means unless it is taught to them before
hand.

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Figure 1
Page #

Word #

#Syllable

83
135
477

117
118
113

201
203
167

#Sentence
s
9
8
10

F.K. Grade
Level
9.8
10.5
6.3

F.K. Reading Ease


Score
48.3
46.3
70.3

As One can note from the chart, the number of syllables and number of sentences
in the passages remain consistent. The first two grade level scores are exceptionally
similar but the third passage has a much higher readability. Though the sentence structure
throughout the text remains simple, I think it is realistic that two thirds of the tested pages
are at a high school level because science vocabulary can be taken as very difficult when
taken out of context. Meaning, the vocabulary is clearly and simply explained in the text,
but outside of the explanations and visuals it would still be considered advanced
vocabulary. That being said, I discovered that there are pages that have a lower grade
level readability, like pg. 477 from the chart, because the sentence structure remains
simple on top of some science concepts involving less demanding vocabulary. I think
some 8th graders would have a harder time than others comprehending all of the text;
especially students who are English language learners or students with learning
disabilities.
Evaluation of Text Instrument :
Chapter 5 of Alverman, Phelps, and Giliss (2010) text thoroughly explains tools
of assessment that can be used to assess students as well as the textbooks those students
use. This text puts a lot of emphasis on what makes a formative or summative assessment
a good assessment. The Kylene Beers (2016) assessment instrument in Issue 7 of her
work also discusses ways to assess a text. Additionally, the Chandler Assessment from
the University of Texas gives an excellent format for assessing text. I chose the Beers

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assessment instrument as well as Chandler for the assessment of my text because I liked
Beers puts emphasis on rating text complexity through quantitative and qualitative
measures and I prefer the format Chandler lays out. Beers explains on pg. 50 of her text
how to clearly and concisely measure complexity of a text based on the knowledge
require, structure used, language used, and ideas presented within the focused text. I think
these factors are exceptionally important to consider when choosing a textbook for your
classroom or school.
Assessing the prior knowledge required before using a text is very important in
the public school system because certain standards should have already been introduced
to students once they reach a new grade. Also, some students may have moved from other
states, or could be immigrants, so a teacher knowing what information they should
already have is vital in being able to assist struggling students. Evaluating the structure
used throughout the text is also very important because clear flows of structure with
headlines and guided reading is much different than a text that has a complex type of
format. Language used is also a very important factor to consider because if the language
used is too demanding for the specified grade level, the content will not be efficiently
understood by the students. Lastly, assessing the ideas presented enables the person
analyzing the text to judge if the content matches the desired standards.
Evaluation of Content:
I looked at the qualitative dimensions in the Beers instrument in order to examine
the content of this text. I would say that the ideas presented are right in the middle of the
easier to more demanding scale in the Beers text. Certain ideas are mostly explicit,
but moves to implied meaning, For example, this sentence from an informational

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passage in the McDougal(2013) textbook states Radiation can travel through empty
space, as it does when it moves from the sun to the earth(pg. 270). This type of idea
requires some inferential reasoning, as Beers puts it, because the topic of empty space
is not explained at all. This idea of inferential reasoning also relates to the required
knowledge needed to understand this textbook. I would say that a student would need to
have significant understanding of the basic Standards of Learning in the grades prior to
8th grade. Regarding the Virginia Standards of Learning, all of the Physical Science
standards are explicitly covered in the text. The authors even make a note of each
standard that will be examined in that chapter on the bottom left of the cover page of that
particular lesson; see page 262 in figure 2.
Evaluation of Format:
This text is broken up into 11 total
units. Each unit includes 2-8 lessons
within it which are similar to what many
textbooks would label chapters. A strength
of the formatting of the text as well as
content is that each unit includes a special
section within it to teach students about real
word situations. These small sections are
Figure 2: Standards for this
lesson are listed at bottom left
side of the page.

only 2 pages and examples are Engineering

and Technology topics as well as People in Science as shown in figures 3 and 4.

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Fig. 3: List of content in Unit 7


including lessons and STEM.

Fig. 4: Real World Content in


the STEM section of Unit 7.

Regarding the graphics within the text, I would say that they definitely aid the content of
the text. The graphics range from models that illustrate the content, to real life attention
grabbing photographs of beautiful animals, sceneries, and interesting objects. You cannot
turn a page of this text without there being graphics. Many of the pages that begin the
lesson instead of having a white background have a scientific scene as the back ground;
examples include enlarged photographs from space and fossils within the sand. The Beers
assessment instrument analyzes the structure used within a text. I would say that the
structure in this text is easily understood because without a doubt, the graphics and
illustrations presented always clarify points made within the text. The structures of text
are also easily identified as there are clear sections of information vs. smaller captions of
illustrations. This format will definitely benefit an 8th grade reader because it will be
easily followed and understood.
Evaluation of Utility:
This text is unique in the sense that it can be utilized for multiple activities. Beers
reminds us that the structure used in a text is vital to the texts complexity and I think

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having the specific structure of pre and post review in every lesson is a strength of this
text. For example, figure 4 shows an activity page that comes before a lesson; it includes
activities that pertain to what the reader will be learning in that chapter. In contrast, as
shown in figure 5, each lesson also consists of a lesson review at the end of it so that
students are able to apply what they have learned. I also like how the text can be utilized
for lesson extensions. Figure 6 shows a page in lesson 3 where practical uses of
radiation are shown; at the end of this page shows an extend box with supplementary
activities. These activities consist of student identifying real life examples of radiation,
relating radiation to real world situations, and the procedure they can take in an extension
activity in order to further explain the concept.

Fig. 5: Pre-Lesson activity for


students to use context clues to
complete.
Something else that is unique about this texts

Fig. 6: Post lesson review


page that teachers can have
students complete after they
have learned that lesson.

utility is what is found in the back of the book. The back includes a standard glossary and

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index. Additionally, the back of the book has a Reading and Study Skills section, a
Science Skills section, and a Math Refreshers. All of these sections have text boxes
briefly summarizing important concepts or skills that are important to science as a whole.
For example, on page R50 of the math there is a text box on Using Significant Figures,
Dividing Fractions and Using Scientific Notation. Another example is that in the
Science Skills section page R26 gives bullets of safety rules in a lab. Lastly, an
awesome feature in this book is extra blank graph paper pages that have the headline my
notes as shown in figure 8. These notes pages come at the end of every lesson and serve
as a great example as to why having a textbook that students can write in can benefit their
learning.

Fig. 7: This yellow textbox at the


bottom of this page gives lesson
extensions for students
Evaluation of Style

Fig. 8: Graph paper for notes is


provided in the textbook at the end
of each lesson.

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The International Literacy Associations website Read Write Think shares an
article Defining Style (2003) that states Style in literature is the literary element that
describes the ways that the author uses words- the authors word choice, sentence
structure, figurative language and sentence arrangement all work together to establish
mood, images, and meaning in the text (pg. 1). I would consider the style of this
particular textbook to be considered rather simple for many reasons. For starters, the
sentence structure in the text is almost never complex. Beers(2016) assessment
instrument explains that a texts complexity becomes more demanding when sentence
structure is more complex with perhaps more than one idea presented in a sentence( pg
50). The sentence structure of the text is quite easily the simplest part of the textbook as
a whole. To illustrate this, I used a random number generator to pick a random page for
me. The generator gave me page 496. One of the passages from that page of the
McDougal(2013) textbook states The energy source can be represented by two parallel
lines of different length. A wire or other conductor is shown as a line. A load is
represented by a zigzag line segment (pg. 496). As One can read, none of the sentences
presents more than one idea within it. I read other pages to find that this is almost always
the case in this text.
Regarding the texts diction, the phrases and vocabulary used are almost always
science or math based and do not go outside of the Virginia Standards. That being said, I
think once the vocabulary is taught, students will not have a hard time with the language.
Over all, the structure of the paragraphs are easy to follow. Each lesson consists of blue
headers that introduce the main idea. Following that explanation are 1-3 read subheadings
that are a more specific idea regarding the main topic.

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Summary Statement:
It is an advantage that this textbook is made up of un-laminated papers that can be
taken out with a clean rip. Informational content, a workbook, and a notebook become
one in this textbook and all three aspects are included in an easy to follow structure.
Beers assessment instrument emphasizes how inferential reasoning can make a texts
complexity a little more demanding. I would say that the interactive worksheets, labs and
activities within the text helps the text become challenging enough for students to
efficiently learn from. This strength supports Beers (2016) statement in her work that
We want texts kids can struggle with rather than texts they must struggle
through(pg.47).
As previously mentioned, this text has an exceptionally large array of graphics
such as photographs, diagrams, and visual representations. You cant turn a single page
without seeing some sort of visual. I think that certain critics could argue that these
graphics could become distracting but I believe that this is not the case for middle school
aged students. The interesting photographs show how the content regards to real life and I
think it makes the text much more reliable and relevant.
One of the biggest strengths of this text is the fact that it can accommodate
students at different levels of understanding within each lesson. Each lesson consists of
different add-on pages such as STEM activities, Why it matters extensions pages, and
pages titled People in Science. If students are struggling, they can stick to learning the
basic content and working on the reviews and guided notes within the chapters. However,
if a teacher knows that some students may fly through lessons and activities, these addons and extensions are perfect for the more advanced students to work on. These

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extensions allow for students to learn outside of the standards of learning and relate
things to real world situations a little more than they could through a typical review guide
for a test on standards.
A major weakness that this book has actually falls side by side with one of its
main strengths. It is very useful that the book serves as a workbook and notebook at the
same time, however, this means that the school will have to provide brand new books to
the students every year. The school will have to spend the money every year for brand
new books so that the new students get the same interactive experiences as previous
students. This will become a major economical disadvantage of this text, especially if the
particular school has a lower budget.
Another practical weakness of this text is the size and the weight of the textbook
itself. Considering the activities within the text, students are often asked to take it home
with them to use the text in order to answer questions. Middle school students have 6-8
classes depending on their district, and every core curriculum class has a textbook they
are responsible for. The text is 2 inches thick and 11 inches long which will inevitably
take up a large amount of backpack space.
Lastly, there is an inconsistent readability. Depending on the lesson, some
passages are much more difficult to read than others. The three random pages I tested
from figure 1 had a rang from grade 6 to grade 10. I tested it one more time later on, and
even got a Flesch Kincaid grade level of 3.9 on one directions page. Though this range of
readability is probably so wide due to the large span of scientific vocabulary, the
inconsistency will still be a disadvantage to struggling readers.
Supplementary Texts (3)

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1. Textbook: An Introduction of Physical Science :
An Introduction of Physical Science is an advanced level textbook that explains
complex concepts of Physical Science. This text supports the 8th grade McDougal
textbook I assessed because it goes deeper with the concepts taught from the standards.
This book would be used in an advanced placement classroom or a college classroom so
the content within it all matches the 8th grade content but it goes into much more detail.
For the more advanced students, this text would be a great supplement for them to use
when they ask big questions that their own text may not be able to answer.
2. Workbook: Physical Science
This text is a 108 page physical science workbook full of worksheets, activities,
and exercises pertaining to physical science. This would be appropriate and useful for a
high school physical science class or advanced 8th grade science class due to a higher
complexity of activities. This text supports the fact that there are many teachers that
choose to have a workbook separate from the textbook unlike the McDougal text I
analyzed.
3. Website: ThinkCentral is the title of the online resource website for the text I assessed.
ThinkCentral is an online resource for teachers that are teaching from Holt
McDougal texts. With a username and password the teachers are given access to a broad
span of instructional resources, forms of assessment, and lesson plans. This resource will
not be used by students but definitely adds to the strength this text has in being able to
accommodate many different students. With different forms of media and resources
available to the teacher, successful differentiation is easier to obtain.

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References
Alvermann, D. E., Phelps, S. F., Gillis, V. R., & Alvermann, D. E. (2010). Content area
reading and literacy: Succeeding in today's diverse classroom. Boston, MA:
Allyn & Bacon. Beers, K probes, B 2016 Notice and note nonfiction
Beers, G. K., & Probst, R. E. (2016). Reading nonfiction: Notice & note stances,
signposts, and strategies. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Chandler, C. Assessing the Text
Defining Style. (2003). Retrieved November 7, 2016, from
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson209/definition
_style.pdf
Haahr, M. (n.d.). True Random Number Service. Retrieved November 03, 2016, from
https://www.random.org/
Mcdougal, H. (2013). Holt mcdougal science fusion virginia: Worktext physical. 2013.
Orlando, FL: Houghton Miffloin Harcourt.
Measure Text Readability. (2011). Retrieved November 07, 2016, from
https://readability-score.com/text/
Physical science. (2013)Saddle back Education. Retrieved November 7, 2016.
Shipman, J. T., Wilson, J. D., Higgons, C. A., & Torres, O. (2014). An Introduction to
physical science (14th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Students, Teachers, and Administrators. (n.d.). Retrieved November 07, 2016, from
https://www-review-k6.thinkcentral.com/ePC/start.do

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