Textbook Analysis 5 - Essay Example

The books is mostly organized according to chronology of the civilizations and roughly sectioned according to geographic location. The book takes a broad approach to the study of social studies. It is not just a history book, where the overwhelming emphasis is usually on dates, battles and important people. The full scope of the human experience is encompassed on the pages of this text. For example, chapter 4 presents information on the ancient societies of Egypt and Kush. Rather than learning about the pharaoh in abstract terms, the book is adept at showing why pharaoh was central to the lives of all Egyptians through the importance of their religious belief in an afterlife.

The book is also good at getting student s to connect with these ancient peoples on a personal level. Each chapter begins with a short reading titled, “If You Were There…” The student is presented with a situation that is designed to elicit some sort of emotion. For example, the chapter on Egypt and Kush begins by discussing the influence Egyptian culture had over Kushite culture. The students are asked how they feel about their older sister having a baby and choosing to give it an Egyptian name instead of a Kushite name.

These discussions and readings are a strength of this textbook. They allow for spontaneous bits of all the social sciences to come into the discussion, instead of focusing solely on the historical doings of these people. Each chapter in the book is divided into two to five sections. Each one of these section assessments asks questions typical of a social studies textbook. Some are designed to reinforce main ideas and vocabulary presented in the section reading. Other questions are designed to engage the student in higher level thinking by asking them to evaluate a statement from the text or to think critically about information from the section just read.

This is not, however the only assessment offered by