TEXTBOOK AND DIGITAL RESOURCE CHART 2
Textbook and Digital Resource Chart
1. Discuss the overall information.
a. Title/Edition/URL Building Better Citizens: A New Civics Education for All
b. Publisher/
Organization
Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group
c. Grade level 8th grade – 12th grade
d. Content area(s) Civics Education with Restorative Justice Practices
imbedded in the curriculum
e. Strengths The authors offer many examples for students portraying
multiple points of view. This can be used alongside the
implementation of Restorative Justice Practices.
f. Weaknesses The authors believed it would be used only to promote
Civics.
2. Think about language concerns.
a. Use of phonics The book is easy to understand, language is clear and to
the point.
b. Readability The book is engaging and hooks the reader with
entertaining passages.
c. Vocabulary usage The vocabulary is fairly easy to understand. It may be a
little harder for 8th graders to understand but the teacher
can offer support if needed.
d. Provision of
definitions
The book offers an index, but it does not have a list of
definitions.
e. Word choices The book is fairly easy to understand, and words are used
creatively.
f. Flow All of the chapters are relevant and flow through the topics
with relevancy.
3. Think about ideas and concepts.
a. Biblical perspectives The book does not include any biblical perspectives.
b. Compare/contrast to
Scripture
There are no biblical references, however, in the bible we
are taught to be respectful, good, and considerate to other
people even when you do not agree with them.
c. Relevance for
curriculum goals
The book meets the curriculum goal of working well with
others, communicating when someone does you harm, and
living your truth among others as you grow into being a
contributing adult in society.
d. Critical thinking The book encourages the difficult conversations when
there are issues with others and using critical thinking in
how to build positive relationships with others. It promotes
learning to agree even though you may disagree.
e. Grade appropriateness The book is appropriate for grades 8-12.
f. Curriculum
perspectives
The book offers civic awareness with implementing
Restorative Justice Practices. The ability to learn to
communicate is the main perspective.
g. Bias There is no noticeable bias in the book other than the
TEXTBOOK AND DIGITAL RESOURCE CHART 3
promotion of positive relationships with others is a key to
good civic awareness.
4. Examine the format.
a. Clear chapter headings
and divisions
The headings and divisions are clear and easy to
understand.
b. Use of graphics and
visuals
The book contains graphics that are consistent with
demonstrating data that relates to the topic of discussion.
c. Identifiable topic
sentences and
headings
The book has headings that explain the topic of each
section explaining what will be taught.
d. Font and legibility The font is easy to read and large enough to see.
e. Spacing The book has appropriate spacing between sentences and
paragraphs.
f. Grammar and spelling The book has no noted grammatical errors or spelling
errors. It is written in language that students are able to
understand.
g. Layout Each chapter begins with a title and descriptions of what
will be taught in that chapter. There are examples and
diagrams displaying the examples. Each chapter has a
summary concluding the chapter and summarizing what
was introduced.
h. Use of color The book is colorful on the outside. The book on the inside
is black and white.
i. Ease of use The book has provided a very detailed explanation for
students and teachers.
j. Adaptive features for
assistance
There are no adaptive features in this book.
k. Sound quality (if
applicable)
This was not applicable.
5. Think of student supports.
a. Appropriate questions
and assignments for
grade level and age
The questioning is guided with practice assignments for
students to use to practice using Restorative Justice
Practices in their Civics classes.
b. Varying knowledge
levels for questions
and assignments
The implementation is introduced and can be implemented
in various levels of difficulty for the student’s levels of
needs.
c. Appropriate
suggestions for
additional reading or
resources
The book provides websites for reference for students to
use.
d. Addresses visual,
auditory, and
kinesthetic modalities
The book provides websites and videos to assist with
different modes of learning.
e. Logical development
of subject matter
The book follows a progression of implementation and
how to development positive communication with civic
TEXTBOOK AND DIGITAL RESOURCE CHART 4
responsibilities.
f. Provides
introductions,
explanations, and
summaries
Each chapter has an introduction explaining the content
and goals. There is a summary concluding what was
introduced emphasizing the key components of the
chapter.
Assessment
This book is not a text that is a stand-alone textbook for a civics education course.
However, it is a great book to teach students good communication skills, being active politically,
and imbedded with Restorative Justice Practices. The book begins with an introduction of how to
deal positively when there is conflict with other peers and learning how open communication can
foster an environment that is safe and free for students to express themselves. This book can be
used as a point of building background knowledge to help students brainstorm about what civics
actually means. This can pre-assess students by using different case studies to allow teachers to
gauge student’s prior understanding. Using a pre-assessment can help teachers learn what the
students already know, what they plan to teach them, and what the students still need to be taught
(Gordon et al., 2019). When thinking about a formative assessment the book can only be used as
a reference. Korbey (2019) shares about some experiences of students and how it relates to
previous sections of the book. This is called the ‘New Civics Innovator’. The teachers can use
this as a reference when teaching how Restorative Justice Practices and civic action make a
difference in people’s lives if worked on and follow through with positivity. The different case
studies also include personal references explaining how they felt about the whole implementation
of Restorative Justice Practices. Formative assessments can be informal and this will enable
students to be assessed on their knowledge of civics and how it relates to Restorative Justice
Practices. They can be assessed on their opinions and if they have any bias towards Restorative
TEXTBOOK AND DIGITAL RESOURCE CHART 5
Justice Practices. The questions will be developed from the book, this way students can be
empowered to critically think about the case studies in the book. The innovator case studies help
student’s brainstorm between right and wrong and how they can facilitate positive
communication.
This book can be a reference for performance-based assessments but not a factor for
scoring. This type of assessment involves hands-on student-centered tasks, so the book will just
be a reference. Writing an essay or conducting an experiment in science can be classified as
performance-based assessments (Gordon et al., 2019). However, there can always be alternate
assessments and this book can be used to develop them. Since this book utilizes case studies that
refer to real-life tasks then authentic assessments can be utilized. For example, who would they
go to for assistance in dealing with a conflict? What are the rules to abide by to keep the
Restorative Justice Practices safe and fair? All of this information is imperative to learn for the
future implementation of practices. The same case studies can be utilized in summative
assessments. A summary of what is learned is the definition of a summative assessment. While
using a case study students can write an essay on the case study and how or why they may
choose a different decision than the person in the case study. The assessment would require key
specific points to be made in the essay so the student will be able to explain the type of positive
change he/she is hoping to initiate.
Curriculum Evaluation
This book is not a comprehensive text book for civics and Restorative Justice Practices.
With civic education being the main subject of the class and then imbedding Restorative Justice
Practices other resources will have to be used to supplement the curriculum. Some examples of
books that could be used to supplement are The American People: Creating a Nation and a
TEXTBOOK AND DIGITAL RESOURCE CHART 6
Society by (Nash et al., 2017), or Of the People: A History of the United States by (McGerr et al.,
2018). Both of the books have curriculum goals to teach civic education with multiple
viewpoints. The founding documents are a part of both books and this is another curriculum goal
where you discuss documents and how they built the civic education of America. The books
foster a point of view where students can learn the way civics education was a part of the
nation’s history.
The CIPP model was created by Daniel Stufflebean from Western Michigan University
(Molope et al., 2020). The evaluation model is comprehensive and is named after context, input,
process, and product. Of course the content is civics education, where constantly evaluating the
input to process and ensure the final result will produce what is hoped for. The focus of the CIPP
model is to motivate the key participants (teachers, administrators) and stakeholders to ask
appropriate questions at the initiation, implementation, and final approach to assist in fidelity of
the goal (Sopha et al., 2019, p. 1363).
The initiation must ask ‘What should be done?’. This would be a needs assessment
observing if Restorative Justice Practices is ready to be initiated with the current needs and can
those needs be fulfilled (Sopha et al., 2019). This will start with evaluating if civics education is
appropriate to have Restorative Justice Practices imbedded into the curriculum. The decision will
be yes it is appropriate. Then the goal will be to explain how students are afraid to speak up
when someone has harmed them, and the promoting a discussion of understanding. The next goal
will be to brainstorm the relevance of this course to other courses, and why wouldn’t another
course be better matched to imbed Restorative Justice Practices. There will be a timeframe put
into place for this curriculum change. It cannot drag on for a long time. Twelve to twenty-four
TEXTBOOK AND DIGITAL RESOURCE CHART 7
months is an appropriate time to initiate and train all key participants and then start the
implementation.
The next phase is the ‘How should everything be done?’ input phase. This phase is the
information part reviewing over goals, objectives, training teachers, needed materials and
strategies. The actual content of the course will be clearly explained to make sure actual civics
education is being taught. The most important question is how the course information will relate
to Restorative Justice Practices. The book will help any concerns without generating any implicit
bias towards the implementation. There will be adequate time given for teachers to plan prepare
for the new curriculum change.
During the evaluating phase the question ‘Is everything being done correctly?’. The main
focus in this phase will be observing the implementation of the curriculum change and how it is
being accepted by everyone. With all of this being new and never done before there will have to
be frequent classroom observations to ensure students are understanding. Any issues will always
be dealt with case by case. It will always be emphasized for everyone to have open minds and
open hearts towards a positive successful change.
The last stage is the product. This is the stage where you have to show the stakeholders
the result of their decision to agree to the curriculum change. In the civics class there will always
have to be a way to assess the student’s knowledge and skills in order to finish the class. There
will be informal assessments throughout the course and then a formal assessment to assess how
students have been positively impacted by the new implementation. They will explain positive
and negative aspects of the change. The assessment will be graded on how they understand
Restorative Justice Practices, and how well do they understand the relation it has to civics
education.
TEXTBOOK AND DIGITAL RESOURCE CHART 8
References
Gordon, W.R., Taylor, R.T., & Oliva, P.F. (2019). Developing the curriculum: Improved
outcomes through systems approaches (9th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson.
Korbey, H. (2019). Building Better Citizens: A New Civics Education for All. Lanham, MD:
Bowman & Littlefield.
McGerr, M., Lewis, J.E., Oakes, J., Cullather, N., Boydston, J., Summers, M., & Townsend, C.
(2018). Of the People: A History of the United States, Volume 1, to 1877, with
sources. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Molope, M., & Oduaran, A. (2020). Evaluation of the community development practitioners’
professional development programme: CIPP model application. Development in
Practice, 30(2), 194-206. https://doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2019.1650894
Nash, G.B., Jeffrey, J.R., Howe, J.R. Winkler, A.M., Davis, A.F., Mires, C., & Pestana, C.G.
(2018). The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society, 2nd edition. New
York, NY: Pearson.
Sopha, S., Nanni, A., & Mahidol University International College. (2019). The CIPP model:
Applications in language program evaluation. The Journal of Asia TEFL,
16(4), 1360- 1367. https://doi.org/10.18823/asiatefl.2019.16.4.19.1360
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