Module #7 Create a Course Evaluation Rubric

The need for teachers to evaluate curriculum materials may arise in several different contexts. It may be that a school wants to decide whether to retain, adapt or reject existing materials that have been used as routine but not recently reviewed. It may be that newly published materials are 'on trial' in one or more classes with a view to deciding whether or not to adopt them as part of the school program. It may be that new materials are in the process of being developed or adapted, either within the school or by others and 'field trials' are in progress in order to amend and improve the drafts.When we evaluate the course, we need to take some aspects into considerations such as who evaluate the course, what can be evaluated, why evaluate the course, how can you evaluate it, when can you evaluate it, what is done with the results of evaluation (Graves, 2000, p.214).
There are 7 criteria Graves mentions about evaluation of teaching materials

1. The goals and objectives
2. The course content
3. The needs assessment
4. The way the course is organized
5. The materials and methods
6. The learning assessment plan
7. The course evaluation plan

Based on this suggestion, I modified categories and made my own rubric for science textbook evaluation as follow



Course Evaluation : Blue Planet (Level 2 of 6)

- Target teaching level : Intermediate students (Korean, 1st grades)
- Goals of course : To improve students' science knowledge
- Class hour: Once a week
- For how long each time : 50 mins.
- Total time: 6 months course

As an ESL educator, whenever I had to choose appropriate textbooks for students, I used to have a hard time to do it because most of English textbooks are made for native students. This series contains carefully selected science topics based on the students ages, abilities and interest, and taking into account their specific needs as English-language learners as well. So we decided to choose these textbooks for kindergarteners and elementary school student as main textbook of science class.

***Inside of book***




Blue planet is a six-level primary science series, designed to provide additional activities for students who are learning English. The student activity books include writing exercises, hand-on activities, exciting experiments and interesting points for discussion.
Through the science topics, students are encouraged to express their own ideas, question, investigate and come to animated conclusions.
Especially children love to have an experiment they suggested in classroom and we add some supplement experiment kit to classroom activities.

The actual evaluation of Blue planet

Contents – 5 points
The contents of this book provides accurate information that is understandable for young learners and the ideas are completely discussed in each section, many related experiments covers all of standards and meets the needs of all level of learners
Also they are using easy vocabulary for ESL learners.

Organization – 4 points
The format is fair. Page layout, size and style of each pages are good-looking. I like chapter summaries particularly. Review , glossary, and index are included.

Supplementary Information – 5 points
This textbook provides many resources related with scientific information. There is a teacher’s addition so teacher can prepare extra worksheets and flash card for classroom activities easily.
Also they provide good idea for experiment such as water balloon rocket or paper cup tower. It’s easy to find the material for experiment.

Real-Life Examples – 3 points
The textbook includes lots of information about very various animals and habitat but most of them are unfamiliar with Korean kids. Also Americans use different scale from Koreans as like feet, inch, pound etc. so it is hard to understand and should be converted into meter or Kilogram

Use of Colorful Illustrations – 5 points
Many pictures, maps, graphs related to the reading are included. Children really love this picture. Also teacher can use the flash card and fact sheets in teachers’ edition. It’s really fantastic.

Reference:
Course evaluation sites: online learning. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://online.umwblogs.org/course-evaluation-sites
Graves, K. (2001). Designing language courses. Boston,MA: Heinle & Heinle Pub.