Textbook Review, Grade Three
Scott Foresman: Addison Wesley
Math

Strengths

  1. Each chapter in this book has a theme that it follows; this makes it fun for children to learn. It also helps to disguise what is actually being taught to them.
  2. Each chapter has a team project, which has to do with the theme, this allows children to work together and learn from each other.
  3. I like how many of the pages have little math tips or facts that can help the students in there learning of the math topic on that page.
  4. I think it is good that the vocabulary words are on the side of the page with some definitions, so if a child does not know what a word is it is right there for them to see.
  5. I like the sections labeled "your choice" this gives the child a chance to choose what they would like to do for their practice.
  6. Each section has a "talk about it" section, this is where it gives you a scenario and then the students and the teacher would talk about it, this is helpful for kids to be able to talk about how they would solve a problem so then the teacher can understand their thinking.

Weaknesses

  1. I think that it is good to integrate subjects together, but I feel like this book does a little too much of the integrating.  Every chapter has little facts or information not technically pertaining to the topic.
  2. There may be too many story word problems for this age level.
  3. When a subject is taught, I do not feel like it is covered in enough detail for students to be able to learn it.
  4. I think there is too much time spent on reviewing instead of learning.
  5. There are some sections called "algebra readiness," I feel like third graders may not be ready for all of the algebra activities that this book asks them to do.
  6. The organization of this book could be a little better.  I would do multiplication items after I did probability items.

Textbook Evaluations
Course Page