How to Evaluate Elementary Music Textbooks

Select a book that's appropriate for your elementary pupils.

A well-written, age-appropriate music textbook can make music class content more accessible to students and enable them to better comprehend the concepts associated with your course. To ensure that the book you select is optimally effective, carefully evaluate your potential music textbook purchase before committing. When evaluating your textbook, explore its usefulness as well as its appropriateness for the pupils in question.

Instructions

1. Check how the book aligns with the music education standards in your state. Browse the prospective book looking for topics that the state's standards require be covered in a music course. As you come across each topic, check it off from a complete list of the standards; this will allow you to easily see if each of the requisite topics is covered by the prospective text.

2. Explore the physical durability of the book. Elementary students can be quite tough on a textbook. Consider whether the book that you are potentially going to purchase can stand up to the rough use of your students.

3. Review the use of pictures and diagrams. Books rich in pictures are generally more engaging to elementary pupils, and those with explanatory diagrams can make information more accessible to these young learners. Consider seeking a book heavy in these two pictorial elements.

4. Consider the presence of hands-on activities. Many music teachers are eager to get their pupils out of their seats and working hands-on with the music concepts discussed. If you would like to encourage this type of student activity, seek a book that provides many of these engagement-rich exercises.

5. Evaluate the vocabulary usage. Consider whether the vocabulary used may prove problematic to students in the grade for which the book is intended, may be too simplistic, or might provide just the right challenge to improve vocabulary while also providing music education. If you are not familiar with the vocabulary level of students in that grade, consult a general classroom teacher who educates pupils in that grade level and ask her to review the book for vocabulary-appropriateness.

6. Review the supplementary material and evaluate its usefulness. Consider whether this material would be useful to you and whether the reproducible material is of high quality and are things that that you would like to use in your classroom.

References

• Classics for Kids: Introduction to Music (Grade 3-5)
• University of Wisconsin: Textbook Evaluation and Implementation