Downloads & Free Reading Options - Results

A study explored the effectiveness of secondary school textbooks as tools for developing attitudes or skills that are essential for lifelong learning. During the study, a student textbook review questionnaire was administered to about 60 students from five high schools in the Portland, Oregon area. The students were asked to evaluate eight social studies and four biology textbooks from the perspective of how frequently the textbooks explicitly required users to develop attitudes or skills in the following areas: behavior (information seeking, problem solving, independence, looking for relationships among disciplines, and utilizing community resources for learning); life skills (preparing for careers, higher learning, adult life roles, and constructive use of leisure time); attitude (cooperating with others, developing curiosity, viewing learning as a source of personal satisfaction, and setting goals and standards of accomplishment); and basic skills. Based on the students' responses, recommendations were made calling for more emphasis on relating facts and figures to students' own experiences and relating textbook content to students' present and future activities as family members, workers, and citizens. More emphasis on basic skills in math, communication, and problem solving and greater concern for student attitudes and values were other needs identified by the study. (MN)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert