Important NY Times Interactive Comparing How History Textbooks From Different States Talk About The Same Topics

 

Two States. Eight Textbooks. Two American Stories. is a new New York Times interactive comparing textbooks used in California and in Texas, and how they talk about the same topics.

There are a number of similar resources in The Best Tools To Help Develop Global Media Literacy, but those compare perspectives in different countries.  This Times piece is particularly interesting because it compares them across states.

I use the international comparisons when we learn about history in my IB Theory of Knowledge classes.

This new domestic comparison will be an important addition.

In addition to adding it to the the Global Media Literacy “Best” list, I’m also putting it on The Best Websites For Teaching & Learning About U.S. History one.

Here are some related tweets:

1. We collected some reactions to our piece on how politics shapes the content of U.S. history textbooks. There have been big debates on how influential textbooks really are; whether there can ever be a single historic narrative (no, in my view); and more: https://t.co/O5nIYfkATI

— Dana Goldstein (@DanaGoldstein) January 13, 2020

Thank you for having me @OnPointRadio and hosting such a thoughtful conversation. Also hear from two of my sources from the textbooks project, a historian and a high school teacher: https://t.co/DAnxVCezYg

— Dana Goldstein (@DanaGoldstein) January 16, 2020

Developing thread…

So back to this piece, which I can't stop thinking about.

Though none of the information is new, the side-by-side comparisons are nevertheless striking… and I have some thoughts (and a lot of feelings). #DisruptTextshttps://t.co/cjd4NwMo5X

— Tricia Ebarvia, writing & (mostly) away… (@triciaebarvia) January 18, 2020

One resource I've found useful is https://t.co/eBk9N67TCm's chart that explains how they rate bias in various media sources. I synthesized all the descriptions of what it means to be left, left leaning, center, right leaning, and right in a document here ➡️https://t.co/JxQGbovBef

— Tricia Ebarvia, writing & (mostly) away… (@triciaebarvia) January 18, 2020

Saluti, there is your unroll: Thread by @triciaebarvia: Developing thread… So back to this piece, which I can't stop thinking about. Though none of… https://t.co/aTGGbHUZrB. Enjoy 🙂 🤖

— Thread Reader App (@threadreaderapp) January 18, 2020

We've heard from a lot of teachers interested in using the CA vs. TX textbooks project in their classrooms. Here's one sample lesson plan from our Learning team, by @NatalieProulx. https://t.co/EMNcBxe3l0

— Dana Goldstein (@DanaGoldstein) January 15, 2020