With the new virtual school year, GUSD secondary students were introduced to new digital history textbooks from the Teachers Curriculum Institute. This year is the piloting year of this textbook, which was recommended by all members of a committee of social science teachers from grades 6-12. Parents in the community have the opportunity to look at the materials, then the superintendent makes the recommendation to the School Board and then the School Board will vote to approve the books for use beginning in the 2021-22 school year.

TCI has many resources and programs that support all the students and educators with an easy way to interact since it is very comprehensive and promotes many learning methods, according to the TCI website.

The approach to the TCI curriculum includes many real world connections to the students. History teacher Patrick Davarahanian said that the new textbooks will adhere to the FAIR Act guidelines while promoting the academic rigor and critical thinking skills.

“The textbook is very comprehensive, culturally relevant, and responsive to students’ learning abilities,” Davarhanian said. “TCI offers great online tools that allow students opportunities to explore topics with greater depth and complexity.”

The curriculum even supports the different styles of teaching, types of learners and educational environments. “The TCI is easier to work with since it is online and on my computer, and it also saves everything online,” said sophomore Nicole Ballesteros, who has been using the TCI materials in her world history class since the beginning of the school year. 

“The TCI is very nicely sectioned off and organized with its chapters,” Ballesteros said. “It’s easy to work with since it’s not too wordy, and at the end of every section it has a good handful of questions with fun games.”

Davarhanian said that the new curriculum is a response to teachers needs and includes teacher feedback. “They have recently set up a parent meeting link and are always quick to respond to inquiries and requests for new materials and extra support, their online textbook is also a great resource that allows students to keep up with current events in the world and allows history social science classes the opportunity to access relevant and updated texts regularly.”

“The TCI instructional materials, under consideration for district adoption, focus on content learning through literacy, inquiry, and critical thinking,” said researcher/consultant Craig Lewis. These textbooks are used for students to think critically so that they can make decisions based on facts and evidence, by exploring and interrogating many viewpoints of historical and social sciences while developing the lifelong skills of literacy, according to Lewis.