Customer Reviews

Citizenship: Passing the Test

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I just took my citizenship test today; this book was not helpful at all!

Instead, go to the INS site and download the 100 questions which are listed as sample questions.

These are the same questions you'll be asked. Your interviewer will ask you 10 questions from that list. So, just prepare for those 100 questions and you'll do fine.

Good luck!

I have been in the field of ESL for almost 20 years now. Although I have never taught a citizenship class, civic education has been an integral part of all my ESL courses in the U.S. It had been always a problem for me to find the "right" texts for my beginning level students until this book came along. The contextual connection this book makes between illustrations and key concepts/terms of the U.S. history and government has broken new ground for civic education in the ESL setting, particularly for beginners.

The reflection I have of my own classes and my observation of others' has convinced me that sometimes our classes, for whatever reason, become occasions exhibiting what we know about a subject rather than an opportunity for students to learn what they need about a subject. This book, simple as it may look to civic scholars, not only reminds me of what my students need, but also helps me show what some abstract concepts are such as religion, freedom, government, etc. Less well-educated new immigrants are no Political Science majors. This book, along with its cassettes and self-study materials, offers what they need to pass the citizenship test. In fact, I sometimes wonder whether the author is a recent immigrant herself. How else could she have known so precisely what new immigrants would need in their civic education?!

To the ESL teachers interested in using civic education materials in their classes, I would say, Give this book a try. To recent immigrants struggling with English language and basic knowlege of the U.S. government, I would also say, Give this book a try. It may not help you chitchat with a sales clerk in the mall, but will certainly help you impress the INS interviewing officials.

See you at your swear-in ceremony!

As a volunteer who teaches citizenship, I can say that this book, and its accompanying teacher's guide, is a good teaching tool for Citizenship for the group of students at which it is aimed - the low-beginning learner, who does not have great English skills.

Yes, anyone can go to the USCIS (formerly INS) website and get the 100 history and civics questions to study, as another reviewer noted. That person can even download from the USCIS the sample dication sentences, and the PDF documents (of 100 plus pages) that contain the USCIS's study guides on both American History and Civics. And I agree that's all that the average, college educated (perhaps high school educated) immigrant needs.

But that is NOT an option for my students, who are smart but who have little or no educational backgroun in American history, and whose English skills are not the best. Those students don't know what World War II was (and look at those words and say "World War Eleven" because they are not familiar with Roman numerals). Those students don't know what the word "emancipation" means, or what the word "preamble" means. I have had students who don't know what the word "slave" or "king" means.

Even the more motivated students I have had who have obtained the lists and memorized the questions by rote and given the correct answers to the questions have asked me over and over "what does that mean?"

This book does an excellent job of boiling the information behind the 100 questions down to the basics. Its pictures may seem juvenile, but that's not the point - the point is that the book brings out the basic information, and explains it so that the student can make sense of the question, and thus the answer. And understanding the question and answer is far better, in my opinion, than just learning things by rote.

These students are not political science majors, as another reviewer has noted. So just explaining the words "Electoral College", is a challenge. Nor is this the place to engage in an anthropological debate about where the Native Americans came from and quibble about whether they were actually the first "Settlers" or "Inhabitants" (although I understand there is scholarship to support the notion thattheir ancestors likely migrated over the Siberian land bridge and therefore could be called "settlers", it doesn't explain all the Viking lore we have here in Minnesota;-).

The point is to give these students a fair shot at becoming citizens. The point is to help them try to understand as much as possible the knowledge they are being asked to demonstrate during their face to face, potentially nerve wracking interview with "The Government Of The United States." Like all students forced to learn an unknown subject to achieve a goal, some will become interested enough in the subject to pursue its deeper meanings, and contradictions, later. Others will not (how many born Americans know who wrote the Declaration of Independence, much less what it really SAID?

This is an excellent book that gives people who have little or no background in American history and government, and not so great English skills a good chance at learning, and understanding, at least the basics of the topic. That's all it claims to do, so any other objection to it beyond that listing is really unfair.

This one's a waste of time. It confuses teacher and student alike. A good thing for the key in the back, or I would have been really stumped. Those questions and answers the book gave per US History were doozies - many were so vague and unclear. Boy, did I feel stupid! And I was a history major. Imagine how dumb and confused such a book must make the students feel.

This book ostensibly purports by its title that all who browse between its covers are armed to pass the test (not to be laden with superfluous information that could arouse controversy at the interview). Hmmmmm. The vocabulary did not define. It only confused. "Religious" is a poor match with the definition the book gives: "The way that people think of God." Huh? The book also says that Native Americans were the First Settlers. (I don't think even someone of the Leftist ilk of a Howard Zinn would go that far). What's wrong with "First Inhabitants"?

It is mind jarring to wonder what was going through the collaborative minds of the writers, editors and publishers when they put together such a lofty book of esoteric words. "Voyaged"? So that is what Christopher Columbus and the Pilgrms did! (according to the book). I don't know what is so wrong with "sailed." Come on. Give me a break. It looks like it was a rush job, not receiving appropriate proofreading and editing and discussion before it went to press.

Furthermore, users of this God-awful citizenship preparation manual are low level students struggling to learn their first words in English. . . and pass the INS interview. About the only thing I agreed with was its definition of "original." "First" is someting Level Ones can grasp. Otherwise, the teacher had to be there every step of the way, not only explaining the key concepts themselves - the ones important to the INS interview - but explaining and interpreting the book as well.

I say to the people who put this book together: Get out of your ivory tower and get real. It doesn't take some fancy smancy doctoral degree to use common sense . . .or intelligence.

The ESL students that I have taught, from intermediate to advanced, LOVE this book. One reason that it can be used to span all levels is the nature of the illustrations. It has been said that "a picture is worth a thousand words," and indeed the pictures in the book seemed to have been chosen for just that reason.

For example, the picture of the signing of the surrender at the end of the Civil War has a long-range landscape view. Off in the distance behind Gen. Grant, one sees a railroad track and evidence of manufactured equipment. On the other hand, the view behind Gen. Lee shows an agricultural landscape.

For the refugees and immigrants in my class, that picture, along with my commentary on it, explains the differences in culture between the warring sides as well as the reason for the outcome of the Civil War.

There is another one of Medieval Europe that makes it clear why the Europeans left Europe to come to the U.S.

And another of Native Americans living in a vast landscape that supplied all their needs----but also had the materials and resources that the Europeans desired, makes the concept easily understandable. This is especially true for the many students I have who have come from colonized countries that were exploited for their resources.

My students like this book so much that they want to buy it for themselves. That says it all....

Teachers: Keep tabs on the book, as it may be "borrowed' and never returned!

Obviously written by a real professional in the field. This one cuts to the quick, no bones about it. Get this for your students.

This is easy to read, and to the point. It has nothing superfluous, and does a great job of preparing you for the test.

Obviously written by a real professional in the field. This one cuts to the quick, no bones about it. Get this for your students.