WORKING WITH COURSEBOOKS

In this unit, we will discuss the best way of working with coursebooks.

Think About It

1. Please write 5 things down you like about the coursebooks you use:

a.

b.

c.

d.

e.

2. Please write down 5 things you don't like so much:

a.

b.

c.

d.

e.

Here are some of our ideas:

Possible good things about coursebooks:

• they are easy to use

• you don't need to plan so much
  

• they cover a good range of English

• there is some variety in activities

• there are some interesting stories for children

• there are some good language games in the books
  

   

Possible 'not so good' things about coursebooks

• the language the students learn doesn't relate to their lives and experience, so it's difficult for them to use and remember it

• sometimes the exercises are boring

• sometimes the vocabulary or grammar is much too difficult or easy

• sometimes it seems as if the teacher is doing all the work - the children just have to copy him/her
  

• there is no space for students to write in them

• they are difficult to finish in one year, but because teachers have to do this, they sometimes go too fast for the students
  

Coursebooks should be the starting point of great lessons. They should motivate and engage students with the language. They should provide inspiration for great lessons. Therefore, it's important to know how to work successfully with your coursebook.

Here are some ideas for you:

1. Ask students to do exercises in pairs, so they can discuss the answers together. Ask them to discuss in English, so they can have lots of opportunities to practise speaking. This is also a great way for you to listen to them and see how good their English is and what work you will need to do to improve it.

2. Ask students to check each others' answers before you do. Tell them that if the answers are different, they should try and work out why.

3. Ask students to use the language introduced in the coursebook to talk about their own lives - their home, family, region, country, popular culture, etc. Ask them questions to get them talking. Talking about their lives and experiences will motivate students and show them how language can be used outside the classroom.

4. Think of using games to practise and extend the language introduced in the book. There are lots of ideas in the Grammar and Vocabualry sections of this course, in particular.

5. Look for opportunities to remind students of previous learning. Often, coursebooks will incorporate language that you have already taught but that the students may have forgotten. 'Who remembers what this is?' could be a good way of doing this - perhaps you can ask students to talk to each other in pairs to tell each other what they can remember.

6. At the end of the lesson, show the students what they are going to do next in the book. Tell them how it links with what they have just done. Give them some homework to do, so they can prepare for the lesson. This could be something simple like reading a text. It could also be more difficult, for example you could ask students to prepare to talk about their feelings about the subject they will study next - in English of course.

7. In order to finish the book, look carefully at the different exercises. Choose which ones have the main learning points and make sure you work on these. Some of the other ones may not be so useful for your students. In these cases you can go more quickly. Just make sure you know what you want the students to learn, and make sur the work they do achieves that. see the sections on lesson planning for more detail on this.

Now think about the problems you have had in your classroom. What possible solutions can you think of to make things easier?