ADAPTING THE ENGLISH TEXTBOOK TO YOUR STUDENTS’ NEEDS.

Dayna House, Senior English Language Fellow 2012

U.S. State Department http://

argentina.usembassy.gov/english_teaching.html

The Question

Why should teachers reinvent activities when publishers have already developed appropriate instructional sequences, lesson designs, and activities for each subject?

1. Textbooks are designed so that the format of all lessons is the same. This uniformity makes textbooks easier to:

a. Write b. Teach frombut it can also lead to boredom as the same sequence of activities is followed day after day.

The Answers….

2. The materials are designed to appeal to the same "generic" student interests. This means that the design of the textbook is "one size fits all.“

a. Teachers know that a single set of materials cannot meet all the needs and interests of all their students.

Don't you be a stumbling block to your learners' progress

SO….Use the texts, but supplement and adapt them to the needs of your studentsThis builds Student’s confidence that you are concerned about their needs and not just following a program.

Erroneous practicesHere are some common errors that can be easily remedied.1. You Don't adapt materials to the learning

style and characteristics of the students.2. You only Follow the course book.3. You Don't encourage and promote language

practice outside the classroom. 4. Ask for your students’ feedback to improve

your teaching

Mechanical Language Texts and our own teaching practices can derail the students' efforts and motivation in language acquisitionAnalyze your own teaching practices and make any needed adjustments to your teaching.

The learning style most reflected in the classroom is that of the teacher.

But, It is important that concepts and material be presented in ways most suitable for the learners. Jack C. Richards, author of the popular Interchange textbook series said, "Student learning styles may be an important factor in the success of teaching and may not necessarily reflect those

that teachers recommend." Why is this true? Because teachers use their own preferred learning style in the class room, not necessarily those of the students. Analyze your student’s learning characteristics, then apply the results to your teaching.

Take the M. I. Test

2. A course book is not intended to be a "bible"

Too often teachers follow it "religiously“ and do nothing else, nor do they include outside materials in their teaching. 1. Read the teacher's notes at the beginning. You will read how the course book is intended as a guide for teaching with supplementary materials to be added to expand, deepen or reinforce presented materials and themes. 2. Use the course book sequence as a guide and freely supplement exercises and materials with your own creations or at the very least with materials adapted from other sources. 3. And again, plan your lessons and materials to meet the needs, learning styles and characteristics of your learners.

Type Preference Strength Ss. Learn Best By And Need When presenting the information

1.Verbal/Linguistic Write Read Tell StoriesTalk Memorize Work At Solving Puzzles

Writing Reading Memorizing Dates Thinking In Words Telling Stories

Books Tapes Paper Diaries Writing Tools Dialogue Discussion Debated Stories, Etc..

- Present Content Verbally - Ask Questions Aloud And Look For Ss. Feedback - Use Interviews -Ask Ss. To Present Material - Ask Ss. To Read Content & Prepare Presentations For Classmates - Have Ss. Debate Over An Issue

2. Logical/ Mathematical Question Work With Numbers Experiment Solve Problems

Math Logic Problem-Solving Reasoning Patterns

Working With Patterns & Relationships Classifying Categorizing Working With The AbstractNeeds: Things To Think About & Explore-- Science Materials, Manipulative, Trips To The Planetarium & Science Museum.

-Provide Brain Teasers Or Challenging Questions To Begin Lessons. - Make Logical Connections Between The Subject Matter & Authentic Situations To Answer The Question "Why?" -Have Ss. Categorize Information In Logical Sequences For Organizing. –Have Ss. Create Graphs Or Charts To Explain Written Info. –Have Ss. Participate In Web Quests Associated With The Content

3. Visual/Spatial Draw Build Design Create Daydream Look At Pictures

Maps Reading Charts Drawing Mazes Puzzles Imagining Things Visualization

Legos Video Movies Slides Art Imagination Games Mazes Puzzles Illustrated Book Trips To Art Museums

-Use Visuals To Explain Content: Powerpoint Slides, Charts, Graphs, Cartoons, Videos, Overheads, -Have Students Work Individually Or In Groups To Create Visuals Pertaining To The Information - Use Posters; Timelines; Models; Powerpoint Slides; Maps; Illustrations, Charts; Concept Mapping

4. Bodily/Kinesthetic Move Around Touch And Talk Body Language

Athletics Dancing Crafts Using Tools Acting

Touching Moving Knowledge Through Body Sensations ProcessingNeeds: Role-Play Drama Things To Build Movement Sports And Physical Games Tactile Experiences Hands-On Learning

-Use Props During Lecture - Provide Tangible Items Pertaining To Content For Ss. to Examine -Review Using Sports Related Examples (Throw A Ball To Someone To Answer A Question) - Students Use Computers To Research Subject Matter. - Students Create Props Of Their Own Explaining Subject Matter (Shadow Boxes, Mobiles, Etc...) - Students Create Review Games.

Table of the Multiple Intelligences Synthesized

Read “When Presenting Information”

3. It is essential for learners to receive additional practice and input.

It is alarming number of schools and institutes decreasing foreign language class contact hours per week.-Many public or government-funded educational centers require as little as four hours or less a week. -Can a student really learn a language in only 45 hours? -Now, add the fact that learners are using their first language most of the day of language learning and you have a situation degraded to a nearly impossible state.

-Put this way, is it reasonable to expect mastery of any sort in a language after only six or seven days in a foreign country where that language is spoken? It is no wonder students can't hold even a basic conversation after studying English (or another foreign language) under these conditions for two, three or even more years.

Encouragement and promotion of foreign language practice outside the class room is absolutely vital to the

success of the learners.

Discuss ideas to do this

4. Ask for your students’ feedback to improve your teaching

Feedback from your students is very important to know which activities they enjoyed the most at the end of the class, then adapt your lesson plans based on their feedback. This can help you better understand the teaching methods that are most effective for your students. Adapting your lessons to your students’ language level and learning style is the best way to meet their language need.

Don't you be a stumbling block to your learners' progress.

If you are guilty of any of these erroneous practices in language teaching, make any needed adjustments to your teaching practice ASAP.

You may be amazed how your learners grow, improve and become motivated to practice in the language classroom.

How to Adapt the Text1. Leave out a unit or unitsa. Leave out the first or second units of the book when they already know the concepts(it is being recycled)b. Leave out a unit with a grammar point that is introduced later on as there is a unit that does contrasting of two tenses (e.g. Present Perfect/ Simple Past)

2. Combine grammar points-If the students have done the Present Continuous and Past Continuous before in a previous year, in your class, do all the Continuous tenses together.-Choose a few exercises from the different chapters of the textbook and workbook to illustrate the similarities and differences between those two tenses and the Future Continuous and Present Perfect Continuous.-Then consider those units done. You can go back to other parts of the units later if needed to reinforce or assign it at homework

3. Leave out the same section each time.

You might be surprised that leaving out the same tasks at the end of units or the Test Yourself sections doesn’t take anything away from the students learning.

4. Let the class chooseAllow students to express their own opinion on what they do and don’t want to learn. Let the class to look at the syllabus at the front of the students’ book and decide THEIR PRIORITIES AND what they are happy to leave out.

For Classes that still expect the teacher to make all learning decisions:

a. teachers can do a needs analysis and guide the class to embrace different options. for example:• “After identifying the grammar points you

feel you already know, we can skim over the easier units and work on fluency. Then we can concentrate and try to push your level up with more the difficult grammar structures and idiomatic language”

5. Set textbook exercises for homework and eliminate the workbook

If the workbook has a key, set the textbook exercise as obligatory and the workbook as optional extras, perhaps telling students which workbook exercises would be most useful for them to work on their own.

6. Turn the book activities into communication games

Adapt textbook activities to engage students in group or pair work and create communicative games and activities Once you've decided how you want to actively engage your students(M.I.), make sure students understand the procedures of the communicative Activity you intend to use.

Discuss: Share ways you have turned you Book grammar exercise into a communicative activity. For Example: Turned readings into jigsaw readings by getting students to read half of the text each and compare their information

Find someone who activity.

7. Check answers to comprehension activities after the first student finishes

Take a look at comprehension activities in the textbooks and redesign them in light of the AMOUNT of the activity itself. Redesigning the activity in light of “AMOUNT" is about the obligatory and optional tasks. Ss. can be asked to answer a certain number of questions. For example, low-performing ESL students can list four answers, while the stronger students can list more than four answers.As long as all the students have answered at least three questions, before asking for the answer.

8. Decide which individual questions you will leave out

• This is a variation of #7For example, “Do exercise three, but don’t do questions 7 and 8 because they are only true for British English”.

9. When working on less challenging exercises, stop when they’ve got the hang of it

• Work through exercises together and at some point say

“Well, I think you’ve got the hang of that. Let’s move onto the next exercise/ language point, which is more challenging/ useful/ related to the exam”

10. Stop the exercise and leave the rest for homework

This is a variation of #9 that can be more suitable for students who don’t easily accept things being completely left out.Or those who are sensitive about how much money they paid for the book.

11. Set different tasks for the slower students

Cater to the student’s level(blooms Taxonomy) of difficulty of the task.The teacher can adapt the task to suit all three levels: lower, middle and stronger. This gives the student a choice of activities.You may have to adapt the language of the activity and the instructions of the activity itself to suit the level of the student's linguistic ability. • For example, “Leave questions 3 and 6 until the

end, and only do them if you have time”

Take a minute

Look at Blooms Taxonomy

12. Simplify the grammar points• You don’t have to give students every

meaning/use for a grammar item. • You might want to leave out one of the

meanings for example of the Present Perfect or one exception to almost always using a determiner in English.

• If you do this, make sure that you can adapt or leave it out of later exercises so that these points don’t come up.

• This can also give you a justification for leaving out other exercises

- “Exercise 4 is a bit different from the grammar we have seen, so we won’t do that one”

13. Decide what you can rush through and what students will need more time on.

• decide and tell your students which parts you are going to rush or skim through because they are too easy, too similar to other things you have done before or will be done again later. • You can then tell them this will leave

more time for the things that are worth spending time on.

14. Use the whole book, but in a different order

• This means that you will cover all the most important points and that the students might never notice that you have missed anything.

• Ways of making the logic of the process clear to students giving them a syllabus for the first few weeks showing them that you have an actual plan for how you are choosing what comes next.

• This works best with books that are meant to be modular rather than ones that build on the language and increase the difficulty of texts as the units go on.

ITSON textbook

• Here is an example of a syllabus I had to reorder when I worked in Mexico at the Instituto Tecnologico de Sonora.

• The textbook for English Course I & Course II were compilations of Level I,II,III of other published course books but were in random order.

• Here is what I had to do.

Notice that descriptive adjectives were on pg. 263-265. I had Ss. do these activities in week 1

Infinitive verbs were on Pg. 265 also so I had Ss. Do these activities week 1

Plural nouns were on pg.150 – 151 and I had Ss. do Activities week 3

Prepositions were On pg. 39 & 174 and I had Ss. do activities week 4

• It is up to the teacher to order the learning in a coherent way. If the text you are using doesn’t do this, it is then your job. Otherwise Students will just be confused.

Don't be a stumbling block to your learners' progress.

Poorly used Language texts and classroom methodology can easily derail the students' efforts and motivation in language acquisition and learning. Analyze your own teaching practices and make any needed adjustments to your teaching. You will be surprised how your learners are motivates and improve language skills like never before.

Discuss

• Share 3 things that you learned in today’s workshop with your neighbors

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