Dedicated to my teachers and the publishers)
The list below is the result of brainstorming I decided to include in the session devoted to working with coursebooks, as part of the Teaching YL Course I ran recently. We were trying hard to stay away from the word ‘realistic’. The whole activity was more like writing a letter to Santa and asking for a unicorn, knowing that, most likely, it is not going to happen, but…
A perfect coursebook for primary school children learning English includes (in an alphabetical order):
- a set of simple boardgames that could be used with a variety of activities
- cartoons series, to support the early literacy development
- characters: a combination of real children communicating and fantasy heroes
- Content and Language Integrated Learning activities
- flashcards
- games ideas and suggestions
- a grammar book to support grammar practise
- a presentation kit for teachers
- an appropriate level of challenge throughout the each unit, each level and the entire course and ideas how to manipulate it for the more or less talented children
- a literacy skills development curriculum, thorough and detailed
- mini-flashcards, photocopiable
- mixed ability groups ideas and suggestions
- an online component
- activities that help to set up pair-work
- posters
- preparation for Cambridge YLE
- project ideas and suggestions
- songs
- stickers activities
- stories
- a student book
- a teacher’s book
- a variety of visuals: photographs, drawings, paintings
- a video course for teachers
- a workbook
It struck me that nobody mentioned testing or assessment. Either we don’t see it as a part of the coursebook and one of the course components or, perhaps, we just don’t care that much about testing
Then, of course, I went online, to have a look at what the major publishers have on offer and I found some nice surprises such as lots of time and effort invested in creating the online components but also some more traditional ones such as posters or home booklets (kind of graded, coursebook-related magazines for kids), wordcards or professional development programme, to name just a few.
I will take it as a good sign. Here is to even better coursebooks and to publishers listening to teacher.
Happy teaching!
P.S. Anything else to add to the list? What do you think?