I had a fascinating time in Croatia last month. I was there to give a series of workshops across the country – but that had its own difficulties. I spent ten hours one day in different cars, driving in a severe snow storm from Osijek in the east, through Zagreb, the capital, to Rijeka in the west and then back to Zagreb the same night for an event there the next morning! It was certainly an experience to remember…
The workshops I was giving were on lower- and upper-primary courses – for kids and ‘tween-agers’ – that have been put on the Ministry of Education shortlist there for possible adoption starting next school year. The talks got me thinking about what happens when you adopt a coursebook, and how you need to adapt it to your classes – after all, we ‘teach the class, not just the book’, right?
So, here are half a dozen simple ideas for adapting and supplementing your coursebook:
Use your own warmers, fillers etc.
You’ll have your own ideas and experiences on how to review and recycle language from previous lessons, or preview and pre-test language in upcoming lessons. Perhaps the learners need more practice on something, or maybe they already know more or less what’s in today’s lesson. Those first or last five minutes of a class can help you decide on your strategy.
Share your ideas with colleagues and get ideas from them
It’s great if you’re working with a team of friendly colleagues who are willing to share their different ideas and experiences—and listen to yours.
Use supplementary materials from teacher’s book and teacher’s resource book
If you’re looking for ideas to follow-up an activity or extend a lesson, you’ll find lots of extra photocopiable materials for expansion and/or reinforcement in the teacher’s books that accompany courses.
Use online materials
Most courses now come with extra online resources for both teachers and students. Have a look yourself and be sure to give the learners the website address so they can try out the various exercises, activities—and games!
Differentiate the homework (although I prefer to call it ‘practice’)
Not all of the learners necessarily have to do the same homework; some might need extra practice and others an extra challenge. Online Workbooks with Learning Management Systems that automatically mark the homework for you and give you each individual learner’s score can not only save you time but also help you decide on differentiated learning paths.
Use your students’ ideas and interests
Ask individual students to bring in something in the target language to work on or that simply interests them. With young learners this could just be a phrase that they saw or heard. For older pupils it could be an advertisement from a magazine (online or print), some song lyrics or a YouTube clip.
How do you adapt your coursebooks? Let us know in the comments.