Hi everybody,
We are almost ready to finish this series of forums. It has been great to have the chance to get to know you more through your comments and opinions. This time and keeping in mind the importance of textbooks in our context we are to discuss the solutions to some common issues we face when using textbooks.
We all know there are some disadvantages teachers and students might encounter when using a book. You can find some on pages 181- 183 in the TEFL book. So here is the chance to discuss solutions to problems we find in our everyday practice. Look at the following chart presenting some common difficulties students and teachers might face when using books. Choose a problem and post a solution to overcome that difficulty. Reply to one of your partners as well.
Almost done guys. You are doing an awesome job. Thanks for sharing!
Weakness
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Teacher/Student Difficulty
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Ways of Overcoming Problem
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The textbook is designed as a the sole source of information.
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Students only see one perspective on a concept or issue.
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Textbook is old or outdated.
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Information shared with students is not current or relevant.
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Textbook questions tend to be low level or fact-based.
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Students assume that learning is simply a collection of facts and figures.
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Textbook doesn't take students' background knowledge into account.
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Teacher does not tailor lessons to the specific attributes and interests of students.
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Reading level of the textbook is too difficult.
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Students cannot read or understand important concepts.
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The textbook has all the answer to all the questions.
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Students tend to see learning as an accumulation of correct answers.
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First of all and more than before, we need to keep in mind that we deal with students who face a demanding world in which thinking critically is a must and; therefore, “they need to be trained in active learning techniques” (Browne, 2007 P. 57). Also whether we like it or not we have a mission to accomplish as human beings in charge of leading some other human beings: we must contribute to their development of solid foundation for making personal choices about what to accept and reject.
ReplyDeleteAs any other tool, a text book requires a person to make use of it properly and overcome difficulties that may arise in the use of it. In special I want to express my personal point of view about the fact that most text books questions tend to be low level or they’re designed just to find out fact-based information. In special the ones usually included in listening comprehension tasks.
Although as a teacher I try to cover all or most of the contents in the text provided material if the book stuff does not satisfy my expectations, I use mine own resources instead. Regarding listening activities, there are lots of authentic, updated and attractive options in the Internet.
In order to select listening activities for class usage, I always make sure that:
• the information in the audio file is relevant for the purpose of the class.
• The language is clear.
As much as I can, I also try to guide my students respond to the tasks by asking them to:
• “Listen” between the lines by recognizing what is not said or stated.
• Interpret and make their own conclusions based on the given data.
• Relate the content of the activity to their own lives.
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DeleteHi Juan,
DeleteI loved the part of your comment where you shared how you select listening activities to be used in class and I totally agree with you. I even ask students about the themes or topics they would like to listen to or talk about, this way I make sure the students are engaged in the learning process.
Choosing a variety of class activities can be the best way to support learning, so it is important to take some time to select them effectively, according to the class needs. Learning activities are unique to each class!!!thanks for sharing...
Mr. Pacheco, as always, you have brought critical questions to our attention.
DeleteI interpreted from your post that you believe that teaching our students critical and active strategies to process information contained in different texts (like listening ones) will ultimately foster higher problem solving skills that are not only connected to an academic setting. Am I right? Well, personally, I cannot argue with that idea. Also, I see the importance of bringing authentic material to class because, after all, they are what students will have to face in their real lives. So, I would like to learn from you if or how you bring these materials to your classes, and how you structure your lessons around them.
Have a good evening!
Mr Pacheco, I see myself in your creteria when selecting a listening activity although I use those aspects for every activity I bring that is different from the ones we can find in the textbooks. This reminds me of one special unit we were working in class last week. The topic was about getting ready for a job interview and the book provided some tips on how to do so. I thought that information was not enough and I decided to take it to the next level. I brought videos which gave deeper information about before, while and after that job interview. I also brought a list of FAQs (Frequently asked questions) and I asked my students to take the roles of interviwers and interviewees and they were supposed to act out. then, as a writing portfolio I asked them to create their own CV in English. I guess they felt engaged in class because their papers were awesome. They were provided with different sources of information and at the same time we followed the content from the book. So to summerize this, We cannot use textbooks as a straight jacket. we need to provide a vast array of sources of information for our students to enrich their knowledge.
DeleteMr. Juan I do believe that you have hit the nail on the head. Books are.good, but as you stated are they enough?
ReplyDeleteAs you again pinpoint, book materials do not satisfy you, but you fill that void by using materials other than those found in textbooks. I loved it. Thank you for your insight.
WEAKNESS
ReplyDeleteThe textbook is designed as a sole source of information.
TEACHER/ STUDENT DIFFICULTY
Students only see one perspective on a concept or issue.
WAYS OF OVERCOMING PROBLEM
The first thing we need to have clear is that textbooks are not the magic wands that make your class successful. Yes, most of the institutions require the usage of textbooks because they are instruments that help the development of the curriculum and these instruments are very useful when it comes to summarize what we are teaching in a specific period.
Yes, they are a GUIDE, not a book of policies that we have to follow literally. With this I do not want to say that we do not have to cover the topics they offer and we have already used to plan our syllabi. What I mean is that we are not forced to use every single activity textbooks suggest. Why? Because teacher’s decision – making, teacher’s convictions and students’ attitudes and aptitudes are other aspects that determine how a successful class is developed.
As a textbook is a guide then it is not the sole resource we can use in the teaching –learning process. A way of overcoming the problem is giving student other resources to complement or contrast the information offered by the textbook. Some examples of these resources can be websites, newspapers, encyclopedias, videos, documentaries, films, booklets, printed articles etc.
Using various resources gives the class the chance to change and keeps us apart from the monotony of the same routine. It is not a difficult thing to do, as we discussed in the previous Forum, nowadays the access to information is at hand so it is a matter of commitment with students to give them different and relevant tools while they learn the language, we are responsible for providing materials with meaningful content.
Hi Lili,
DeleteI strongly agree with you. I also think that the book is only a guide and that the way we work with it shows how committed we are to our students learning process. It is up to us to make our students experience in our class something enriching and at the same time appealing by providing them with meaningful extra material.
Hi Lili,
DeleteI strongly agree with you. I also think that the book is only a guide and that the way we work with it shows how committed we are to our students learning process. It is up to us to make our students experience in our class something enriching and at the same time appealing by providing them with meaningful extra material.
Weakness: The textbook is designed as a sole source of information.
ReplyDeleteI really think that using a textbook in class is essential, for several reasons: it makes teachers more efficient with their time management in lessons and an easier way to assign homework based on the activities in the book, the fact that there is a syllabus ready is a lot of help for teachers. Also, most of the lessons included in a textbook will have been tested or tried with students at least once and that gives teachers some confidence.
Parents also like textbooks because it shows them what their child has learned and will learn and they can use the textbooks to help their child solving any questions. Students like textbooks because it gives them exercises to review, extra listening practice, sample tests even highlighted grammar notes and bold print new vocabulary.
Whatever the reason, we are all aware that the textbook is not ‘the be all and end all’ of the class, since if we use the textbook as a sole source of information , we will feel limited and restricted in what we do or can be done in class
It is important to bear in mind that the best way to solve this problem is to supplement our lessons with authentic material, based on the needs of our classes. This way we can keep an updated content, with global events that will keep the class interesting and motivating as it caters to the needs.
Internet has tons and tons of information and all kinds of resources we can use to build our own “classroom essentials tools” to be renewed and improved every time you think it is necessary. Also in the academic office or at the Training Department office there are interesting texts and different books that can help us enhance our class delivery.
Hello María,
DeleteNice post! Let me share two things that caught my attention about it. One is that the best way to solve the issue you chose is by bringing “authentic” material. I totally agree with you and I find that admirable. But to be honest, I feel very apprehensive to bring authentic materials to the class, internet-based or otherwise. Whenever I feel I need to complement something in our books, I just use something from a different textbook. And that’s not something I’m proud, of mind you.
The other thing that made me curious was when you said that these pedagogically designed materials are always “tested” to see they can actually work in a class. Does it mean something like they are piloted in mock learning scenarios? If they are, I didn’t know about that whatsoever, and if it is true, I’m wondering if that’s ALWAYS the case; because I really find many of these textbooks “derivative”. I even suspect there’s a lot of industrial espionage going on here haha, not to mention that some of these books are mere copycats.
I am responding to the problem: The textbook is designed as a the sole source of information. A teacher diificulty posed by professor Willy is
ReplyDeleteStudents only see one perspective on a concept or issue.
Professor Wiily's words resound Victoria Purcell's words in 1996 when she was teaching an Appalachian student how to read. Teachers taught him by using textbooks but the child still did not know how to.read. People in general believe that textbooks are the bearers of truth.
Based on the above question and bearing in mind Purcell-Gates's data, I would solve the textbook problem by using the book and adding activities and tasks based on the needs of my students.
Juan mentioned that some of the kids lack critical thing skills. I will add that they also lack skills to think creatively. They are good rote learners and end up adding nothing to the academic discourse. How can we change this pattern present in Colombia?
I would say that we.can.change this pattern by using supplentary authentic materials. This refers to materials that have been created for native speakers so that that these artifacts may pose a.sense of challenge to EFL learners.
In conclusion, using the textbook as a.guide gives us a hand when we are teaching (Harmer, 2010). Yet, other angles and perspectives are needed so that students may think both critically and creativelly. I would solve professor's Willy question by getting students to think both critically and creatively.
Mr. Lobo, I couldn't agree more. Making our students explore more than the things offered by textbooks must be our priority, the idea here is to get our students say more than a "Yes" or "No" and make them think not only about the language, but all those topcis that surround them or they are interested in. Thanks!
DeleteMr. Lobo, I couldn't agree more. Making our students explore more than the things offered by textbooks must be our priority, the idea here is to get our students say more than a "Yes" or "No" and make them think not only about the language, but all those topcis that surround them or they are interested in. Thanks!
DeleteI am responding to the problem: The textbook is designed as a the sole source of information. A teacher diificulty posed by professor Willy is
ReplyDeleteStudents only see one perspective on a concept or issue.
Professor Wiily's words resound Victoria Purcell's words in 1996 when she was teaching an Appalachian student how to read. Teachers taught him by using textbooks but the child still did not know how to.read. People in general believe that textbooks are the bearers of truth.
Based on the above question and bearing in mind Purcell-Gates's data, I would solve the textbook problem by using the book and adding activities and tasks based on the needs of my students.
Juan mentioned that some of the kids lack critical thing skills. I will add that they also lack skills to think creatively. They are good rote learners and end up adding nothing to the academic discourse. How can we change this pattern present in Colombia?
I would say that we.can.change this pattern by using supplentary authentic materials. This refers to materials that have been created for native speakers so that that these artifacts may pose a.sense of challenge to EFL learners.
In conclusion, using the textbook as a.guide gives us a hand when we are teaching (Harmer, 2010). Yet, other angles and perspectives are needed so that students may think both critically and creativelly. I would solve professor's Willy question by getting students to think both critically and creatively.
I agree with your opinion of making students think more critically and creatively. In my classes is common to hear students answer "yes" or "no" to a "Why?". Students need to be more used to give answers with basis and I think that we as teachers can help them to do so if we open spaces and give resources that help them create or innovate more. Thanks!
DeleteMr. Juan I do believe that you have hit the nail on the head. Books are.good, but as you stated are they enough?
ReplyDeleteAs you again pinpoint, book materials do not satisfy you, but you fill that void by using materials other than those found in textbooks. I loved it. Thank you for your insight.
I suspect that most teachers here and elsewhere will concur with the advantages of having pedagogically designed textbooks, and they will appreciate their benefits. However, these books are challenged by the fact that they just can’t universally serve different instructional purposes and scenarios equally well.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding about this topic is that most pedagogically designed materials and books are forcefully generic regarding themes and they are culturally neutral. They have to be that way so they can be appropriate for different learning environments and help learners across different regions (and even continents). This means to me that many of these textbooks inevitably contain one or more of the problems proposed for this forum.
It’s difficult to choose only one issue from the ones presented because all of the problems may hinder learning at some point. For me, one that is very crucial is problem number 4—“The textbook doesn't take students' background knowledge into account”. I chose this particular aspect because it fits textbooks most salient and recurrent characteristic for me (being generic and neutral). Also, the problem that teachers face about it, (The teacher does not tailor lessons to the specific attributes and interests of students”) is for me what using a textbook effectively boils down to.
What can we do so that we can turn this situation to our advantage? I’m thinking that if teachers have some struggle when tailoring the lessons in the book, or they just fail to do it, it is because we teachers sometimes lack a framework to do it. Our TEFL book suggests that there is always a way to omit or change whatever content doesn’t suffice what we want to achieve with our students. If we have a textbook we have to use, and we think we could improve, change or omit something to make the book meet our students’ needs and interests, then what should we look for exactly?
In my opinion, when keeping in mind our students’ background, needs and interests, we could analyze the textbooks and decide what to include, adapt or leave out, considering these framework questions:
*Do the INTRODUCTION/WARM-UP activities help learners clearly ENCOUNTER the target piece of grammar / vocabulary?
*Do the PRESENTATION activities CLARIFY for the learners those language chunks in terms MEANING, FORM, and USE?
*Do the PRACTICE activities help the learners REMEMBER and INTERNALIZE the language piece?
*Do the ASSESSMENT and FOLLOW-UP activities provide students with opportunities to exercise their FLUENCY by shifting the content to one that’s MEANINGFUL for them?
Thanks for reading!
Dear Dr. Mejía:
DeleteThanks for your awesome insight. I’ve read it several times and it makes me reflect on the nature of my approach about the usage of class resources.
For me tailoring a lesson has not always been an easy task. If someone finds it easy -I would dare to say- it’s because of lack of information about the nature of learning. If we were really committed, lesson planning would take even longer time than the same class.
We totally agree that it is essential to keep in mind our students’ background and interests in order to pick up class resources and implement teaching strategies. At first sight this is just a basic concept and something every teacher would easily agree on. But in order to determine what our students need to learn and how they will develop their new skills, a big deal of work has to be done. This is where teacher’s commitment plays an important role since knowing our students is not always as easy as it seems to be.
One more time congratulations.
Hello María, Miguel and José. Thanks for your kind and supportive feedback.
ReplyDeletePlease let me put two more cents to this discussion.
Although it has been so long, I still remember when I was fresh out of college and I believed I would become that super teacher who would reach the greatest achievements. Little by little I was discovering that you are always working in a team and you are working with fellow human beings, a really complex issue (the same as yours!).
In particular I've learned that no matter how experienced you are, the teacher is the oldest student in the class and he/she always needs to learn.
On the subject of the discussion, I strongly agree with you that the perfect book could perhaps be that one the same teacher writes with his student to be used in specific circumstances and once exceeded the subject of instruction a review would be necessary.
I accept the leadership of the teacher is important and that the quality of the available resources determines an important part of the act of learning success, but from what I have seen none of these reaches the importance of a committed student learning.
At the Colombo we usually relate to new young teachers and in most of them I still feel myself somehow repeated when they convey a strong desire to make a positive difference in their students. I silently wish them the best of luck.
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DeleteAs orchestrators in class, we have to know which instruments we should point at and the right time when to do it. I want to address the issue about having a textbook as the sole source of information. In this forum, we were given a teacher/student difficulty related to this issue but I can see more than one. What happens if most of our students forget their books at home? What happens if the books are not level appropriate for our class? What happens if the reading and listening activities don´t meet my students´ expectations and needs? What happens if the books only display pictures and not enough content or exercises for my students to further their practice? I guess the real problem is that we tend to think the textbook has to be our “Bible” in class and most of the time we sell this idea to our students. We can appreciate this motion for instance when a student has a question whose answer we might not know or be sure about it and then we just say that the right answer is the one they can find in the back of the book.
ReplyDeleteTextbooks are just a tool. Yes, they bring in a lot to our class. Yes, they provide visual aid for those visual learners who feel attracted to colors and pictures. Yes, they do provide a guide with the list of contents they have. Yes, they give the feeling to our students that they are following a sequence and that they can see their progress but THERE IS NOT a perfect textbook which has everything my students and I need to explore in class. Textbooks are just an instrument in this orchestra called CLASS. An orchestra is not made up by one piano. An orchestra has multiple choices of instruments to play with.
To solve this issue, we (Orchestrators/Teachers) have to put our batons up and point at different instruments such as videos, extra listening and reading activities not taken from the book, puzzles, trivia, worksheets, oral presentations and projects conducted by our students such as albums, galleries, fairs, debates, contests, round tables, among others. All this will make our classes more appealing and engaging for our students. They will feel they are not getting some knowledge but also they are producing it. They will become “doers” instead of “receivers”. They will change their minds and their attitude towards the class, the content and the teacher.
Edward Mario
Hi Ed!!!
DeleteAs you can read in my post,I also think that there is no a perfect book. But what I liked the most of your comment is that students have to become doers instead of receivers. What you say is the essence or the fundamental nature of education. They are the ones who have to put into practice everything they learn in class, we are just a guide for them.
In my view there is no a perfect textbook to teach something, this case English. Currently, publishing houses offer both teachers and students a complete set of resources to achieve goals: Coherent syllabi, satisfactory language control, motivating texts, cds,DVDs,cd-roms and extra resource materials. However, teachers are the ones who decide how to focus the approaches offered in order to engage students with the content they are going to be dealing with.
ReplyDeleteAt schools or English institutions, teachers are given a course syllabus to follow including the book, not having the possibilities for changes. So, when delivering classes some difficulties might arise. For instance, the one I have chosen today to be answered in this forum: The text book is old or outdated and the information shared with students is not current or relevant.
The bright side of this difficulty is, in my humble opinion, we do have plenty of things to do to overcome the situation. If I am given an old book to work with my students, I would...
a) have my students change the irrelevant information by using the relevant one. It could be a class discussion and we can make fun of it.
b) elicit questions about how much they know about the old fashioned topics. What do they remember? What have they heard about it?
c) have my students make comparisons between the old info and the new one.
d) have my students contrast advantages and disadvantages of every case.
e) Get them to write or talk about things they like or things they have experienced.
f) bring extra activities with factual information.
g) replace the lesson or the topic with my or their preferred alternative in order to make it more appropriate and appealing to them.
h) Prepare a lot of web-based activities for them to practice more.
i) .........
Teachers, us, must be very resourceful in solving these kind of difficulties and try always to keep our students motivated. Harmer stated something in his book that I really love: “ By far the most useful resources in the classroom are the students themselves. Through their thoughts and experiences they bring the outside world into the room, and this is a poweful resource for us to draw on.”
The coursebook is not a manual to be slavishly followed, it is just a guide. Mastering the use of it, is the goal!!!
Note: Feel free to add option “i”. Thank you for sharing!!!!
There are many problems we may encounter with a textbook when teaching English. One of them is when the textbook is old or outdated and the information shared with students is not current or relevant. Even though this could be a problematic situation we cannot forget that many old books are a great source of knowledge and as teachers we have to use our creative skill to make something simple or in this case old look interesting and appealing.
ReplyDeleteThere are several options when working with an outdated book:
1. Use the pictures to talk about past situations and the way things used to be. Students might feel interested in noticing the differences between now and then.
2. If it has conversations, we could start working with them and then ask students to change some information to adapt them to their contexts, like places, names and others.
3. To practice grammar we could print some worksheets to complement the exercises of the book.
4. With vocabulary, we can introduce the old one and do some brainstorming of current words or expressions.
5. If we are listening to old situations we could ask students what they would have done differently if they were in those positions.
The previous ideas were just some of the ones which came to my mind when doing this exercise but I believe that it can be easier if you have the book in your hands and can take a look of it to think of other activities and make some changes for your lesson.
I completely agree with you Meliza. There are lots of things we can do with an old or outdated book. We can take advantage of every single thing we find in a textbook. We can adapt some exercises and change some activities in order to get better results when using it.
DeleteWeakness: The textbook is designed as a sole source of information.
ReplyDeleteTeacher/ Student Difficulty:
Students only see one perspective on a concept or issue.
Ways of overcoming Problem:
Living in world where everything changes constantly (life, books, technology, methodology, etc) is difficult to follow a textbook designed as a soul source even more when we have to teach it to students that nowadays are facing a demanding world.
Day after day it is a must for us, as teachers, to plan our classes so we can include updated and enjoyable contents, activities, listening exercises based on the goals we want our students to achieve. With a different perspective from the textbook in use, of course. This is just because there is not a.perfect book. That's why using other sources where we can enhance topics in an easy-to-understand and didactic way for students to learn, will help us do our job. Thank God we are not forced to stay attached to the book. It is not a straight jacket. Of course it is our tool but we are free to do everything we can in order to help our students learn level- based topics appropriately.
I really think that a way to overcome the problem is to get different sources (Worksheets, on-line activities, movies, listenings, etc) to complement the information given in the textbook.
Thanks for your comments.
Hi Gina...
DeleteI totally agree with your opinion about how to overcome that student/difficulty. It is important to provide students with lots of information sources such as trade books, CD-ROMS, websites, encyclopedias, etc.that help them foster their skills.
Hi Ginot!!!
DeleteI totally agree with your choice, in fact this weakness was my #1 option . Definitely it is important not to rely only on the book itself, there are limitless sources we can use to back up the information we get from the text books. Thanks for your ideas!!
Hi Ginot!!!
DeleteI totally agree with your choice, in fact this weakness was my #1 option . Definitely it is important not to rely only on the book itself, there are limitless sources we can use to back up the information we get from the text books. Thanks for your ideas!!
First of all, I would like to say that a textbook is a really essential tool and an excellent teaching aid. It is a helpful resource for both teachers and students. On the other hand, a textbook is only as good as the teacher who uses it. In addition, it is important to remember that a textbook is just one tool, maybe a very important tool, in our teaching resource. However, occasionally, teachers over-rely on the use of textbooks and do not contemplate other materials for the classroom, which is not so convenient taking into account that textbooks do have some limitations. Therefore, based on the table provided by Willy, the problem I chose is the following:
ReplyDeleteWeakness:
Textbook questions tend to be low level or fact-based.
Student Difficulty:
Students assume that learning is simply a collection of facts and figures.
A great way of overcoming this problem could be for example by asking students higher-level questions and provide them with creative thinking situations that make them involve in problem-solving activities, which promote in them the development of their critical thinking, and foster their skills at the same time.
Finally, I want to say that when thinking about how you want to use textbooks, consider the following:
• Use the textbooks as a resource for students, but not the only resource.
• Use a textbook as a guide, not a mandate, for instruction; so, keep in mind that you are free to modify, change, eliminate, or add to the material in the textbook; and you can enhance the textbook with lots of extra readings activities.
Hello Octavio,
DeleteI totally agree with you about textbooks are teachers’ aids, and also they are a guide in the teaching process.
I also chose that difficulty because as teachers, we cannot limit ourselves only to the use of textbooks; we need to look for other strategies to develop all students’ learning skills and to engage them to do it also by themselves. In this way, students won’t feel they are only using paper and a pencil, but they will see textbooks as part of their process which can be related to other ways of learning.
I really liked the solution you provided to this problem…good job!
Weakness: Textbook questions tend to be low level or fact-based.
ReplyDeleteTeacher/student Difficulty: Students assume that learning is simply a collection of facts and figures.
Textbooks are a wonderful tool teachers and students have for the teaching-learning process. Some of the advantages of textbook are:
Explanation of the topics using concepts and examples.
Exercises where students can put into practice some topics learned.
Reading exercises to help students to develop their reading skills and where they can learn vocabulary.
Help teachers with some explanations, warm-up activities and others extra activities.
According to those advantages, I just wanted to start by expressing my point of view about textbook: they are great tools. I’m not saying they are all what we need as teachers, we also need more.
Textbooks help to guide the process we have and help students to work in an organized and, I could say, autonomous way; but all tools have some advantages and disadvantages, of course.
I chose the difficulty wrote at the beginning because I think this problem happens a lot in our classes. Despite textbooks are great tools, they also could become bored and monotonous. We can find grammatical structures about a topic, or a list of words from a text, but it’s very poor the activities that most of the textbooks have to develop and work on students’ oral skills.
Sometimes we find that some “pair work” activities are just a couple of questions which are also easy for the level of students in some cases or where they need to use the previous structure already explained. Those kinds of activities don’t allow students to use the language or improve their oral skills, which they’re one of the main points of learning a foreign language.
Textbooks are what teachers could use as guide on a topic explanation or the way how students can practice structures or vocabulary topics. That’s why as teachers, we need to look for external tools where students can develop all their English skills, but also, we need to try to connect those activities to our textbooks because they are part of our teaching process.
In conclusion, to solve the problem we have about “Students assume that learning is simply a collection of facts and figures”, it’s necessary to work using other materials and extra information and activities where students feel, in some ways, they are not using only paper and pencil, but they are developing and working on all their skills instead. Textbooks are part of that process and they make students follow a sequence and organization about what they learn in each level.
Weakness:Textbook is old or outdated.
ReplyDeleteTeacher /Student Difficulty:Information shared with students is not current or relevant.
In my point of view, a book is a great resource when it comes to teach a class; no matter how creative or dinamic a teacher could be, there is a sense of organization when you have a light (in this case the book)or at leats an idea of what to teach in advance. Do not misunderstand what I am trying to point out here but let us be honest: it is easier to prepare a class when you have a lighthouse to show you what path to take; it is your responsibility as a teacher to use the best stones(activities, information,exercices)the lighthouse(book)is showing you to build that path.
What to do when the book is old or outdated? I have been there...recently!!so, to avoid student´s complains and also to avert the class to fall in a drag, there are a lot of things you can do:
-Pictures: bring pictures to class related to the topic you are teaching, you can design an activity in which the students have to make comparisons, a debate, a story telling, among other activities.
Conversation: Many times we have found that the conversations in the books are not meaningful to the students but of course, they are designed with the target language and structures they are currently learning; a solution could be to ask the student to rewrite the conversation, to add information they find appealing, to change or to cut out the parts they do not find significant.
Grammar explanations: sometimes books bring these long and tedious explanations that get students bored and confused; it is here where a teacher has to use all of the strategies h/she can find in order to help them understand the topic and not to get unenthusiastic about the learning process. Another strategy could be to use only the parts the teacher believe are appropiated to teach certain things.
Exercises: a book is not a straight jacket, it is not mandatory to teach a class just with the content the book brings. There is an endless list of activities a teacher can use by bringing authentic material, exercises taken from the web,another book and so on.
Vocabulary: brainstormig!!! it always works!!! students are eager to learn new vocabualary, we can design charts to explain old and updated words or expressions. bring extra vocabulary to class.
Listening activities: it is not necessary to follow the listening activities exactly as they are in the book, we are free to adapt the questiosn to the goal we want to achieve. The idea is to use what we think is suitable for each class.
To solve this and some other problems we may encounter when using a text book, it is essential to focus on what we expect the students to learn, what are their interests and likes , how can they apply this knowledge to their lives and according to this , design our classes including all this authentic and meaningful material without setting aside the book which , sometimes is mandatory in some institutions.
Hi Brenda, by taking a look at all the strategies you offer to overcome the difficulty faced, I am just confirming that it is all in the hands of a committed teacher who knows that it is part of our job to find the strategies to help our students through the learning process. There is always something we can do, it takes away time when planning, but we decided to become teachers and if we want to help our students succeed it is then part of our duties.
DeleteWEAKNESS
ReplyDeleteReading level of the textbook is too difficult.
TEACHER/STUDENT DIFFICULTY
Students cannot read or understand important concepts.
WAYS OF OVERCOMING THE PROBLEM
First of all we need to understand that reading is a skill, not a natural-born talent and having students who don´t like to read is something we have to face in our daily life as teachers. Most of our students DON’T LIKE TO READ. They don’t do it even in Spanish (their native language), therefore it is really difficult for them to do it in English. I think the first reason why they don’t do it is because they don’t feel motivated. I mean, they think reading is boring. So what we can do in order to motivate our students to read is to bring extra readings with interesting topics for them. And give them some tips to make the reading process easier. For example: eliminate distractions while reading, skim first and then read closely, etc. But this is only the beginning; I personally believe that we need to motivate our students first in order to overcome this problem. Then we can use lots of supplemental materials such as books, magazines, articles from internet to have the students work on their reading skills in every class. And what I usually ask my students to do with the readings from the textbook is to read at home and make a list of the unknown vocabulary previously, so that they don’t find it difficult in class.
You hit the nail on the head when you stated that students do not enjoy reading because they are not used to doing it, so they find this task challenging and boring. Second, if the topic is unfamiliar or does not pique their interest, they will not get actively involved in it. The activity will become a hassle for them. Therefore, motivation and habit formation play key roles in getting students to improve their reading skills.
DeleteRuth I really agree with you. Nowadays students do not like to read, but I must say that the thing they really like to read is Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat,etc´s posts. They might find reading books, newspapers, magazines, very boring. So we can take advantage of this by using techniques where they have to gain new vocabulary, grammar. Making them read texts with topics of their interest would be a great way to get them interested in reading.
ReplyDeleteWEAKNESS
ReplyDeleteTextbook questions tend to be low level or fact-based.
Considering that textbooks were designed to serve a very large consumer market, it is understandable that the activities included may not help students improve or develop higher-thinking skills. That is one of the complaints teachers have regarding textbooks.
Sometimes or many times, we want our job to be tailor-made so that we don’t have to pick our brains or dedicate too much unpaid time to develop activities with our own students’ interests and needs in mind. That is why we expect the textbook to solve our problems and if it doesn’t, we blame it on the textbook.
Most textbooks nowadays are similar in content and they offer similar additional resources. What makes the difference is the teacher who was assigned the difficult task to bring this textbook to life and make sure students do learn from using the textbook as reference.
It is up to the teacher to test, try, adapt, modify, eliminate, replace whatever he or she thinks may help his or her students the most. We can take listening or reading activities and turn them into projects, worksheets, quizzes, etc. and make sure students do benefit from them. WE can exploit the four skills just by modifying one listening task, for example.
Let the book be your guide not your jailer.
Hello Lidia,
DeleteI agree with you when you say that we sometimes as teachers need to adapt the material presented in order to accomplish the learning goals. It is the teacher's responsibility not the texbook's, to make the learning process meaningful.
We all know that textbooks have been designed to provide teachers as sources of ideas for classroom activities and suppplementary material. All textbooks help teachers managing a lesson, by helping them save some time, we can say that they provide confidence to the teacher who is following the curriculum. On the other hand, students see the textbooks as a guide that can assist them in their learning process since they use the book inside and outside the clasroom and because of this, they can have more chances to review/reinforce the topics studied.
ReplyDeleteWe as teachers know that a book can be modified or adapted according to the learner’s need. Having said that, if a book has all the answer to all the questions, what I should do as a teacher is make sure that my students are actively involved in other activities for example, in problem,-solving activities or additional ones related to the topic studied in class. Remember that books are only a tool and we as teacher have to look for different resources to make their process meaningful.
Any textbook by itself is just that, “a textbook”. Classes are not taught by textbooks, a class is led by a teacher and it is what is depending on what the teacher does with it. It is another tool a teacher has to give structure and sequence required to comply with the curriculum. Institutions set textbooks not only to guide students, but to keep control of what teachers do in class and to ensure completion of a program by the end of a term. Students need to have a textbook, first as a guide in class to follow the teacher’s explanations and also to help them reinforce topics outside the classrooms. Even teachers benefit of having textbooks assigned to their classes as they are of great help at the time of planning in terms of teacher manuals and textbook additional resources. As a teacher, I can only see advantages of having a textbook. However, I also understand that these are not straitjackets, and that it all depends on how I use it to make it become a successful tool or just a disengaging element. I have to understand that my responsibility is to find the best way to exploit the material the book presents and go beyond what the teacher manual recommends. At certain points, my experience as a teacher and the knowledge I have of my group of students can give me the criteria to decide what’s best for my students like if I should modify or omit a topic or an exercise or complement with additional material. In many occasions, as a teacher, I know I can even extend an exercise and decide to use it differently to exploit other skills. From my point of view then, it all depends on what the teacher does with the book. Many, if not all, of the problems presented in the chart refer to the strategies a teacher can use in order to ensure the best use of the textbook. For example, when you refer to:
ReplyDeletea. The textbook as a sole source of information: We, teachers, know that we must complement what the book has with different sources when planning our class. This will even help us anticipate some of doubts students may encounter during the process and help us get ready to clarify them.
In general, we can see that it is all in the hands of the teacher’s attitude and sense of responsibility to find solutions for each and every topic. It is more of variety and flexibility when planning classes than just blaming a textbook for having or not having the proper material to ensure achievement of class goals.