Are you an ELT who ONLY use textbooks in class? Do you consider yourself a textbook-dependent teacher?
It’s quite common for Language teachers to use textbooks in their classrooms specially if your academy asks you to follow it and prepare students for special exams, the problem begins when you start depend on it, instead of using it like another classroom tool.
There are many reasons for this dependence, but the most popular one among us, is the lack of time to prepare a proper lesson, to include other activities and resources with all the marking, meetings, tutoring hours, fulfilling the objectives of the program, etc and ugly truth we all face in our every day’s routine.
However, how do you think our students feel by having lessons which start with “Open your book on page 20,” after a few minutes: “Turn to the next page,” and finally: “Now, let’s finish with exercise 4 on page 22.” every lesson the same way! They feel completely discouraged! I wonder if even many of us have got overwhelmingly bored by having done this demotivating practice.
There are some practical ideas that won’t imply so much extra work, but there is only one condition we must fulfil: Choose the most meaningful ones that adapts to you and/or your student’s needs. Knowing your students is the key to this business, right?
- Include more games: board games, card games like memory, questions and answers with a ball, bingo, domino or tic-tac-toe. These are more communicative, and the students will appreciate this change. In fact, I absolutely believe learning will be more effective.
- Use online r printable resources, which are much more fun and interactive, instead of those monotonous grammar exercises in the books. There are some webpages that provide amusing and challenging activities for all ages, such as Kahoot, Wordwall, Boomcards, Genially and/or find something cool on Teachers pay teachers.
- Cut irrelevant activities: If you feel that a reading activity in your textbook is meaningless or irrelevant for your kids, don’t feel afraid of changing the text and present them one which is more in appropriate with their interests and likes.
- Substitute with group games and activities: that “fill-in exercise” with a group game or a debate. It’s just a change of format. I have done it, and it works! You can even use some of the same questions from the book and add others of your own. Write them in color cards, divide the class into groups, and voila… the game starts! I can assure that your students will enjoy it much more.
Let’s make our lessons relevant to our kids with activities that hook their attention and lead them to get involved through fun and meaning, considering their ages, levels and interests. Don’t stick to the books as the only source of exercises and tasks. If you feel that you lack resources, I invite you to check out the most treasures ELT’s secret revealed where you will find a large number of games and thematic units that you could use in your classes. And don’t forget to subscribe to MY NEWSLETTER where you’ll receive a purposeful freebie every month to help you with your classes and your no-time-to-planning life.
