Is your coursebook ever too difficult for your learners? Do you sometimes find the topics and texts are not appropriate or relevant? Do your learners get bored with the coursebook? Perhaps you don’t have a coursebook or very many resources at all. These are just some of the situations when it is helpful to make or adapt materials and resources. Coursebooks and other ready-made materials have many advantages; however, they are produced for a large national or international audience, which means they are not written for your particular learners or for what you want as a teacher. Learning can be far more powerful when we introduce materials and topics of local interest and start from what the learners know, like and have experienced. Teachers also adapt materials to make them more interesting, add more communication or personalise them (i.e. use the topic/language to talk about learners’ own experiences and feelings).
Sarah is a new English teacher. She has made a worksheet for her 11- to 12-year-old learners.
How can she improve the worksheet?
Answer the questions. Then write about yourself.
How old are you?
How many brothers and sisters have you got?
What subjects do you like at school?
What sports are you good at?
What job do you want to have?
Reflection
How could you adapt this worksheet to make the content more appropriate for and relatable to your learners, e.g. using hobbies and jobs they know and understand?
How could you adapt the activities so that the learners are encouraged to communicate and speak?
How do you usually make worksheets? Do you usually handwrite them or use a word processor? What do you find easy/difficult?
