1. Personalising
Course books
Margaret Horrigan

2. Person
books

3. Person
books

4. Person
books
Teacher
Students
VIPs

5. Person books Teacher Students VIPs
Colin Farrell becomes Jack Nicholson

6. Does he have a healthy lifestyle?

7. Does Leo have a good lifestyle?
…the text refers to Jack Nicholson and not Leonardo Di Caprio!!!!
I’ve used it with Ben Affleck, Colin Farrell and Brad Pitt
I use it as a listening/reconstruction….not a reading!!!
English File Pre-Intermediate

8. Person books Teacher Students VIPs
TASP based on a reading or listening text

9. This is something I did in class without ever getting the students to get the book out of their bags…what did they do in class?
B1 Cosmic

10. Three groups…As Bs and Cs…they read the MC options aloud after hearing the questions (cut HO up accordingly so that groups only see THEIR option)…
Other ways of involving the learners in this type of quiz:
MCs on BB or around the room…categorising MCs, brainstorming possible Qs before the quiz takes place
YLs get only MCs and the Qs are in word bubbles on the board
Follow up tasks:
Students create own quizzes for each other or for the teacher
Students move around the room saying the wrong or right full answers to peers who decide whether wrong or right in a short ‘That’s right/wrong’ or complete correct answer…a reason to listen in a drill type activity
DON’T KEEP DRILLS LIKE THE ABOVE GOING FOR MORE THAN A COUPLE OF MINUTES!!!!
Cosmic B1

11. Person
books
Teacher
Students
VIPs
The magic twin solution!

12. B1 Cosmic Teacher becomes the protagonist…
Changed some pronouns to ‘we’ and obviously ‘Alex’ became ‘Margaret’….the YLs only realised it wasn’t true when they saw the story in their coursebooks
Photos help to build the illusion
B1 Cosmic

13. Person
books

14. Person
books
Contents page
Appendices
Tables
Page layout

15. Person books Contents page Appendices Tables Page layout
Linking up different chapters units modules based on G/V/Topic…workshop moment…
Brainstorm the grammar, vocabulary, topics you’d expect to find in a course book for 7-9 year olds
How could the three areas link up or be recycled?
Here is an example of how I do this with new books… (next slide)
Page layout

16. Syllabus and the contents pages of course books for cyclical and personalised lessons
Look at the contents page of your coursebook and what assumptions/links can you make?

17. Person
books
Contents page
Appendices
Tables
Page layout

18. New English File Upper Intermediate

19. What examples can you provide of…?
Reorganising exercises…an example of not following the layout of the page
HO of NEFUI for participants to ‘reorganise’ and justify
What verbs connected to ‘flying’ do you know and how might they appear in a text about a plane crash?

20. Compact Preliminary for Schools
Explain the situation of how I had to cover for the Dante school group and a chit chat conversation with Silvia in corridor before lesson led to a real ont he spot LP and coursebook adaptation:
Make a list of as mnay sports as you can in 1 minute
Describe and guess
Dictation of paragraph Stds As and Bs with other paragraph covered up
Whats the text about
Correct your dictation against the original
Read and complete with the word
Using the pieces of paper used to cover the other paragraph (see 3 above) fold into four pieces, separate and write an ‘unkown word’ from the text on each piece
Teacher gathers in all papers
Teacher reads the word aloud and teams compete to provide the correct definition in English using the text in front of them to infer meaning!
BB: If you want to compete you have to be….» finish the sentence
FB of ideas
Choose the end ….a good loser/a bad loser?
Chose the start of the sentence «a good loser/a bad loser «…ex 2, 1-10 on page 18
Students listen and decide which type of loser it is…
Students open their books and match
Students complete exercise 3 page 18 and check
Teacher puts a list of 6/7 sports from warmer on the BB
«Your school has decided to set up a new sport team to encourage students to interact together. These are the ideas (BB) that have been suggested. Talk together and decide whic sport would be best for the school and why. Talk together.
THAT WAS A FULL 90 MINUTE LESSON!!!
Compact Preliminary for Schools

21. YOUR TURN!!! How might the different tasks be shuffled around in order to make the children become more involved?
Project English 3

22. Person
books
Contents page
Appendices
Tables
Page layout

23. Grading up and down… New Cutting Edge Elementary
What could you do with these words?
4x4 tic tac toe in phonemic script
Split into 2/4 groups and define&guess/spelling tests
Categorise the words and justify why
What is the opposite of each word?
ONE TO DEMO:
Choose 3 words and write an open question for each word you chose, for eg. What can we do to make parking less difficult in Rome?
Move around the room asking as many people as possible your questions….
THIS IS PRACTISING QUESTIONS AND SHORT ANSWERS….WORKING FROM WHAT STUDENTS KNOW
A WAY TO GRADE THE TASK DOWN IS TO WRITE CLOSED QUESTIONS….remember this is from an elementary book. The questions could also be in word bubbles on the board
New Cutting Edge Elementary

24. Person
books
Contents page
Appendices
Tables
Page layout

25. Find someone who thinks the same as you…
New Headway Intermediate

26. Pair testing

27. Things to keep in mind… Course book instructions are not laws
The page layout is a jigsaw of thought processes…you can change the pieces as you too have an informed opinion!
New book? How do the contents link up within the book and other books you’ve used? Plot these trends out on paper!!!
The workbook might have better receptive skills texts than the course book…check it out!

28. Thanks for coming!