Share a Page of Your Future Textbook
Share a Page of Your Future Textbook by Walton Burns from Branford, CT, USA.
Originally posted at English Advantage: Share a Page of Your Future Textbook
A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit.” - Richard Bach
Welcome! This year the 30 Goals Challenge for Educators is on a world tour and I am happy to be your Inspire Leader for this part of the journey. So welcome to my town, Branford, Connecticut. I invite you to accomplish the following goal: Share a Page from Your Future Textbook.
Different Ways to Accomplish This Goal
Design a page from a textbook of your own creation. It could be a printable handout for students or an on-line eBook with videos and interactive activities.
Think about a textbook only you could create. What is your big idea about the best way to teach students? Create one page of that textbook.
Take a lesson or activity that works well with students and re-imagine it as a page in a textbook.
Pick a page from your textbook that you think could be improved and rewrite it to match your needs.
Like any professional textbook, you might want to include any combination of discussion questions, a reading, a listening, pictures, grammar, vocabulary, cultural notes, speaking activities as well as design elements like titles, subtitles, diagrams, a color scheme and decorations.
Your students can: Rewrite a page of the textbook that they think could be better.
Take a text and prepare a worksheet or presentation teaching this text to the class
Prepare their own practice worksheet to help students review a grammar point or vocabulary
I would also encourage them to think about the design and look of their products so that they end up with something professional looking. My Reflection This all started with a challenge from Jason Renshaw to create a unit of class material. It got me to thinking why more teachers don't create their own materials.
I can't tell you how many times I have stayed up late Googling "Present perfect grammar practice" trying to find the perfect worksheet for my students. And they are rarely exactly what I want so I give them to students with caveats: "Don't do #5, we haven't covered that usage yet. I don't agree with #6 I think present simple works here too. Just conjugate the verbs, don't do the other part". It would be so much easier to just make my own worksheet to give my students. Obviously time is a big limitation but it would sometimes be much faster to do something myself rather than search and search and then adapt. And then it would be exactly what my students want. Plus, presenting my students with a nice well-thought out lesson or worksheet, maybe something with a bit of color and a clip art to make it look as nice as the textbook might impress them. It would show the students how much time I put into prepping lessons for them.
As I've been moving from teaching to writing, I've discovered that most of the coursebook writers are in fact teachers. And that some of the materials and ideas shared with me by my fellow teachers are just as good as those I've found in textbooks. So I challenge you to tap into your creative side and create not even a whole unit, but one page of a textbook. And I encourage you to make it look professional and shiny and well laid out just like a professionally published textbook. Who knows, it might lead to a new career as a materials writer!
Resources
Learning Twigs has some great ideas for layout and design and tons of blank templates you could start with.
Ribbon Hero 2 is a game from Microsoft that teaches you some nifty tricks with Word including design tricks.
Another course on designing in Word
My entry to the unit challenge, a course unit on mysteries. This is a whole unit so I wouldn't expect your page to look like this obviously.
A page from my teacher resource book of the future
A huge resource of teacher created worksheets for inspiration.
Different ways to design or even publish a book online
About Branford
By Becca Pie
Branford is not one of the more famous places in Connecticut and Connecticut is not one of the more famous states. But Branford was once the Strawberry Capital of Connecticut and our strawberries, raspberries and blueberries are excellent. It's also home to the Lobster Shack which serves Connecticut style lobster rolls--no lettuce or mayo, just chunks of lobster sautéed in butter on a roll. The dossant (much better than a cronut) was invented here. Beyond food, this is where Yale University was founded and home of the famous Thimble Islands. So we may be a small town in a small state but we have our pride!
Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed your stay.
Find out more about The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators at 30Goals.com and join our 30 Goals Facebook community!
