[etni] Fwd: re: unofficial coursebook survey
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- To: Etni <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 30 Oct 2011 06:28:08 +0200
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Leah Urso <morahleah@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: unofficial coursebook survey
When I was in America I volunteered to do a Hadassah program called
"Hello Israel". We visited schools in my state of Tennessee to teach
kids about Israel, to give them a positive outlook and to get them
interested in visiting Israel. We began the presentation by comparing
Israel to Tennessee. For instance, we began by showing them a map of
Tennessee that held four Israels inside to show how small Israel is.
We compared an Israeli school day to a Tennessee school day. We
compared what kids do for fun in Israel to Tennessee. You get the
idea. This is called "scaffolding", and if our textbooks don't have
this built in, we as teachers can introduce our lessons like this to
help the students make sense of the text. I agree with Laurie that
most textbooks are sorely lacking, which is why good teachers don't
rely solely on a textbook. Some of us should get together and write
our own!
Leah Urso
Laurie wrote:
> For quite some time, I've been hearing from teachers, especially in
> the Bedouin Sector, that many of the coursebook units are unsuitable
> for their pupils. The topics are far from their lives and the kids
> just don't connect and this leads to their disconnecting.
>
> Of course, we want to expose our pupils to new things, broaden their
> horizons. But we must also take into account their "home base". If
> they have no anchor, then the kids will just sail away and we lose
> them.
>
> Many teachers have also commented on the photographs of young people
> included in the books. None of them look like the kids in their
> classes! Names of kids....places mentioned..nothing that makes them
> feel at home while learning a foreign language.
>
> Perhaps there are other teachers who feel the same. I'd like to hear
> from you. Please be specific and refer to the coursebook and unit.
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