[etni] Re: etni Digest V9 #289
- From: Resource Room <englishrr@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:26:47 +0200
I have this problem teaching religious middle school students. Some of the
textbooks for learning to read are pretty neutral, with animal
characters going to school and learning colors and numbers, etc. However, I
would be happy to see an Eric Cohen book for adolescents without mention of
television, movies, mixed parties, etc. I resorted to using textbooks
designed for Chareidi students, but I often hear the complaint that they
are boring. I end up supplementing a lot with both extra reading passages
and extra grammar worksheets that I either make up or photocopy. Sometimes
I spend so much time creating materials that my husband tells me to just
write my own textbook. As Leah said, though, no good teacher can rely just
on the textbook. Even a good textbook needs to be adapted to the needs of
individual classes and students and brought alive in the classroom through
activities, etc.
Miriam
>
> 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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