Teaching without coursebooks
I had a chance to participate in the second webinar and I would like to comment on it. The webinar, conducted by the teacher working in the public kindergarten in Poland, was about teaching without a course book. The teacher doesn't use the course book because she doesn't like using it. Besides, she is trying to follow a general curriculum; when teachers from the kindergarten are talking about winter, she is also trying to prepare an English lesson on similar topic.
The teacher talks about shortcomings of course books, for example, taking out and putting back books takes time as well as children are already sitting a lot at the table. However, the teacher mentions also the following advantages: there are ready-made lesson plans or ideas for activities so it saves teacher's time; course books are usually colourful and include stickers, which children are obsessed with. Nevertheless, the teacher refers to two course books which she could potentially use such as Mini Bingo and Hello Kids. She values those books for providing teachers with lots of materials, for example, flashcards.
The teacher suggests what could be used instead of a course book including:
- portable speaker and phone with songs
- self-made (laminated) flashcards
- laminated paper and whiteboard marker
- resources already available in the classroom
- books for children.
Then, the teachers shares numerous books, for example, books by Herve Tullet (Press Here, Mix It Up, The Finger Sport Game), wordless books by Aleksandra and Daniel Mizieliński, books for sensory stimulation with interactive elements, books with pop ups or books with children's rhymes and poems.
According to the teacher, some of the advantages of using books are:
- they convey the meaning though both pictures and words at the same time
- they help to develop children's reading skills and positively influence their reading habits
- they allow teachers to show children the variety of books.
How about you Dear Reader, would you like to use a course book in your classroom?
What is your favourite children's book?
Angelika
Hi Angelika! Answering your question - one of my favourite children's books is "Big Book of Fears" by Emily Gravett. She is an amazing author. I also really liked those ones which our presenter has shown. In my opinion we are never too old or too young for the literature. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Zuzia,
DeleteThank you for your comment.
I definielty need to read the book which you recommended. I really love children's literature and I agree with you that we are never too old. People should always remember about their inner child, to have fun and forget about troubles :)
Hello Angelika,
ReplyDeleteI would like to answer to your questions with the proposition from Aleksandra and Daniel Mizieliński. It is a really good idea to provide a book just with graphics and pictures and leave the rest of the story preparation in the teacher's hands. When teaching children in kindergarten I would prefer using such kind of books than some coursebook which might be boring for children and not let me use my imagination to prepare some lessons. I think playing and entertainment is a better way to introduce young learners to the English language ;)