TEACHING WITHOUT BOOKS

TEACHING WITHOUT BOOKS OR PHOTOCOPIES

A Teaching Method

By Deborah Brooks

How to use student input

instead of prepared materials

in the classroom.

CONCEPT:

Think of a situation where your students would need to use a given grammar point or vocabulary.

Create that situation in the classroom.

If you can’t think of a real situation where they would use it, DON’T TEACH IT!

ESL students bring a wealth of life experience and physical items into the classroom.

Whenever possible use the real thing rather than a made-up situation. Ask students to describe what they’re wearing, what their future dreams are, what they would probably be doing if they weren’t here right now, what they’ll be doing at 6:00 tonight, where their shirt was made, what time they start and finish work, how they felt when they arrived here, the story of a real robbery, or anything else that will elicit a use of the desired tense, word order, vocabulary, or grammar point.

“Involve the Students in the Lesson”
I started promoting this method after two experiences. The first was when I was in graduate school. I observed a High School level ESL class where the teacher was teaching geography. She had trouble keeping the students’ attention while explaining the latitude and longitude of New Orleans, a place where none of them had been, and many had never heard of. She placed her “problem student” by me as a form of control. I asked him where he was from. I asked him to tell me the latitude and longitude of his home town. He was immediately involved, interested and excited. He ended up in front of the class showing everyone where he was from. The teacher had people from all over the world in her class, but didn’t think to use their wealth of experience to make this lesson real.

The second was when I substituted for a very experienced teacher. We were working on passive voice. I worked through several worksheets with them so they got the basic form of the verbs. Then I said, “OK, put the papers away. Have any of you been robbed?” And we spent the rest of the time making police reports in the passive voice. “I was robbed.” “My watch was stolen.” When I saw the teacher again, she told me how much the students had raved about the lesson - that they GOT it. It made sense to them. She asked me, “How do you do that?”

Well, I will tell you now. Your students have experience that is different from yours. In some cases they have much more life experience than you do. Use it! Have enough respect for them to ask about their lives. Really involve the students in the lesson. You will be amazed how much you can learn from them if you ask - and really listen to the answers!

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