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40 Combined Skills Lessons for the Common European Framework |  By Lynda Edwards (Scholastic Editions):
This book consists of 40 double pages (all photocopiable) for Teachers of ESL.
Half of the book contains lessons to develop reading and writing skills and the other half contains lessons to develop oral skills.
A CD is included.
This book is from the collection "Timesavers", very famous among ESL teachers. So you're thinking "great, I will save time, my lessons will be easier and quicker to prepare!". Well, it's not that simple.
The CD tracks are interesting, that's for sure. It ranges from dialogues, to ads, announcements, interviews... all usable in the classroom.
The lesson plans are disappointing. They mainly consists of small activities around a subject. The pupil often has to tick, complete, choose, circle, etc. But nowhere he/she is trained in an efficient way to the different skills. I find the activities too superficial and not long or varied enough to allow a real training.
How is the European Framework implemented? Well, you do have "can do checklists" at the end of each lesson. They are meant for the pupils to visualise what he has learned and what he can do now. Unfortunately, once again, this is too superficial. It's not based on a real extended work, just on small activities and that is a major problem for me.
There are also so-called "tasks" at the end of each lesson. There are not uninteresting but I'm just wondering if the pupils will be able to do them in an efficient way if they had just done basic (not too demanding) activities beforehand.
Well, there are some nice ideas and activities to take and integrate in your own lesson plans but I don't think you can consider this as a tool which will replace all your lesson-planning!!!
My rating: 2/5 |
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