MAGAZINES IN THE CLASSROOM

Magazines as well as newspapers provide a great number of different activities to be used in the ESL classroom.

They are a rich source of authentic materials and can be very motivating and inspire a wide range of activities, just like newspapers.

They are also a good supply to help students develop language as they provide pictures which can estimulate verbal or written stories.

They can be used to introduced different kinds of topics, like colours, clothes means of transport, short stories, stimulating picture discussions.

If we ESL teachers bring magazines inside the classroom, we’ll estimulate our class interest in British and/or American culture.

MAGAZINES IN THE CLASSROOM

Certainly the type of magazine we’ll use with our class will depend much upon the type of students we have, anyways teen-magazines and language ones are good.

Tips:

Use the cover image to brainstorm words associated with the picture

Look at the headlines on the cover to predict the main topics featured inside.

Choose the best cover from a selection of 4 magazines.

We can also use whole magazines with activities suc as :

MAGAZINES IN THE CLASSROOM

making students skim through the whole publication, list the topics covered, write the key headlines from all main feature articles on the board and dictate a list of topics or themes, etc.

We can also let the students choose what they like.

Magazines can also be used as a means to work with comprehension, by using graded language magazines to check comprehension with lower levels and authentic magazines for intermediate level and up.

Even lower levels can do tasks describing pictures and finding pictures in a magazine even if they are not yet proficient enough to read a real English magazine.

BOOKS IN THE CLASSROOM Role of books and literature is crucial in modern life as well, a driving

force in education, business, law, science, medicine and entertainment.

They are our heritage.

Students gain the legacy of knowledge earned by those who came before.

People of all ages find information, pleasure, relaxation and inspiration while reading books.

Books lack the immediacy of other mass media, but they make up for that by greater thoroughness and permanence

Books are saved and treasured in great public libraries and in personal collections. Readers go back to famous books, rereading them again and again.

They are among the most enduring of the mass media. Some people save them for years, and libraries save them for centuries.

BOOKS IN THE CLASSROOM “People die, books never die”. (Roosevelt)

Literature: 1. stories, poems, and plays, especially those that are considered to have value

as art and not just entertainment (c) Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 2003.

2. literary texts are products that reflect different aspects of society. They are cultural documents which offer a deeper understanding of a country or countries (Basnet & Mounfold 1993).

Reasons to use Literature:

a) Literature is authentic material.

b) Literature encourages interaction.

c) Literature expands language awareness.

d) Literature educates the whole person.

e) Literature is motivating.

BOOKS IN THE CLASSROOM Different models of teaching literature in class

The cultural model views a literary text as a product treated as a source of information about the target culture.

The language model aims to be more learner-centered. It aims to be more learner-centered, they come to grips with the meaning and increase their general awareness of English.

The personal growth model is also a process-based approach and tries to be more learner-centered. Learners encouraged to draw on their own opinions, feelings and personal experiences. It aims for interaction between the text and the reader in English, helping make the language more memorable.

How to plan a lesson.

Stage one: warmer

a) Devise a warmer that gets students thinking about the topic of the extract or poem.

BOOKS IN THE CLASSROOM

a) Devise a warmer that looks at the source of the literature that will be studied.

Stage two: before readinga) Pre-teaching very difficult wordsb) Predicting.c) Giving students a “taste”.

Stage three: understanding the text, general comprehension-

a) Read the whole thing to the students so that they can get more of a “feel” for the text.

b) Set comprehension questions or ask them to explain the significance of certain key words of the text.

Stage four: understanding the languagea) See how many of the unfamiliar words students can get from context.b) Look at certain elements of style that the author has used.c) Look at the connotation of words which the author has chosen.

BOOKS IN THE CLASSROOM Stage five: follow up activities

Using poems: have students read each other the poem aloud at the same time, checking for each other’s pronunciation and rhythm…

Using extracts from stories or short stories: Ask students to write what they think will happen next, or what they think happened just before…

Using extracts from plays: Ask students to act out a part of the scene in groups.

Possible problems we can face once we decide to use literature.

1. Where can we get material? This is easy to answer, the web is the place where we can get instant access to many literature material;

www.bookbrowse.com www.readersread.comwww.blackliterature.comwww.favoritepoem.org

www.emule.com/poetry

BOOKS IN THE CLASSROOM

Choosing material: (Think of the following.)Do you understand enough about the text to feel comfortable using it?Is there enough time to work on the text in class?Does it fit with the rest of your syllabus?Is it something that could be relevant to the learners?Will it be motivating for them?How much cultural or literary background do the learners need to be able to deal with the tasks?Is the level of language in the text too difficult (see below)

Text difficulty: Learners can be trained to infer meaning of difficult words from context. The selection of a text must be given careful thought, but also the treatment of the text by the teacher (this means think about the tasks you set for a reading of a piece of literature, not just the text).

How to Adapt a Text

1. Find a reading comprehension text in your textbook/the internet that is appealing to your students for its thematic content

2. Make of list of no more than 10 difficult vocabulary items which you plan to teach.

3. Isolate the challenging concept or theme of the text.

4. Simplify the text (if necessary) using simpler ways of saying things.

5. Design appropriate reading activities.

6. Teach vocabulary.

7. Distribute the "new" reading comprehension text and conduct your reading lesson as planned.

How to Adapt Textbook Activities in an ESL Class1. Decide what content or which topics need adapting in light of the reading texts

and activities.

2. Before you go ahead and change some of the activities particularly the reading activities, consider rewriting parts or all of the texts.

3. Take a look at those textbook activities in your textbooks and redesign them in light of the amount of the activity itself.

4. Cater to the level of difficulty of the task. The teacher can adapt the task to suit all three levels: lower, middle and stronger.

5. Decide how you want to engage your students.