Does anyone have any English textbook recommendations appropriate for high school students with lower to mid English ability? I’ve been tasked with leading a class this year that meets four times a week because my JTE is incompetent outside of (sometimes) helping with translation stuff.
This class is considered more of an “extra” English course (students volunteered to take it over an extra math or home-ec class), so there is no textbook, but creating my own curriculum has been taking up way too much time and energy. If I had some sort of textbook I could use as a guide, with activities, etc, it would be a huge help, and I’m more than happy to supplement with my own lesson plans and projects, just having to start completely from scratch has made things rough thus far, but I’ve managed to scrape by.
Anyone else ever been in a similar situation, and how did you cope? For reference, this is a second year class for students on a less academically focused track (not planning on going to college, but rather specialty school or working right out of hs).
All advice or textbook recommendations would be greatly helpful. If you have a similar course at your school, what textbook do you use?
Thanks!
8 comments
Can you check your English supply room to see what’s available? That’s bound to be easier than getting your school to order something for you in August. You’d be surprised at what many schools have just sitting in their storage rooms – even “sample” books that the school decided not to go with.
Do you want to help them with speaking in particular?
Here’s two options:
1. Choose the appropriate level of Q: Skills for success from OUP (probably level 1 for A1)
2. Choose repeatable activities that build basic skills with enough depth that they don’t get boring, and follow the exact same lesson plan in every class. I’m academic HS and my class is 3rd years so you can’t do what I do but for reference, we speed read one of Sonia Millet’s 400 word passages, have a 1 minute speaking warm-up on an easy topic, tell our partner this week’s news (partner summarizes back) do 10 minutes if listening, then finish with 5-10mins of journal writing, which I reply to. Prep for this class literally consists of me copying the readings, and picking something to read aloud for them to listen to, which takes about half an hour. You could also just use listening from elllo
Good luck
ALTopedia has textbook listings, [here] (https://www.altopedia.net/jhs) is the JHS page. It might be useful for you to give you and idea of what each textbook has, and activities for each. Chances are most people won’t have experience of lots so might not be able to compare them directly for you, though hopefully I’m wrong on that one.
Have you asked your JTE (if you have any *other* JTE’s) what they reccomend? Or failing that your BOE?
I haven’t been in your situation, but if they’re planning on going straight to work I’d keep it cultural, and conversational. Less memorising grammar points and more learning about countries that English is spoken in, and trying to get them to use it rather than just writing. I had a teacher do this when I was in school and it worked great. Nobody cared about passing the class, so the teacher just spent way more time on the stuff that was just generally interesting, rather than trying to drill grammar.
You have to make 4 unique lessons a week for a single class? Dude, that’s insane!
[https://americanenglish.state.gov/resources/monster-book-language-teaching-activities](https://americanenglish.state.gov/resources/monster-book-language-teaching-activities)
The Monster Book isn’t really a textbook, but it is a big book of activity ideas.
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[https://eltngl.com/sites/pathways/about](https://eltngl.com/sites/pathways/about)
Pathways from Nat Geo has some interesting topics/questions that can maybe be used in class. (It’s not hard to find copies online)
[https://www.kirihara.co.jp/product/detail/211874/](https://www.kirihara.co.jp/product/detail/211874/)
But, the one I recommend the most is maybe something like: What’s Up for SDGs. Not a textbook per se (we give it out as summer homework), but it has great stories and questions, and you can build on them to make fun activities based on the topic. They’re also really cheap so I’m sure your school can buy you a copy. Each topic can easily last a week or more depending on your pacing and activities.
Even with the best textbooks, you’ll experience burn out doing that many lessons. Like the others said, try to make sure this is not a permanent thing. This is def something a JTE should do. Good luck
I usually teach a small English conversation elective class for 2nd year HS students. It focuses on listening and speaking. We use this textbook called “My Passport,” which focuses on small real world dialogues like exchanging money, going out to eat, shopping, etc. Hopefully you can look it up online, and good luck!
Not a textbook but the British Council ESL site has been useful for me when I’ve had to pick up extra classes. Lots of real life context lesson plans e.g. ordering food in a cafe, planning a trip to the cinema. I like their listening comprehension exercises a lot.
Wordly Wise!! Incorporates vocab, grammar, reading comprehension, and cultural knowledge in each lesson! Great resource!
Start incorporating projects that will take multiple classes to finish. Show and tell, foreign culture presentation, summer vacation, etc. Introduce it in one lesson, give them a lesson free prepare time or make posters, then 1 to 2 classes to test.