CHOOSING THE PROPER COURSEBOOK

ASK YOURSELVES ...........

• Is the layout and design user-friendly for both teacher & student?
• Is the material well organized topically and grammatically?
• Are the topics engaging and interesting?
• Does the book sufficiently cover all four skills? Is the coverage balanced?
• Does the material get progressively more difficult and is this progression clear and functional for use in your class?
• Are the topics cognitively challenging for the age level you will be teaching?
• Does the book re-enter taught material such as vocabulary, grammar, and skills throughout the book to facilitate real internalization?
• Is there a practice book? Can it be used for homework, in class only, or both? Do the exercises in the practice book build upon what is covered in the course book or do they just act as fillers to the program?
• What components are included in the program i.e. are there CDs with games, tests and/or interactive reading passages and questions. Do these cost extra?
• Will you be using supplementary books along with the course book and how many weekly hours do you have to teach this class?
• Can the book easily act as a reference for students and not function wholly as a teacher-centered course?
• Does the book provide opportunities for learner- strategy-instruction which is much needed in Bagrut preparation courses?

Teacher's Guide Analysis

• A TEACHER'S GUIDE should outline the rationale and methodology of the program. This can help you decide if it is in sync with your own style of methodology or not.
• A TEACHER'S GUIDE should clearly use step by step induction and modeling of the process taught in the course book to facilitate implementation of the activities.
• TEACHER'S GUIDES ideally should have additional ideas for extra and/or alternative activities and additional materials for the teacher to complement the program.

And finally…

Checklist:

• Do I agree with the rationale?
• Do I like what I see (layout, design)?
• Do I understand the goals, the process?
• Can I easily implement the activities and tasks in the classroom?
• Is there enough scaffolding in the process to achieve the designated goals? For example: contextualized grammar exercises of different levels of difficulty, scaffolded writing tasks, varied text types, scaffolded reading practice (phonics), layout, format, level of interest, reliability.
• Will my pupils get a sense of enjoyment/achievement/challenge with this course book?
• Can I easily monitor my pupils' achievements and thus chart the success/failure of the program?
• Can I see myself getting up in the morning to work with this course book day in and day out?

• Choose a number of course books for the same target audience.

• Critique these books according to your list of criteria. Score them on a scale from 1-10.

• Modify your list of criteria as needed.