Don't like workbook/student book... what would you do?

[hydraides]

I am teaching M4,M5,M6 English in a government school

 

This new years things changed, and now its moved over from english to the thai program, meaning our employer won't by my classes any workbooks/student books, which is  a disgrace btw!

 

Luckily the school department till had some left over. M4 books are fine to use.

 

M5/M6 books , i just cannot stand. Each Unit in the book has 1-2 of good content, new vocabulary etc but then it has maybe 5-6 pages of grammer activities. If I do this with students is just going to be boring as hell for them 

 

It is also making it difficult because I can't plan my lessons when one particular subject goes on for like 4-5 pages of the workbook. 

 

I'm thinking I should just miss out pages of the workbook, maybe tell the students to do it for homework.

 

I am using GATEWAY BOOK A2 btw

 

[puchooay]

You are teaching English to high school students. A number of them will likely have poor communication skills.

 

Forget the books. Make your own conversation lesson plans. Get the students to bring a notebook for writing in.

 

Choose every expressions; "Where are you going?", " What are you doing?", "Where have you been?". Three phrases that Thais use each and every day.

 

Building conversations from these three questions is easy but will open up a Pandora's box of potential vocabulary that can be learnt and used.

[onlycw]

I love the answer by P. Teach them phrases, not single words. And forget grammar - it's all about communicating! 

 

Role play, practical stuff like ordering food, asking directions, booking a hotel room. 

 

Try to make it fun. Try to get them to speak.

 

An hour a week? That's already a lost cause, I'm afraid.

[Isaanbiker]

   If somebody could increase your English skills with a few sentences of advice, it would be beneficial for you. Grammer? 

 

By, instead of buy?, english and thai not capitalized? And a lot more mistakes an English teacher should never make. 

 

  Unfortunately, is it not possible to somehow transfer teaching experience, knowing what material you should use, even without having books.

 

  Use the topics that are of interest and create your worksheets that are suitable for their level of English.

 

  The internet is full of free worksheets; perhaps you should spend some time there to look around. Busy teacher is just one of them, ESL collectives and many more are easy to find on the web. 

 

   Is it possible that the M 5-M/6 books are somehow just too tricky for you to comprehend? Teach them what's useful and make them speak.

 

   Divide them into groups and let them compete against each other is way better than filling out some missing words their own teacher might not even know how to pronounce correctly. 

 

Forget the homework; it's wasted time as around 80 to 90 % are just copying it from a classmate. 

 

BTW, I'm not a grammar Nazi, nor is it in my interest to criticize others, but it's definitely time to work on your own English skills first.