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Selecting
Texts for the Adult ESL Classroom: Part 3 Questions to Consider (page
1 of 2)
Oliva Fernandez, Marketing
Director, Adult and Higher
Education
(This article is excerpted and
adapted
from a monograph by MaryAnn
Florez, series consultant for Pearson Longman's Center
Stage. Florez is
currently director for the Adult Education Professional Development
Center for DC LEARNS,
a coalition of adult education and literacy providers in the District
of Columbia.)
In last month's article we offered a
downloadable checklist to use as you evaluate textbooks. We also
provide a list of questions to keep in mind during
the text selection process.
This month we look at three of these questions in more detail.
1. Are
the materials a match for the program and
overall logistics?
Questions in this category examine a range of points,
from global issues that will determine if the text is a
match for the program’s philosophies and instructional
focus (e.g., scope, sequence, topics, language skills
represented, standards to which the text is correlated)
to logistical points, such as whether a series or a
stand-alone text is desired and what price range is
manageable.
To demonstrate the range within these questions, we
can look at two issues in particular:
- correlations to
standards
- deciding whether to choose a
series or
to match individual texts to levels in the program
A
textbook should not simply be correlated after the fact
to specific state and national standards such as CASAS,
BEST, SCANS, EFF, or state model standards, but they
should be created with those standards incorporated
in the development process. Because standards relate
to the definitions and measuring of outcomes that
programs must acknowledge, selecting a textbook
that is correlated to relevant standards is vital. A book
that is correlated to at least 50% of the standards is
considered a good match for the program.
Making the decision between a multileveled core
series and mixing and matching texts to your levels
2
may seem obvious. It may seem logical that a
program with six levels of proficiency should seek
out a six-level series. That may work in some cases,
particularly for a program that would benefit from
a unified framework (perhaps you have programs
scattered over a large geographical area with minimal
contact between them) or a program in which learners
come and go and will, therefore, not become too
accustomed to the similar format, activities, and
approaches that a series can offer.
Textbook series tend to provide a wider variety of ancillaries
(workbooks, resource books and CDs, companion web
sites, etc.) than individual texts do; however, you may
need to look deeper to decide if learners might benefit
from transitions from one series at the lower levels to
another series at the intermediate levels (when needs
and interests often change from life skills-based to
more academic orientations).
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