Dear Friends, Welcome to Side by Side Plus—a special edition for adult learners that offers an integrated standards-based and grammar-based approach to language learning! Flexible Language Proficiency Plus  Life Skills The core mission of Side by Side Plus is to build students’ general language proficiency so they can use English flexibly to meet their varied needs, life circumstances, and goals.  We strongly believe that language teachers need to preserve their role as true teachers of language even as we fill our lesson plans with required life-skill content and prepare students for standardized tests.  Our program helps you accomplish this through a research-based grammatical sequence and communicative approach in which basic language lessons in each unit lead to standards-based lessons focused on students’ life-skill roles in the community, family, school, and at work. Keys to Promoting Student Persistence and Success Student-Centered Learning  The core methodology of Side by Side Plus is the guided conversation—a brief, structured dialog that students practice in pairs and then use as a framework to create new conversations.  Through this practice, students work together to develop their language skills “side by side.”  They are not dependent on the teacher for all instruction, and they know how to learn from each other.  This student-centered methodology and the text’s easy-to-use format enable students to study outside of class with any speaking partner—a family member, a friend or neighbor, a tutor, or a co-worker, even if that person is also an English language learner.  If students need to attend class intermittently or “stop out” for a while, they have the skills and text material to continue learning on their own. Meaningful Instruction Relevant to Students’ Lives  Throughout the instructional program, civics topics and tasks connect students to their community, personalization questions apply lesson content to students’ life situations, and critical-thinking activities build a community of learners who problem-solve together and share solutions. Extending Learning Outside the Classroom  The magazine-style Gazette sections in Side by Side Plus provide   motivating material for students to use at home.  Feature articles, vocabulary enrichment, and other activities reinforce classroom instruction through high-interest material that students are motivated to use outside of class.  A bonus Audio CD offers entertaining radio program-style recordings of key Gazette activities.  (See the inside back cover for a description of other media materials and software designed to extend learning through self-study.) Sufficient Practice + Frequent Assessment = Success  Students need to experience success as language learners.  While other programs “cover” many learning objectives, Side by Side Plus offers students carefully-sequenced intensive practice that promotes mastery and the successful application of language skills to daily life.  Students can observe their achievement milestones through the program’s frequent assessments, including check-up tests and skills checklists in the text and achievement tests in the accompanying workbook. The “Fun Factor”  We believe that language instruction is most powerful when it is joyful.  There is magic in the power of humor, fun, games, and music to encourage students to take risks with their emerging language, to “play” with it, and to allow their personalities to shine through as their language skills increase.  We incorporate these elements into our program to motivate students to persist in their language learning not only because they need it, but also because they enjoy it. Multilevel Instruction  Side by Side Plus provides exceptional resources to support multilevel instruction.  The Teacher’s Guide includes step-by-step instructions for preparing below-level and at-level students for each lesson and hundreds of multilevel activities for all students, including those above-level.  The accompanying Multilevel Activity & Achievement Test Book and CD-ROM offer an array of reproducible multilevel worksheets and activities. We hope your students enjoy using Side by Side Plus.  We are confident that these resources will help them persist and succeed through a language learning experience that is effective . . . relevant to their lives . . . and fun! Steven J. Molinsky Bill Bliss