Introduction
As ESL teacher, do you stick to the book when teaching or do you teach freely and creatively?
Imagine a teacher who comes to the classroom every day without materials, tools or any outside activities and tasks. Is is sticking to the course-book tasks all the time. How would his/her class look like?? Part of boring class and bored students, do you think as a teacher that all the course-book tasks are fine and suitable for the students’ levels and learning styles??
The Textbook Tasks
When it comes to the activities of a textbook, I think they are not always useful for teachers to engage and involve their students in the learning process. As teachers, we sometimes face activities in the textbooks that are not useful or appropriate to our students' needs to learn. They are not recommended to engage and involve our students in the learning process. So Applying such activities as they are may result in boring learning atmosphere for both the students and the teacher. Therefore, it is very important for the teachers to be creative and deal with the book tasks wisely.
So what are the options??
Today, as an English language instructor, I would like to share with youths best solution to avoid boring lessons which is the SARS technique that could make your class more active and student-centered.
What is SARS technique?
SARS stands for selecting, adapting, rejecting and/or supplementing the course-book tasks. There are many activities and tasks that should be edited and some other that should be removed. So, how to apply this technique successfully in your class. First, evaluate the task of the textbook and if you think that it is suitable for the students and could engage them, you can apply the task without any change. Second, if you think that the task needs some changes to be appropriate for your students, then make the changes for the original task. Third, you may face tasks in the textbook that are not suitable for students so these tasks should be eliminated from the lesson. Fourth, you can bring outside tasks to supplement your lessons with more communicative and active activities. You can find more about how to use outside materials.
This is the essential way to make boring activities more interesting and beneficial for the students.
So, it is more effective to search for and find something truly interesting for the students and dig into the textbook for the appropriate grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation points. Apply your creativity and engage your students as the textbook is not a holy book.
