View Content #26189

From https://workingtowardproficiency.blogspot.com

Timothy Chávez has an easy-to-read blog post about adapting a shared textbook to teach thematic units that make authentic use of language. He writes, "our curriculum is the textbook, and we all just make our own adjustments as we see fit. This year, I have been making huge adjustments with these thematic units, but I have to make sure that I am being consistent with what the other teachers are teaching. Otherwise, our department will have no consistency, and it will make it very hard for students to move from teacher to teacher. 

"As a result, I have been trying to take the topics that our textbook supplies and some of the grammar to make them into thematic units. It's not easy because a textbook shouldn't be a curriculum, but I have been making it work. As our advisory board works through the curriculum, we will definitely have to remove and add certain things to make it more authentic, but until then, I am sticking to what I have been doing. 

"I've also learned that we do not have to teach all the forms of something--we only need to teach the things we need for the unit. For examples, I do not need to teach the yo, tú, él, ella, nosotros, etc. forms of the past tense if the unit doesn't require all forms yet. Otherwise, the language use becomes less authentic. We use the ones we need and the rest will come when it becomes necessary."

Read the full blog post at https://workingtowardproficiency.blogspot.com/2018/12/authentic-language-use-and-thematic.html