Preparation

The summer is when I take stock and try to re-jig my courses for next term. I am in the delightful process of reviewing book catalogues, which doesn´t feel a lot like work. The catalogues are glossy and thick with images. The books themselves are a feast for the eyes. I wonder if this helps. Surely we want to be ecouraging students to find wonder in the words and use their own imagination, not be distracted by a plethora of pictures. What we want least of all is that they will only read books which have been gloriously illustrated. It is the hardest task, I find, to get students to read. I didn´t have that problem when I worked in Europe, but here the average number of books read a year is one. So, perhaps if the pictures work, they are worth it afterall.

This video is one of a series about ESL reading in the classroon. Enjoy!