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Unit 14 covers course books and lesson materials. Sometimes, a teacher will have to design course material from scratch. Other times, the teacher will be allowed to select a textbook for the students. Still other times, the teacher will be given a textbook from which to work. In addition to textbooks, teachers often rely on supplemental materials, which can be divided into authentic materials and creative materials. Creative materials include hand-made flash cards, crossword puzzles designed specifically for the vocabulary the teacher wants students to learn, and activity cards, such as the sample role-playing telephone cards in this unit. Authentic materials range from magazines to radio show recordings, brochures, music, music videos, books-- pretty much anything you would find in the real world. This unit discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using creative vs. authentic vs. textbook materials. Overall, teachers are advised to always seek to find new and interesting ways to engage students, and not to overly rely on any one type of material. It is perfectly acceptable to skip lessons in a textbook and replace them with more relevant lesson plans of your own design, or supplement one part of a textbook section with more interesting authentic materials. I've taught before, and I didn't have a textbook, so I think the points made here were helpful, especially about how a textbook can provide accountability, a syllabus, and gradual building of skills.
