Those are excellent and very creative additional recommendations – thanks for adding them!

~ Jason
Jason Renshaw´s last blog ..Interesting article about "the new literacy" and how today’s young writers are benefitting from things like social media

1. Don’t develop any materials for one class only. If teachers do something for one class only, then don’t spend too much time. Leveraging time in developing materials that can be used in other classes will save time in the long run.

2. “Think outside of the book!” Publishers are completely locked into markets and they only do what is easy and profitable for themselves. The best way they do this is primarily producing books with some audio materials and a bit of Internet on the side, like a salad.

If we “think ourside of the book” we can develop material on paper, too. But we can also,

A. Make our own audios in simple English telling stories and interviewing English-speaking friends.

B. We can develop materials around movies. Some movies that are easy for students to understand and enjoy are “Big” with Tom Hanks, “Regarding Henry” with Harrison Ford and “Mosters, Inc” with, well, monsters. Publishers can’t use movies and thus miss out a a great and popular medium of spoken English.

C. We can make an MP3 audio tour of a popular walking destination like a mall, sight-seeing attraction, walking street. Students can download it and go to the place and listen as they visit. Don’t be limited to what you see, invent a crazy story of what the things are or even a mystery of seeing something strange happening. Remember, our goal is to help them practice their English and sometimes crazy is the key.

D. Send out their new vocabulary words every week as a reminder.

E. Send them SMS messages every week to remind them to do their homework or if it is a rainy day tell them: “What can you do on a rainy day like this? I know, why don’t you do something in English? Read a book! Download an MP3!

F. One week tell them to go to a certain website and find something interesting and prepare a report for the class. They could go to HowStuffWorks.com one week, VOA Special English another week, ESLPod.com another week, AbsurdInventions another week.

G. If it is a small class, maybe 6-8, take them on an English Safari to the local Ikea store or a book store and talk about everything. Use the whole city as your “book”. Bring a few notes from your grammar book to help prompt you to practice some certain forms of grammar with the things you find. In a store, tell a couple students they are going to be salespeople and they need to sell something to the rest of you. Later, have a couple people be service reps and others to be complaining customers.

These are all things that publishers can’t figure out how to do or how to do profitably because they are in a box. We are making a big mistake if we climb in that box with them. Teachers should “think outside the book” and liberate their students.

Dave Kees
http://insights-into-tefl.blogspot.com
http://davekees.blogspot.com
Dave Kees´s last blog ..Teaching IELTS writing – keeping it simple

Thanks for those very kind comments, and keep up the great work with your own materials design!

Shelly:

I think if you are making your own material, and using it in your classes (and learning from the process), you are getting the very best “training” possible for this sort of thing.

Also, the visual format is only important insofar as things are clear and easy to work with on paper, and definitely it comes after your pedagogical considerations. You can always make a good successful activity on paper look more attractive later down the line as your formatting skills improve. You can’t always ensure a visually appealing resource will work better as a teaching/learning activity later down the line… Books and their covers and all that!

Great to hear from people passionate about making their own materials!

~ Jason
Jason Renshaw´s last blog ..Great site for making your own comics (or letting your learners create their own!)