Richards, Chapter 8-9

Richards, J. (2001). Curriculum development in language teaching. The role and design
of instructional materials (pp. 251-309). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Chapter 8
Teaching materials are key components in teaching a language program. Authentic, created, text –based, technology materials are the basis for teaching resources. There are many ways that materials can be used and gathered from. The key to finding materials that work for your teaching situation is to be creative, ask, collaborate with your teaching staff, become very familiar with your school’s curriculum and read the pages where the curriculum provides materials for you to get what you need for lessons in your classroom. In order to get materials you have to be very familiar with your teaching situation and seeing material as a resource and not your only way to teach language. Materials should help teachers lead students through the process of developing their skills at an appropriate level of skill, engaging, and want to have and practice those skills by motivational means. The whole process of selecting materials to the evaluating of textbook materials is a worthwhile journey that gives you feedback on learning how to select language materials to teach in your classroom. Read your school’s scope and sequence and any other mandated educational guideline and find out how you can evaluate textbooks, and materials that will best meet the individual needs of your students and school. The key to good material selection is to know where your students are at and how to make sure they are going forward on their education experience at their pace and also includes lots of engaging and motivational activities.

Chapter 9
Evaluation in the language program is essential to see if the needs of the language program are met. Overall evaluation of a language program aspect includes the evaluation of the curriculum design, the syllabus and program content, classroom processes, materials of instruction, the teachers, teacher training, the students, monitoring of pupil progress, learner motivation, the institution, learning environment, staff development, decision making. Accountability is key for funding purposes for curriculum programs and materials. Through documentation done by the curriculum department, the means to get a language program evaluated is to use a variety of information gathering techniques such as interviews to the students, teachers, administration, and the stakeholders involved in the whole concept of school. The documentation has to be relevant and can be an important tool to show whether or not the language program works, and if not, what are the needs and how to meet them are evaluated. My school gets evaluated by the number of students passing the standards based assessment and the high school qualifying exam that the state of Alaska uses as their evaluation tool to measure how the district programs work and which schools need major changes made. When schools do not pass they are evaluated and required to make changes and are forced to partake in the State of Alaska’s assessment tools that supposedly help students to get on their grade level. We also have a yearly Language English Proficiency test to administer to measure how much English our students know and whether they are English speakers or not. Evaluating your language program and its quality are essential steps to meet the goals of your program.