56th RTD: Adapting Materials by Damon Anderson

56th RTD - May 17 - Adapting Materials

Attended by 27 participants, Damon Anderson started the discussion with self introduction and the reasons or expectations from everyone. It was obviously stated, then, that the skills of Adapting Materials into classroom use is something really needed by the participants.

Damon then continued the discussion by giving some pointers of considerations when adapting materials. The most important consideration is always the students: their age, interest, competence, and objective. So, to be able to cater the demand of the students, we need to know them. In the day-to-day activities, most teachers do not have the freedom to choose the materials but only use what is available in the textbooks. Then, it is the teachers responsibility to provide scaffolds for the students. By doing so, the teachers bridge the world of the material writer, the authority who had the decision of textbooks selection, so that those strange and (sometime) complicated world is more accessible by the students.

The discussion was able to open more doors for ELT practitioners so that they understand the points of adapting materials better. However, the 2-hour discussion was only able to make the participants ask for more hands on practice. So, the next plan is to hold a one-day workshop to really give it a try to adapt materials, and make the discussion comes true in the life of the participants.

At the end of the discussion RELO presented a birthday cake for Mike McCoy, the Fellow Coordinator.