Windows is a coursebook concept drawing on potentially ambiguous pictures as a starting point for unplugged language teaching.
Well, as you might expect from any quality coursebook production, my new series Windows was a long time in the making... a whole morning in fact.
The first "level (?)" (titled "Some Won") has been completed and is available below for you to download and use in your classes - if you are interested, that is.
Here is a quick preview of some of the content in the book:
But before I refer you to the downloads, an important correction to what I've already typed is in order...
It's only "my" series insofar as I've given it a name (and a "level (?)" name) and chosen and sequenced some pictures. You could use it this way if you like, or re-name it, retain only the images that you think will appeal to you and your class, and replace any or all them with images of your own.
Even better, distribute the Word file to your learners and have them pick, choose, edit and adapt as they please (this would be the most genuine approach to making it a truly unplugged coursebook!).
You won't see any unit or page numbers in the book. That's because it is hoped you will zip around it in an order you and your class decide suits you from one day to the next, leaving out completely the pages that don't really appeal, and hopefully adding a lot of new ones.
If you're looking at this post and material and wondering what in the blazes I'm talking about (but yet find it intriguing...), let me know and I will be happy to follow up with some posts about how I would use this resource to create (or start, rather) various lessons within an unplugged language learning course framework.
For those who would like to go completely paperless with a resource like this, I do have plans to create a powerpoint version that allows you to present the pictures in one menu and then move to individual slides for each of them. The rest of the lesson would then, of course, unfold in the social and interactive space of your classroom proper, perhaps supported with notebooks for students to write in, collect information, and engage in collaborative tasks.
Oh, and I'm also already working on the second and third "levels (?)" - tentatively titled at this stage "You Too" and "Sea Three"...
Please note that this is a Creative Commons style work, featuring images sourced from Flickr where creative commons use and distribution was indicated by the image owners concerned. I have gone to lengths to ensure that ownership is indicated for every image, along with a direct link to the source of the file on the Flickr website. Please, if you do any of your own editing with the MS Word Version of the work below, ensure that you feature a reference to the owners of any images as well as a URL link back to the original source.
Anyway, hope you enjoy Windows Level (?) Some Won - or better, hope you enjoy totally hacking it to create a cool unplugged language teaching framework for your own classrooms!
Okay, here come the downloads. Feel free to mess around with the Word version if you want to create your own or distribute it to your students so that they can tinker with the content.
Download "Windows - Some Won" - by Jason Renshaw [PDF Version]
Download "Windows - Some Won" - by Jason Renshaw [MS Word Version]
Unplug your teaching and get your learners switched on!
:-)
[Late edit!] And don't forget to check out Teaching Unplugged by Scott Thornbury and Luke Meddings! It could change your (teaching) life...
