I've just finished reading an absolute cracker of a post over on Ken Wilson's blog, where he explains his fascination with tabloid presentation of content and how he floated a related idea to a group of publishing people.
To quote Ken:
ELT books are usually divided into units. And the units usually start with a double-page spread, so they start on the left-hand page, what is known as the verso page. Once I suggested that we could start the unit on the recto page, and use the first page as a teaser for the contents of the main unit.
There was general puzzlement at this idea. Sandwiches were not being waved in delight.
“What’s the point of that?” asked one of the editorial team.
“Well,” I stumbled on, convinced that the idea was dying on its feet. “Let’s say the unit is about geography, and there are photos of famous rivers, mountains. Let’s have a small detail of the photos on the first page, the recto page, and a caption saying ‘Do you know where this is?’
Silence.
“And we could also take a sentence out of a reading text, and ask if the reader can guess the context. And put an example of the key grammar, or vocabulary – in a way to make the students want to hunt around and find the answer.”
Ken's idea apparently went down as being rather non-sensical and potentially a huge waste of paper.
Well, Ken, let me tell you that four years or so ago I had a similar discussion with a publishing team where the response was completely different.
Here's a quick snapshot of a unit from my Boost! Reading strand:
The unit starts on a fresh recto (rather than verso) page, hence avoiding the "usual" double page spread.
This first page acts as a teaser page both for the unit theme/content but also a particular reading skill. There is a big engaging picture with a simple conversation prompt, then a selection (about one short paragraph) of text taken from the main article which follows on the next page in the open spread section of the unit. This is to get the students interested and curious about the content. There is also a simple task which "orients", or introduces, the concept of the main skill to be applied over on the next pages. In essence, this is set up to help the learners "see" or "discover" the skill in a simple way, with a limited amount of text, without being too technical or explicit.
The main double page spread is for the "guts" and real application of the reading text and associated skills, along with vocabulary work. The final page of the unit (meaning the unit finishes on a verso page) expands beyond reading skills in particular and takes the content in new directions that call on other skills (listening, speaking, writing).
And we followed the same basic pattern/approach for the listening strand as well:
In this case (for the unit depicted), the learners get an excerpt from an interview with a famous (and potentially slightly deranged) tornado hunter on the teaser page, with the full interview featured across activities on the following page.
I've used these books in classrooms myself, and the "teaser" idea is very much based on my own experience with inhouse materials development. It works really well: students become curious, in many instances they do something relatively unheard of in many ELT classes and express a genuine desire to flip the page over to see what's coming next (based on the curiosity generated on that first page rather than out of desire to see the back of it, so to speak!).
And in terms of skills development, letting them work with a small sample of input and a simple application in advance is a great way to ease them into more full-on skills work.
And, erm... we've sold quite a few of these Boast (sorry -- BOOST!) books. Apparently young teens quite like the approach and the content.
So Ken, I can humbly claim to support your idea with something in the way of real evidence. You were on the right track, and I think a certain publishing team ought to eat a little less in the way of sandwiches (with all the usual fillings) and a little more in the way of their own words. (I mean that nicely, of course!).
And my examples here are only a fairly limited or simple application of what Ken is talking about. I think it needs to go further and publishers need to think a little more about what genuinely works to make readers curious and motivated to read/do on.
=D
