For me, living is creating... Image: gfpeck
So here's a brief Christmas confession for people who bother to read this blog (a bother I'm most grateful for, of course!)...
English Raven is working on a new ELT coursebook for tweens and younger teens!
Oh, who gives a stuff, right?
Well, I do. I've struggled mightily with the whole idea of making coursebooks for a couple of years now -- not quite able to reconcile what I believe I've learned about effective teaching and learning with what happens in a coursebook limitverse. I've sworn a solemn vow not to write any sort of material that makes me squeam, or leaves me with a feeling of pushing a reinvented wheel up the same sorry track.
What I'm making now doesn't result in any of those reactions. On the contrary: it makes me feel like I'm flying.
This coursebook -- and technically, it might not even qualify as a "coursebook", if we assume that coursebooks have entered their own specialised and classified genre -- is like nothing you've ever seen. And no, that doesn't mean it's some sort of new technical innovation. While there will be some tech-related options, this is basically a paper and print thing that concentrates very heavily on young people and the magic that ought to be possible in a room where people gather together.
And it is a book/approach that challenges teachers to take on a very different role...
Of course, this is purely an English Raven project. No major (or even minor) publishers on board with this (yet), and I generally presume it will stay that way. It's not the sort of thing that would appeal all that much to publishers, and I say that with no malice whatsoever. Having "been there done that", I understand publishers' priorities and limitations.
And one of the most serious reasons no (or hardly any) publishers would even look at this project is because... there's truly bugger all money in it!
Aside from the very unique approach -- something a fair share of teachers would reject purely because of its divergence away from the familiar way of doing things -- what sort of potential does a coursebook have when only one copy is required for the class (that being the teacher's copy), and all the learners need is a notebook and -- optionally -- the occasional photocopy?
In some ways it is a very hard decision to make: writing ELT material that you know from the outset is extremely unlikely to generate any sort of recognisable income, and diverting your attention away from other more income-friendly endeavours to dedicate time to create such a work.
In other ways, I guess, it is about feeding your soul. Not to say that people who write mainstream commercial coursebooks are soulless (I want to make that clear!). But ELT writers very rarely get a chance to explore and create what comes from the heart and their teacher's instinct. Perhaps taking that chance, and ignoring (however difficult it might be) the priority of income, is a sort of therapeutic endeavour for us.
You see, I'm absolutely loving the writing and design process here. I wake up every morning and want to get working on it. Once the kids are asleep at night, I'm absolutely itching to get back to it again. I know this will work for at least some teachers in some contexts, and it represents an approach I've dreamed of using in classrooms for more than a decade. I print out drafted sections as they are completed and pore over them on the back patio with a cup of coffee in hand, and love what I see (and love the apparent opportunities for more improvement, tweaking, elegance, cohesion, and those little windows that pop up, sort of pregnant with active and enjoyable teaching/learning potential).
It has been a very long time indeed since I felt this way about ELT writing.
'Tis very good therapy indeed...
I'll keep you posted about it in the New Year!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone, as this is my last post for 2010.
Got some important stuff to work on...
=D
