the best ESL primary coursebooks?
 

Hi
I teach small classes of between 1 and 4 students. They are mainly primary age 5-11 years. There are so many different course books out there from different publishers etc that I was wondering if anyone can recommend me a good set to work through?

I'm working in Spain so cannot get to have a look at the books, and on the net they do not always have the facility to 'see inside'. The Macmillan English series looks good - has anyone had any experience with these ?

I've not used books up until now, but some of the kids have asked so I thought I would look into it. Probably save me a lot of work if I can find a good course.

Any information would be appreciate.. Thanks in advance
Shirley

Re: the best ESL primary coursebooks?
 

I have used "Chatterbox"-an Oxford series (with audio tapes) very successfully with a 7-12 age group.
The students loved it & so did I.
The younger students can be catered for with hands on activities, games & simple read-together texts.

Re: the best ESL primary coursebooks?
 

Thanks Eva, I will take a look at them.. - Shirley

Re: the best ESL primary coursebooks?
 

I have used Express Publishing series "welcome plus"
you should look these books...

Re: the best ESL primary coursebooks?
 

Hi,
Im currently teaching a small class of 4 eight-year-old girls and they dont find "Kids Box" very interesting...they are simply not interested either in the activities or the songs (except in those which provide them the role of a teacher and some authority (ex. when they work in pairs and give commands to each other or to the whole class)) any ideas? Im trying to raise their interest by adding some dominoes and other games but in fact it seems that this course isnt working with them.
What do you do in such situations?

Re: the best ESL primary coursebooks?
 

I teach 'after school' lessons in English, so I (very) loosely follow the kids course books that they use in school. As my kids are all from different schools so the books are all different, but I have just taken the themes (eg. colours and shapes / present continuous and movement etc)and then built my lessons around this theme using flashcards, games, internet, worksheets, word games etc.

What has prompted my question on here is that now some of my kids are way past the level of their school books and have asked me about a 'special book' for my classes.

None of the books that my students use have inspired me enough to want to teach them in my class - hence my asking other teachers for their views..

So I haven't really come across a situation such as you describe. However, if you can, then I would just just look at the themes in Kids Box and then create some different games/acting/roleplays aside from what is in the book, and see what works for these girls. Kids like different things, I have some that love reading English fairy stories, and others that hate it! All love the games though, especially if it involves movement..

There is a huge games list posted on this site in the games forum, by some ingenious teacher which is well worth printing. Plus MES English is a great website that has TONS of stuff to download free - My kids LOVE the stuff from this website.

Sorry I can't be of more help

Re: the best ESL primary coursebooks?
 

'lunarose'
Thanks for the tip about Welcome Plus - I have emailed the publishers as the website does not show any 'sample pages' - so I will wait and see what they have to say

Re: the best ESL primary coursebooks?
 

My boss is distributor of all express publishing series.Also this welcome plus series concordant with Trinity Exam.These series have got software programme (with songs, fill in the gap activities,puzzles,grammar focus), flashcards,posters.

I hope they send e-mail soon...

Re: the best ESL primary coursebooks?
 

Haven't heard anything yet.. I'll wait for an email...

Re: the best ESL primary coursebooks?
 

Try English Zone.
It's a McGrawHill series from 1 - 6
Lessons are so well laid out that even a newbie would find them easy to teach.

Re: the best ESL primary coursebooks?
 

I found that no one book ever does it all. The books that seems a bit more complete is "New English Parade". Chatter Box is also good. I am working on activity Ebooks for kids by combining the best of these worlds.

Re: the best ESL primary coursebooks?
 

I like Get Set Go - this course is very well-structured, with good pictures and big workbook. You can download it and look through here Âûó÷èì àíãëèéñêèé âìåñòå! ÂÑÅ ó÷åáíèêè, àóäèî- è âèäåîìàòåðèàëû Just type Get Set Go in the search and then you will decide. Good luck!

Re: the best ESL primary coursebooks?
 

The series Cambridge Young Learners is also very good.
I used it for two years.

Re: the best ESL primary coursebooks?
 

Books are always a bit hit and miss, although I do like the "vocabulary box", "grammar box" series. They have fund games to keep kids interested. :)

Re: the best ESL primary coursebooks?
 

Have you tried "True Colors"?

Re: the best ESL primary coursebooks?
 

This information is obsolete, I really have to tell something more up-to date. We are actually enjoying "Kid's box", the girls especially like the songs, they sing them and even teach other children. They enjpy the games, too. So it's a great course. A lot of fun guaranteed. I recommend it.


* Shirley, thanks. The problem was in me, actually. I didn't follow the instructions provided by the teacher's book carefully enough. Everything is ok now.

Re: the best ESL primary coursebooks?
 

I am using the macmillan but I found that the programm is very slow. If you want I would scan the tables of contents of courses 1,2 and 3 and send them to you. Children like the fluency book and love acting the dialogues.