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Unit 9 is about course textbooks and lessons material. As teachers we have access to authentic (real-world)material, and we can create our own. For created material, the Internet provides a wide range of activities and help for our lesson plans. Of course, authentic material is not graded and so we must be careful in our selection, making sure the material is not 'over their heads'.
We may also have access to course textbooks and ancillary material - teacher's handbook, CDs / Videos, workbooks, progress tests, etc. There are obvious advantages to having a good course textbook to refer to as these usually contain tried and tested lesson plans, and can be used to give structure to the whole period of the course, e.g., 3 months (intensive) or 6 months (non-intensive), aimed at a certain level of proficiency. There's a big 'comfort' factor both for the students and the teacher, especially the inexperienced teacher - something to fall back on, something to refer to. The golden rule for teachers for how much to rely on textbooks can be summarised in SOAR: S=Supplement: Be prepared that what is in the textbook may not be adequate for your class. We must use our creativity to come up with whatever is needed to meet the learner objective. O=Omit: Just because it is found in the textbook doesn't mean we have to include it in our lessons. A=Adapt: The material found in the textbook may not fit exactly to our learner objective so we must adapt it. R=Replace: Material in the textbook may be replaced to suit the needs of our class.
What I learnt from Unit 9 is that although there is so much help out there on the Web, and in the form of textbooks and workbooks, we teachers must always be on our toes and approach each lesson with enthusiasm and creativity so that our students always get the maximum benefit for every class-time we have with them.
