The A to Z of Writing Language Learning Materials, by Katherine Bilsborough and John Hughes
Reviewed by Christopher Walker
Have you ever created your own materials for use in a lesson? The answer, regardless of what you might be thinking, is yes. As Bilsborough and Hughes write in the introduction to this enormously helpful book, every act of creation is an act of materials creation, whether it’s in the design and construction of a worksheet, or something as seemingly innocuous as an in-class survey using the likes of Google Forms.
And if you have made your own materials, you will have wondered: am I doing it the best way?
The success of our teaching rests on many factors, but how we design the materials we use is surely one of the most important. We might prepare a simple worksheet and then find our students are frustrated because we didn’t leave them space to write their answers; our students might struggle with our controlled present perfect practice worksheet because we came up with the target sentences off the top of our head, resulting in something completely untethered from context; or our students all seem to have given the wrong answer to the last question in a Google Form because we didn’t notice we’d switched the order of the items in our Likert scale.
Before you ask - yes, these examples are drawn from personal experience.
Good materials, then, can make a lesson more effective, but there may well be lesson planning matters that some readers are still, even after fifteen years, unclear about. Yes, I’m still talking about me. I feel that I’ve improved my material crafting skills, but there are aspects of formal lesson planning, such as writing objectives, that I shy away from because I don’t think I’m doing them right. It’s a good thing, then, that Bilsborough and Hughes understand the symbiotic relationship between lesson planning and materials creation, and open their book with A is for Aims, goals, and objectives. Here we find one of the neatest guides to writing lesson aims that I have come across - the writers make this aspect of lesson planning appear so simple that I’ve started looking into applying to do the Delta this year…
For a book with an A to Z moniker, you might expect there to be just twenty-five more chapters to look forward to after this first one. But no - the letters echo as if Bilsborough and Hughes were reciting the alphabet while walking through a particularly long tunnel. There are four chapters for A, another four for B, and a whopping ten for C. The chapters are short and punchy, so you’ll find yourself only seventy pages into the book by the time you’ve covered these first eighteen units, but even then, you’re only about a fifth of the way through the total. In short, there is a lot here to keep the average teacher busy, and by the time you have worked your way through to Z is for (in the) Zone, you should feel like an expert materials developer.
My Highlights
Apart from that first unit, there are many other highlights for the aspiring materials creator - as well as for those looking to refine what they’re already doing. Here are a few to whet your appetite:
E is for Exam Preparation. As the authors warn, this is not about writing test or exam material - this is about creating material that will work well in exam preparation classes, and since we teach a lot of such classes here, this is probably the first unit I would want my teachers to read. One key piece of advice is to ensure the materials you create mirror the format of the exam.
H is for Heads Up and Heads Down. Our students will either be looking at the materials in front of them (heads down), or they’ll be looking at the whiteboard, teacher, or other students (heads up). The authors recommend considering how students will move between these two, and how long they’ll spend in each, when they use the materials. Too much time spent heads down could have a negative impact on energy levels in the classroom, as the world will seem to shrink until all that exists is the worksheet in front of the student.
P is for Personalisation. We want our students to have the chance to express themselves, and often ask some of the right questions - but perhaps there are better follow-up questions that will allow more of our students’ personalities to shine through. This unit is great for those seeking to build more rapport with their students - or for solving the problem of poor rapport between students.
Criticisms
I liked this book and I can see its value as a resource. There is one big problem with it, however, and that is the A-Z nature. I’m sure there’s a marketing reason for the approach - the book ties in neatly with the A-Z series on the author’s website, for one thing, and Amazon abounds in A-Z this and A-Z that for another.
But does it serve the reader? Yes and no. For those who already know plenty about materials creation, this is a book they will be readily dipping into and out of. However, there is no start-to-finish guide for the creation of a single material. You don’t start at the start of the book and finish at the end - for example, because art begins with an A, A is for Artwork Brief comes many pages before B is for Brief. Unless you are primarily an artist, these two activities are likely in the wrong order. Add to that they both appear near the start of the book, but are geared more towards the professional end of the spectrum, and you’ll see what I mean about the sequencing being wrong. Another example comes with B is for Buddy on page 27 and C is for Co-author on page 42 - they treat two sides of the same coin, and surely belong closer together.
Still, it could be worse. There always needs to be a degree of shoe-horning to get everything to fit an A to Z presentation, but Bilsborough and Hughes have made our lives (relatively) easy by keeping the unit titles accurate and clear. I never found myself having to read the first page of a unit to learn what it was about, and that meant I could jump straight to the thing I was interested in - though I might have to read the whole index first to know what it had been called!
Conclusion
I’ve noticed there are more and more books on the market now for teachers interested in materials creation. It is getting busy out there, and teachers (and their schools) will have a limited budget for acquisitions. So, the crucial question - is it worth getting this book?
For beginners just starting out, you might find that frequent visits to the authors’ website will serve you better, as a lot of the topics here won’t be as relevant to you, or will assume a certain familiarity with the concepts discussed.
However, if you already know something about materials creation, but you want to know more - or you have toyed with the idea of finding employment in the world of materials - the answer is a resounding yes. The A to Z of Writing Language Learning Materials deserves its place on your bookshelf.