1. The second assignment of the course was the Coursebook Evaluation, in which we
used a text used in public schools to complete the assignment.
This evaluation assignment was very practical and useful since we studied a
material that is actually used in schools; moreover, it was a text it has been widely used in
our Chilean educational context for some years now. While analyzing the text I realized it
was quite plain and lacked many current information and images, which was certainly
reflected in our evaluation since we made plenty of comments on these two areas. One of
the aspects I consider to be the most relevant after completed this assignment is the
ability that we as teachers have to decide whether to use the whole course book to
organize our lessons or select and adapting appropriately according to what our students
actually need.
I remember the first year at UCSC we used a course book to guide us, but in fact
professors selected the activities considering our level of English, our likes and dislikes and
every aspect which is taken into account when preparing a lesson. I believe course books
can be a tremendous useful tool if used appropriately, always bearing in mind what our
students need.
