ADAPTING MATERIALS

SARSing
Questions teachers may have.

1. What is it and what does it involve?

Textbooks are probably the teacher’s and the student’s most valuable resource as
they work together through the school curriculum. Textbooks are normally quite
well- organized and help us to progress step by step through everything the
curriculum wants us to work on.

However, we need to remember that textbooks are produced to be used by teachers

in very different schools and with students whose knowledge and ability can vary
greatly. They are never designed with the needs particular to your class in mind, and
while they are valuable resources, they will rarely address the specific needs of your
own students exactly as you would like them to.

You know from experience how difficult it is to design a single activity that will
address the needs and interests of all of the students in your own classroom.
Imagine how difficult it would be to design an activity - not to mention an entire
coursebook - that could address the needs of every student in the country!!

Therefore, no matter how much you like your textbook and no matter how well-
written it is, there will often be times when you will need to be creative in how you
use it if you want to plan lessons that work for your own students and their
particular learning needs.

For example, in your textbook in the section where the second conditional is being
focused on, there may be only one speaking activity but several writing activities for
the students to practice the second conditional form. This is what the textbook
writers decided would be a good balance. However, you know your own students
and you know that they are very comfortable at writing the form of the second
conditional correctly but they have a lot of trouble in getting the form right when
they are doing oral work. Thus, you know they need a lot of opportunities to practice
the form in a spoken context but they only need one or two written practice
activities. So, you need something that the textbook doesn’t provide, you will need
to consider adapting the textbook in order to meet your students’ learning needs.

What can you do to solve this problem?

To solve this problem you need to:

 Find some additional speaking practice activities for your students to do.
 Have your students do only one or two of the many writing activities in the
textbook.

In other words, you will:

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  select from the textbook the writing activities you want your students to do.
 reject the other writing activities as not being useful for the purpose of your
lesson (you may of course use them some other time with the students.)
 supplement the textbook by finding some extra speaking activities which
could work for your students
 if necessary, adapt the extra activities to be suitable for your lesson and for
your students’ needs.

So, using the textbook and other materials you have available, you will probably
 Select,
 Reject,
 Supplement and
 Adapt materials for your lesson. Using the first letter of each of the words in
the list we make the acronym SARS. This is the term for textbook or materials
adaptation that we will use in the remainder of this handbook.

If you reflect on your students needs when you are planning your lessons you will
find that you often decide to use the text book more creatively. You will no longer
just go through the textbook doing one activity after another page after page as they
appear in the textbook. Instead you will make a variety of decisions about what is
the best and the most useful use of your lesson time in order to get your students to
the end of unit/ end of year objectives you have set for them. Instead of following
the textbook slavishly, you will probably:
 plan lessons that use some but not all of a file,
 use activities in a different order to the order in the textbook,
 Add some activities that are not in the textbook or that are in an other part of
the textbook

2. What it involves: How do I use SARS to better address my students’ learning

needs?

This can be done in a variety of simple ways:

If you feel that your students need more activities than the textbook provides in a
particular sequence, then you find an activity elsewhere or you create one and you
add it in. (Here you are Supplementing)

Or

If you think that your students don’t need to do a particular activity which appears in
the sequence in the textbook you are working on in your next lesson, then you just
don’t do that activity with them! (Here you are Rejecting)

Or

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 If you like a particular activity in the sequence but think it is too challenging (or not
challenging enough) for your students, then you simplify it (or make it a bit more
difficult). (Now you are Adapting).

SARS and Lesson Planning

These are examples of using SARS to make some small improvements to your lessons
as you follow the sequence n the textbook. However you will often find that if you
follow the sequence as it is presented in the book, then the lessons will not be
organized in a way which is best for student learning.

One of the best approaches to teaching a lesson which is focusing on speaking or

grammar for example is to plan a lesson which follows the pattern Presentation,
Practice, Use –PPU (or Presentation, Practice, Production-PPP). If you want to plan a
lesson that focuses on reading or listening comprehension then a Pre-, During, -Post
(PDP) format is probably the best format to use.

Adapting (SARSing) the textbook so that your lessons follow these recommended
formats is the next step in using SARS.

Where can I start?

Step 1 is to deal with the following questions:
 Identify sequence in the textbook
 Determine which long-term (school year or AEF) learner outcomes the
sequence works towards.
 Determine what the short term, sequence objectives are.
 Decide what assessment task/s could be used to confirm student
achievement of the short term objectives and progress towards the long term
objectives.

Step 2 is to decide on how best to arrange the elements of the sequence in order to
create one or more PPU or PDP lesson plans. (Mostly a sequence will probably need
to be divided into more than one lesson.)

Decide if the lesson you want to work on now is to be PPU or PDP depending on the
skill to be focused on. Let is pretend it is to be a PPU. In this case you will need to
take the following steps:

 Look back over the activities in the sequence and determine which elements
you might use as presentation, practice or use activities – select them.
 Decide if there are some elements you do not want to use – reject them.
 Decide if there are activities you might like to use but that you want to
change somewhat – adapt them and select them.
 Decide if you need to add additional activities from another source –
supplement the sequence with them.

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NOTE: It is often a good idea to add one or two communicative, practice or use
activities to each lesson to supplement the textbook.

3. How will it help me in my job?

With practice you will become increasingly skilled at analysing the textbook in terms
of what you need your students to learn and what work they need to get them to
achieve the competencies expected of them by the end of the year.

Have greater sense of autonomy and control over your choice of materials to
address your own students’ needs.

It will help you make more realistic use of the textbook, which is useful but not
perfectly designed and adapted for your students needs. You will be able to feel
comfortable in changing and adapting, in rejecting and in supplementing the
materials you have been given.

Overall you will be able to address your students’ needs in a more accurate, targeted
way by having greater control over what materials you use with them and what
activities you provide for them in your lessons.

4. How could I start to use it in my classes?

There are many ways in which you can begin to use SARS in your lessons. If you want
to start slowly and in a way which is not too demanding on your time, next time you
are planning a lesson you could do something like one of the following:

 Decide not to use a particular element of the sequence if you feel your
students do not need it;
 Take a written activity in the sequence and make it into an oral activity or vice
versa;
 Make your own activity or use an activity you have seen another teacher use
in a similar context.

5. What useful guidelines can I use to engage in SARS in my classes?

Reflect on your students needs – oral/ written, practice, use, form meaning,
What are your objectives?

Make choices to help learners develop toward the learner competencies (the AEF),
or at least toward the ability to use the language.

Flesh out the textbook to fit the PDP and PPU frameworks.

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6. What resources/ materials can I find to help me use SARS to my best
advantage?

 The [Link] website (main part)

 The Teacher Competencies
 The AEF
 The textbooks scope and sequence
 Supplementary books
 Minimal pairs
 Speaking activities
 Info gap activities for different grammar points, vocabulary or speaking
practice.
 Online sites