Pockets

Pockets 1, 2, and 3 review
Mario Herrera and Barbara Hojel
Longman
Review by Alex Case

As someone who spends a good proportion of my week teaching pre-primary children (some of whom I see for as little as 12 hours a year and in class sizes from 2 to 35) I picked up this series of kindergarten textbooks in the hope that I could add some more actual teaching to the singing, running round and colouring that I have been shown to keep the kids amused. It’s the first series I have seen for the 3 to 5 age group that looks so professional and has so many components- textbook and workbook, class and student CDs with songs and chants, flashcards and poster packs, stickers and punchouts, and a very detailed teacher’s book.

The first thing that I noticed about the books is that my students were, as I was hoping, being asked to do more than I had demanded of them before. Although Unit 1 of Book 1 (for 3 years old) introduces only 5 simple classroom objects within the ‘My Classroom’ theme, and only one colour word, it also starts straight off with shapes (circle) and has the kids pointing, tracing, repeating and even telling stories from day one. Introducing shapes from the start worked really well in my classes, as it was possible to integrate it with many other topics and activities later on in the course. The classroom topic was also easy to relate to and practice. I did find, though, that I had to use much more active techniques than were suggested in the teacher’s book to keep my students’ attention. Depending on how long, if at all, the students had learnt how to sit down and study with their main teacher, getting my students to listen and point to the page or listen and repeat proved difficult. I therefore reverted to using the same ‘listen and run and touch’ or ‘listen and mime’ techniques I had been using before- largely without using the student’s book.

Unfortunately, I also found I had to use the old standard colouring as a staple activity when I got the kids to try and sit down and concentrate. Luckily, the workbook provided lots of colouring opportunities, especially in book 1, which led slowly and effortlessly into more organizationally difficult activities like tracing round objects, drawing lines between objects and join the dots. Even with something as seemingly simple as colouring in, there’s a knack to making worksheets that children are interested in. Some of the examples here are quite charming, such as a figure of a person made out of bubbles and a rabbit eating a huge carrot. The kids responded well to all the workbook pages, although their willingness often outstripped their ability to do the tasks such as tracing around things or drawing, especially at the younger ages. The same was true of the craftwork, some of which, such as a clown that stretches between tall and short, had the kids enraptured. Unfortunately, lack of skills training and/ or equipment often left the teacher cutting up and gluing for the whole class. One inspired idea that proved easier to manage was the do-it-yourself story books included in each unit of each of the three student books. Each story ‘book’ consists of one colour double sided page that students cut out of their student’s books and fold. They can then tell the story with/ to teacher, parents or classmates. This went down very well with the students, although giving them photocopied versions they could colour in, and maybe glue and paste, made the whole thing more interactive.

The other things I used most in my classes were the songs and (less) the chants. The most impressive thing about these is the sheer number- more than 50 per level. These are mixture of a few familiar songs (e.g. ‘Twinkle twinkle little star’) and new songs and chants. The new songs and chants cover all the topics (including unusual ones for songs, such as shapes, healthy habits and At The Restaurant) and have very finely tuned vocab, but are very short indeed- sometimes as little as 20 seconds. With the songs I liked (such as Hello Goodbye and Let’s Count the Cars) I usually had to repeat them or make up and sing other verses. The tunes are never going to be as popular as the ‘classics’ on these CDs such as Head Shoulders Knees and Toes and The Wheels on the Bus, and some songs also suffer from there being no obvious actions that you could do with them, or being too fast to touch or point at objects as they listen or sing. The fact that the songs are available on the workbook CD for the children to take home and continue listening to is a very nice touch.

The appearance and approach of the three levels is very similar, but they are well graded for language and things the students are expected to be able to do- although possibly slightly ambitious for my children. In terms of reading and writing, this means that Pockets 1 is about motor skills and getting ready to write, Pockets 2 covers just 4 easy to write letters, and Pockets 3 does the rest of the alphabet and simple word recognition. The topics start with body, toys and family at the beginning of book 1and finish with farms, clothes and the outdoors at the end of book 3, via a varied mix of things the students come into contact with everyday, such as town centres, food clothes and senses.

The teacher’s book is given in the ‘one page of the students’ book opposite one page of notes’ form. In addition to the usual objectives, game ideas, teaching tips and stages of the lesson, each of the teacher’s pages include detailed listings of the classroom language the teacher and students should use. The first two introductionary pages to each unit also include a summary of the unit (in mind-map form), NLP Tips (Neuro-linguistic Programming- a theory of how people learn), Bulletin Board Ideas and Family Connections tips for getting the family involved. The introduction to the teacher’s book also includes general tips on using crafts, puppets, songs etc. to keep children interested. More unusually, and very usefully, it includes tips on how to have children take their English work and language back home. This is supplemented by (very nice) letters you can send home to the parents explaining what you are doing in class and suggestions on how the family can help reinforce the language. There is also an Ideal Unit Schedule, and Time Guidelines for using the classroom materials depending on how much classroom time you have. More materials at the back of the book also help with making lesson and course planning easier- lists of picture cards, copies of the workbook pages, and a summary of the learning strategies, links to other school subjects etc. used through the book.

The teacher’s book is clearly and succinctly written with many new suggestions, such as on how to use NLP. Some of these were things I had never thought of before, such as using relaxation exercises with young children and having a Praise Point in the classroom that you always use for positive feedback. Some of the workbook pages, craft activities and DIY storybooks are similarly original and have been added to my collection of class ‘standard’ worksheets that I use all the time. Tackling shapes earlier in the syllabus and using some fun vocab I hadn’t tackled before like ‘bugs’ and ‘dirt’ also worked well and will be used again.

Unfortunately, I will not be adding much from the student’s book to my classes from now on, and would not choose to use it as a standard text with any of my present 3 to 6 year old classes. This might simply be because of the teaching situation I’m in- the number of hours I spend with most of my classes at this age is much below even the minimum given in the Time Guidelines and is quite the opposite of the 5 days a week in the Ideal Unit Schedule, and my students’ other classes focus much more on play and good manners than they do on the science, maths etc. that some parts of these books are designed to segue with. This might also be the reason why some of my classes could not concentrate on most of the games and songs given in the book. If you are working in a more educational early education setting than me and have plenty of time for English, for example if you are a full-time pre-primary school teacher in a school with an emphasis on English, this is certainly as professional a book as you could ask for for this age group. In fact, for anyone teaching this age the teacher’s notes and the supplementary materials are well worth a look.

Review originally published in Modern English Teacher magazine. Republished with permission.

(C) Alex Case/ Modern English Publishing