Not every textbook appeals to every ESL class. Some content may be too difficult or challenging. There also might be topics that are not particularly motivating for students. Adapting textbook activities is not just something teachers should do as the need arises but also for appealing to the lower, middle and strong student levels. This article will provide step-by step instructions to design additional textbook activities from the same core task. This concept is typically known as differentiated instruction.

1

Decide what content or which topics need adapting in light of the reading texts and activities. Activities can relate to any one of the four basic skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. Can the text be exploited because of it thematic, lexical and structural elements in order to appeal and engage all three levels of students? If not, you will need to adapt your textbook activities to suit the levels. This may appear as a ton of work, but the key is to think better, not to work harder.

2

Before you go ahead and change some of the activities particularly the reading activities, consider rewriting parts or all of the texts.The reason for doing this is to simplify some of the vocabulary items and other concepts that might be difficult for some of your low-performing ESL students to understand. You might also consider glossing the difficult vocabulary items or writing the meanings in another language if you are teaching in a bilingual context.

3

Take a look at those textbook activities in your textbooks and redesign them in light of the amount of the activity itself.Redesigning the activity in light of "amount" is about the obligatory and optional tasks. ESL students can be required to complete a specific amount of questions. For example, low-performing ESL students can list four answers, while the stronger students can list more than four answers.

4

Cater to the level of difficulty of the task. The teacher can adapt the task to suit all three levels: lower, middle and stronger. This gives the student a choice of activities. Most ESL students will want to choose first the activity that they feel they can comfortably do before deciding if the topic is motivating enough. Again, adapt the language of the activity and the instructions of the activity itself to suit the level of the student's linguistic ability.

5

Decide how you want to engage your students. If you are working with groups, then maybe you should adapt a few textbook activities to engage students in group or pair work. Once you've decided how you want to actively engage your students, you'll need to make sure students understand the procedures of group and pair work you intend to use. Leave enough time in the lesson to do both or you'll find yourself struggling with time.

Tips

Teach the entire class the main input and then offer students the options of choosing the level of the task they feel most comfortable with.

Leave enough time to explain the task and for organizing students in groups or pairs.

It is also worthwhile to both to you and your students to explain the rationale behind adapting the textbook activities.