The extremely popular ‘Finding Your Way’ series provides students and teachers with activity-based resource books on a number of English topics. The focus in all books is to provide practical, activity-based challenges that encourage problem-solving, independent learning and cooperative work. There are six books in total in the series.
Book A – Drama
Finding Your Way with Drama provides students with an introduction to working with drama in a way that will encourage personal growth as well as teach a range of dramatic skills. It has been designed to build the confidence of students who are just starting out in drama. The focus of this book is on nine fun workshop activities that cover: making friends, telling stories, building characters in drama, and working with movement and music. (Page count: 48)
Book B – Plays
Finding Your Way with Plays aims to provide students with an approach to entering the world of contemporary Western plays and to encourage them to embark on writing their own plays, with some guidelines. With this in mind, the suggested reading list at the end is by no means exhaustive nor totally comprehensive but it might signal some gaps in a school library that could be filled. (Page count: 51)
Book C – Poetry
Finding Your Way With Poetry is about helping every member of the class gain more enjoyment and confidence in working with poems. Encourage everyone to participate fully and try not to let your knowledge stand in the way of students’ learning. It is important that everyone in the class feels free to experiment with putting forward their responses to the poems. (Page count: 47)
Book D – Writing
Finding Your Way With Writing has been compiled to help you to look at writing in a different way. This book contains a variety of strategies that will help to make writing work for you rather than against you. You will learn how to refine your thought processes through writing; how your reading is linked to how well you write; how working with a group of others can greatly improve your writing and finally understand how teachers actually assess your writing! (Page count: 51)
Book E – Speaking
Finding Your Way with Speaking frames an approach that integrates a range of language strands to explore aspects of the structure and development of oral language. Physiology, phonetics, pronunciation and language origins are among those areas covered as well as more active skills involved in story-telling and the gathering of oral history. (Page count: 56)
Book F – Listening
Finding Your Way With Listening explores listening as a process, in particular its relationship to speaking and explores the different kinds of listening that we do in a range of contexts and situations. The teacher materials comprise a gathering together of points, ideas, historical notes, contemporary thoughts and unusual facts about listening which can provide ‘points of entry’ into many areas of language study. Finding Your Way With Listening provides a companion study to – Finding Your Way With Speaking by the same author. (Page count: 56)
