Sugarbag on Damper - A Whole New World

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A Whole New World

A Whole New World has been edited by Dorothy Court, Hazel Davidson and Margaret Hounslow and contains teaching tips and materials contributed by many teachers currently working with newly arrived refugees with no or minimal prior formal schooling:
Barbara Morris, Cecilia Lai, Dorothy Court, Erica Lloyd-Smith, Fran Cooke, Jo Freeman, Hazel Davidson, Heather Jackson, Hetty Lesnewski, Jenny Trevino, Karen Jeffery, Linda Bell, Lyndal Reid, Margaret Hounslow, Mary Mew and Phoebe Mostafa.

The book is accompanied by a sound recording of language-teaching songs, entitled Songs for a Whole New World, featuring George Buwali as lead singer and guitarist with a group of ESL teachers, Dorothy Court, Hazel Davidson, Lyndal Reid and Renée Newling.
There are also three chants on the CD, led by Renée Newling and Margaret Hounslow.

The book contains 33 pages of notes for teachers, covering topics such as classroom routines, sight words, health safety and other life skills, alphabet, starting spelling, speaking in a slow, simple and sparse manner; next comes a section on organising your day, week, term which includes lists of transferable and survival language, a sample programme, notes on fatigue and stress, all-day excursions and suggestions for on-going projects and programming in mainstream schools. There are also tips for using and making reading texts as well as photocopiable charts and pictures, a bibliography, notes on use of the exercises which follow and a cover for the exercises.
Then there are 52 pages of photocopiable exercises on the alphabet and basic punctuation, numbers, dates, time and weather, daily routine and personal information, general vocabulary, the verb to be and personal pronouns.
The next section contains the words of all the songs to be found on the CD, Songs for a Whole New World, plus several extra old favourites which students generally enjoy. There are also some explanatory notes and photocopiable photos to illustrate some of the songs.
Finally there are three photocopiable basic reading texts: What is Happening Now?, written in the present continuous with examples of he, she, it and they as subjects; John and Hazel Live in Brisbane in the habitual simple present tense with photos illustrating daily routine and various hygiene practices; Holiday in 2004 which features the simple past tense with photos of a variety of Australian animals and landscapes. These texts are accompanied by suggestions for exercises to precede and/or follow them

The CD Songs for a Whole New World is a teaching tool, rather than a musical experience. The songs and chants have been written specifically to teach basic English language structures and vocabulary: days of the week, months of the year, parts of the body, daily routine, colours, numbers, greetings, Australian Christmas customs, using and ATM and so on. They are performed twice: the first time very slowly "lined", where the leader sings a line, which is repeated by the group, then he sings the second line etc. Finally the whole song is repeated by the group at a slightly faster pace.

The editors welcome comments and suggestions from other teachers.

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