Self-access on a Budget
Not all self-access ideas need to cost a fortune. Here are a few ideas
for how you might develop resources in your school. You'll have loads more
ideas! Why not send them to us to include here?
Make sure you have a good 'cataloguing system' for your materials. Even if
your resources are limited to one cupboard, you will want to know where to
shelve things so th
You can cut up published material for self-study, but use originals, and
remember to follow the copyright guidelines outlined at the back of publishers'
catalogues. Don't forget the answer key and/or notes.
Remember all the free material available - newspapers, magazines, journals,
brochures... but remember how long it takes to convert them into worksheets!
You'll need 'browser boxes' to hold your worksheets. If you can afford to
get them built, great, but perhaps students with carpentry skills could build
some for you. Failing that, cardboard boxes, box files or ordinary files will
do.
Use your own students' work. (e.g. model compositions, student produced
exercises, puzzles, error correction texts etc.)
Laminate your worksheets if possible. If you can't, stick them on card for a
more durable resource.
Create a language lab! It might only be a couple of Walkmans, but it can
grow!
- Encourage student feedback at all stages
- Setting up - what do your students want?
- Using - What problems do they encounter?
- What's useful/popular?
- What's missing?
- How should the centre be developed?
- What equipment isn't working?
Set up Project work to link classroom syllabuses to the self-access centre.
E.g. clothes vocabulary in class could lead to a 'Fashion Project' with
worksheets, texts, Internet sites, video, student artwork etc.
Don't be too fussy about levels; aim for a more flexible structure than in
class work. In our British Council teaching centre, we're experimenting with a
three-level structure
Some kind of booking system might be necessary to ensure that all your
students.
Think about having some competitions to encourage your students to use the
self-access resources, with prizes for the most imaginative response.
Decorate your self-access space with exhibitions of student work - projects,
pictures, texts etc.
If you have some more ideas for setting up a self-access centre with
minimal resources, contact us.
Michael Rodden, British Council, Lisbon
Link to original
article.
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