EPIC Teacher's Guide - Book - Page 17
11. Pupil's Course Book and Epic Stories and More
The Epic program includes two resources for pupils: the Course Book (including the ABC
Notebook) and Epic Stories and More. The Epic Course Book includes the Getting Ready
section, followed by five units. Each unit includes 9 parts of extensive practice of vocabulary,
lexical chunks, phonemic awareness, and development of reading and writing. Instructions
for the activities appear in detail in the Teacher’s Guide. Teachers should be aware that the
instructions in the Course Book do not reflect the full potential of each activity and they
should refer to the complete instructions in the Teacher’s Guide.
Working in parallel to the Course Book, Epic Stories and More provides the stories that serve
as the contextual framework for the lexical items and chunks taught in the program, as well
as provide ample opportunity for pupils to build and enhance their reading literacy
development. Epic Stories features six brilliantly inviting storybooks that are read with the
help of the teacher, as well as texts for the pupils to develop, practice, and master their
reading skills.
An answer key for all the exercises in the Course Book appears in Appendix IV.
12. Using Max the Puppet in the Classroom
Puppets are a very important teaching tool in educational programs for young learners. In
this program, Max is used regularly in class to engage and motivate pupils, and to help break
down their inhibitions about speaking a new language. He becomes another English speaker
in the classroom, someone to converse with during morning introductions and greetings,
when singing songs, giving instructions, reviewing pupils’ work, playing games, and praising
pupils for their participation or accomplishments. Max can be useful in modeling lexical
chunks, and questions and responses. He can be used as a partner in dialogues or in pair
work. Children will readily volunteer to interact with Max. Using him often in the classroom
increases their confidence in using the English language, encourages motivation to
participate, and sparks their interest in the lesson in general.
13. Cooperative Learning
Using a language is a social activity. When learning a new language, situations must be
created so that pupils have as many opportunities as possible to interact with each other in
order to make sense of and create meaning in the new language. Engaging in cooperative
learning puts the responsibility for learning on the pupils and fosters important social skills,
such as willingness to listen and help each other.
Epic provides a multitude of such opportunities through the games that can be played in
pairs or in teams and through the activities in the Course Book. Teachers should allow pupils
to work in pairs when doing the activities so that they can learn from each other and help
each other solve any problems they might encounter when completing the tasks. Even if
they speak in L1 when completing the task, the ultimate response to the activity will be in
the English language. The materials also provide opportunities for the pupils to present
original work to the class, at the same time giving others a chance to manage a discourse
with the presenter by asking relevant questions.
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