Practical ideas!

With only a few CLIL books out there, I quickly noticed this CLIL resource pack. The book itself is quite different for a couple of reasons. First of all, the target audience are primary schools and lower grades of the secondary schools. Furthermore, unlike other CLIL books, this book offers little background information on CLIL. Only four pages are spend on explaining CLIL and the use of the Resource Pack, the rest of the book is all about worksheets and lesson materials.

Lay-out of the book

The CLIL Resource Pack is an a-4 sized book. This might be an odd choice at first, but it’s an deliberate and obvious choice as you turn the book open and read it through. On every page you will find a lesson description on the left side of the book and a photocopiable worksheet for your lesson on the right side of the book. Because worksheets in class are typically a-4 size, this explains both the size of the book.

Each of the lesson description is divided into a couple of categories: Warm up, Procedure, Follow up. Useful websites as well as cross curricular links are also mentioned with each topic. This allows teachers to easily choose a topic and have a good idea for a lesson within a minute. CLIL Resource Pack offers a wide variety of topics like

“Life cycles”, “Light and Sounds”, “Materials and Properties” and “Environmental and Global Issues”

Different levels

Each topic in The CLIL Resource Pack is presented at three level, with two lessons at a different levels. Level 1 is focused on 8-10 year olds, Level 2 at 10-12 year olds and level 3 at 12+ year olds. With the added cross curriculum references and web links, the topics are discussed in great detail and the worksheets can be a valuable asset to your lesson.

CD-ROM and extra material

With the book comes a CD-ROM with all of the material digitally available. The CD-ROM also contains audio recordings to allow for listening activities. Because the audio recordings are in native English, this can enhance lessons a lot as authentic material is a must in CLIL lessons.

Conclusion

CLIL Resource Pack offers a lot for CLIL lessons. It does however focus on a few topics and is therefore less suited for all teachers. If you teach on a secondary school, this book should be available in the school library for teachers as a welcome and much needed source of inspiration and authentic audio material. If you teach on a primary school you can make a lot more use of the different activities and levels, as you will want to differentiate a lot.

I would highly recommend this book. The clearly defined lesson plans, the ready-to-use worksheets and the CD-ROM with audio files make for a complete and useful resource for every CLIL teacher.

This book review was published in CLIL Magazine Spring 2015.

More information: CLIL Resource pack by Margaret Grieveson and Wendy Superfine