"Our discovery island" Has anyone used this book series?

I needed to pick one out in a hurry to follow for the after school classes.
I heard good things and just went with it and told the school this was the program I'd be following... But, what's it like?

And has anyone used it with the Active teach? Do I need this software, or is it an optional extra?

yeah I used these books for my after school classes aslo! They are okay... We would do two pages a class (50min class)! Used the book to intoroduce everything and then would just make games out of the lessons... Chants and songs are really bad just didnt do them. Sometimes I was lucky and would find pretty much the same lesson being taught from another book you can find on this site.  Like if the lesson was on colors or clothes I would search for that on here and find helpful games and or worksheets.  Sometimes Just had to break down and make them on my own! Good Luck...

Sorry I didn't check this thread in...well... ages.

Just a quick update, as I am currently lesson planning for tomoz.

And, I'll lead in with this. Discovery Island is great to supplement regular school classes i.e. after school classes. But, if you're looking for something substantial as a sole teaching book. Discovery island isn't it!

After school supplementary classes = YES
As a stand alone teaching book = NO! NO! NO!

I had to make that clear. Ok, on with my assessment so far.


Discovery island.
Well, if you can get the kids into the topics and characters in the books, it's great. But mainly, it just acts as a good platform to make your own materials and supplement lessons. For me, it's perfect, since making a curriculum from scratch and having no idea where to lead into, was a nightmare. This book deals with about 70% of the hassle of figuring out topics and such.

Problems with discovery island... Well. Flashcards, oddly, are one problem. Unless you buy the ones that are linked with the book (super expensive), you might end up taking ages to find and make the right cards. When I have time, I'll upload the pictures I used for the book. You could also just drop some into power point. I think if we can get something uploaded for the chapters in this format, it would save everyone a lot of time.

If anyone else is using this book. How about a team effort and we each do one chapter. Else, I'll do it myself, when I can get around to it.

I generally cover everything in the book, but the book activities really aren't that long, and a lot of them just won't work in my classes. You should expect to either supplement heavily, or just cover a lot more of the book in one lesson. I tend to do the former. I'm in no rush to finish the book. Even though I'm using a lower level book for my classes (I'll get to this in a minute). I think the same problem would apply no matter what level book you're teaching. The lessons plans in the book, just aren't that substantial to fully fill a lesson.
But it's not crazy hard to add in extra related activities, since the topics are generally easy to back up with a related game. If you can come up with an extra 10-15 minute activity for each lesson. You'll be fine. (board slap/telephone game/ask your partner mingle/survey/draw what your partner answers etc.)

What the book really lacks, is pair work, and communication games. Focus on these when you supplement.


Which book, which grade?
There was a problem with my school's budget, and so I ended up using lower grade books for my kids.
It still works though, as the weaker students get to learn, and the stronger students get review.

My original plan, and what books I recommend would be...
Book 2 for grade 3+4.
Book 4 for grade 5+6.

If you're teaching grade 1s and 2s, you could try book 1, but I think it would be really slow going. Although, online I have seen some crazy awesome results from Poland with some really young kids using these books with great success.

It really depends on your kids, but you can still get away with using a lower level book for higher level students, you just have to supplement a lot. Which, for me works fine. It means that no one gets left behind. If you were ONLY using this book to teach though (my classes are afterschool, so it's supplementary to their main lessons), then you'd want to push the kids with a harder book.


Online component
There is also an online component with games. It's not mandatory, but the kids seem to like it. I set it as homework and it's easy to login into the teachers area and check who is using it. Just make sure they make their user account with THEIR NAME!!! Otherwise the kids will sign up with usernames like "PurpleKatz" and "CHoooOO". Very unhelpful.

If you have enough computers or a computer lab, you could take everyone into the computer lab now and then and work through the online games with them.



Ok. gotta dash. Good luck. Any extra thoughts/questions welcome ;)

Hi Our Discovery Island users :)

Am I being really stupid? I have student and workbook 3.  The workbook cd seems to have all the activities, chants etc but the student book has got totally different activities and practices on the cd rom? All the 'listen and circles' and 'listen and says' that are in the student book, don't seem to be on the cd rom? feeling frustrated sigh.