Easy True Stories: A Picture-Based Beginning Reader

In an effort to teach my neighbors English, I went to the library and reviewed many of the TESL books in my local branch. I borrowed several and found this one to be the best for starting reading. The stories are extracted from newspaper articles that are gossipy and that have vocabulary words related to current life. For example, there are stories about true love, tatoos, how to find a spouse, etc. The articles are charming and they are good humoured. My neighbors got a good laugh out of the first story about a couple with mattress problems. This was a great beginning for their work with me. The other stories have helped the students open up and talk about their lives in English. I do think the exercises after the stories could be more relevant and more conducive to drilling. I can't move through the book very quickly because it doesn't pick out grammar and idioms for my students to study. However, it has some very good conversation topics in the teacher section. It also has some writing exercises. In the past, I have taught foreign languages to high school students but never English as a Second Language to adults. This is a new experience for me. I do think that this is the best material I have found so far to keep the students engaged and get them thinking about the words they need in daily life. It will take a long time to finish all the articles and then I will be able to update this review.

This is one more of a remarkably effective and well-thought out series. I have almost every level so far and each book has added enormously to my English classes. Even so, I was hesitant to get this level because I didn't see how the layout was going work. I needn't have worried. The previous level book (Very Easy True Stories) is set up so that there are illustrations with captions. This level has the the same clear illustrations, but the story is written in paragraph form on the the facing page. What I do is use the book as a speaking tool. I have my students read the story and then tell it to one of their classmates, or to me, pointing to the illustrations to help them continue. Having the story on the opposite page means that I can cover up the words and so they have to search their minds for the appropriate vocabulary instead of continually looking for the word on the page. I have used this method with students from every leel and because the stories are so captivating, it works very well for all. The students are barely conscious that they are learning new vocabulary; they are excited to be speaking and telling an interesting story. Each story is followed by exercises which reenforce the vocabulary and act as indicators as to whether the student has understood both the specifics and the general idea of the text. I hope that the author comes out with a second part of this level as she's done with the first level.

An earlier review talks about how well this book works for school-age students. I teach ESL to adults, and my students love this book. Some of them have copied the stories out of the book, even though I never give them an assignment to do that. The progression from Very Easy True Stories to this book (Easy True Stories) to True Stories is really well done. The English is closely attached to drawings in the easiest book, but as the series gets more advanced the drawings - the "training wheels" - gradually lose their importance.

The school-age ESL student I worked with found the stories to be challenging and intriguing. Topics such as a woman with hundreds of tattoos and a flying car kept interest high while working on reading comprehension skills. Each story is set up to be an independent lesson that can be effectively taught without any prior preparation.