Hello everyone.
I'm looking into the High Point series by Hampton-Brown for my high school ESL students (10 students at the moment, very beginning to low intermediate). I have viewed sample materials (the Basic Level, I think) and it appears to effectively address some of the issues and needs of my students, but advice from someone who has experience with the series is invaluable. In our current situation, that's a huge chunk of change to spend on texts, so I'm doing as much research as I can. I'd appreciate hearing your remarks.
Thanks.
Does anyone have experience with High Point series?
Moderators: Dimitris, maneki neko2, Lorikeet, Enrico Palazzo, superpeach, cecil2, Mr. Kalgukshi2
2nd year with HP
This is our district's second year using High Point in both middle and high school. Last year I helped write the district HS ESL curriculum and halfway through the project called a meeting to ask why the heck we were working so hard when High Points was such a great resource with an even greater TE. Very rare.
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- Posts: 1
- Joined: Thu Oct 07, 2004 7:16 pm
- Location: Oakland, California
Using HighPoint for ELD
HighPoint has been designed for use by Special Education classes in addition to ELD classes. ESL professionals have been trying for many years to get administrators to recognize that SEd and ESL are not the same thing, yet, in my district these texts are intended to cover two entirely different areas of instruction.
I have used HighPoint for Basic, Level B, and Level C. I find that they do not reinforce grammar structures adequately, introduce or work toward mastery of a necessary vocabulary, nor scaffold sufficiently for research and other academic writing tasks, in spite of the fact that these texts are used in high schools for college bound students. Most of the worksheets are too brief and too easy, particularly for high schoolers. In addition, the unit tests rely too heavily on multiple choice questions, which while they are easy to grade, have been shown repeatedly to do little to actually assess knowledge or comprehension.
In addition, the texts are designed for optimum school situations; those with easily accessible computers, printers, and libraries. I also noted many entries which imply very small classes so that their is time and space for one on one interaction between the students and teachers. For some districts, the suggestions ask for more than the school can provide. I believe the publishers should review the context (environment) which would be most conducive to best use of the text and make that information readily available.
All that being said, HighPoint is better than many texts because it helps teachers who are new or untrained in ESL to focus their lesson plans. HP also tries to integrate all four skill areas, throughout the units, sometimes with more success than others, and it is a good jumping off point for other, more production-oriented activities.
Barbara Castleton
ELD Department
Oakland Tech High School
Oakland, CA
I have used HighPoint for Basic, Level B, and Level C. I find that they do not reinforce grammar structures adequately, introduce or work toward mastery of a necessary vocabulary, nor scaffold sufficiently for research and other academic writing tasks, in spite of the fact that these texts are used in high schools for college bound students. Most of the worksheets are too brief and too easy, particularly for high schoolers. In addition, the unit tests rely too heavily on multiple choice questions, which while they are easy to grade, have been shown repeatedly to do little to actually assess knowledge or comprehension.
In addition, the texts are designed for optimum school situations; those with easily accessible computers, printers, and libraries. I also noted many entries which imply very small classes so that their is time and space for one on one interaction between the students and teachers. For some districts, the suggestions ask for more than the school can provide. I believe the publishers should review the context (environment) which would be most conducive to best use of the text and make that information readily available.
All that being said, HighPoint is better than many texts because it helps teachers who are new or untrained in ESL to focus their lesson plans. HP also tries to integrate all four skill areas, throughout the units, sometimes with more success than others, and it is a good jumping off point for other, more production-oriented activities.
Barbara Castleton
ELD Department
Oakland Tech High School
Oakland, CA