The Teacher's Book includes full CEFR mapping, complete lesson plans, audio scripts, answer keys, video activities, optional activities, tips for mixed ability classes and a Games Bank.

 

Welcome to Eyes Open

 

Eyes Open is a four-level course for lower-secondary students, which will give you and your students all the tools you need for successful and enjoyable language teaching and learning. Teaching secondary students can be challenging, even for the most experienced of teachers. It is a period of great change in young teenagers' lives, and it sometimes seems that their interests lie anywhere but in the classroom. It is the teacher's demanding task to engage students in the learning process, and Eyes Open' s mission is to help them as much as possible to achieve this. After extensive research and investigation involving teachers and students at secondary school level, we've come to a clear conclusion: sparking students' curiosity and desire to learn is one of the main driving forces which can enhance and facilitate the learning process. The aim of Eyes Open is to stimulate curiosity through interesting content via impactful video, visual images and 'real world' content on global themes.

 

How Eyes Open will benefit you and your students:

• Engaging real world content

• Eyes Open contains a wealth of fascinating reading texts and informative Discovery Education video clips. The two-page Discover Culture sections bring global cultures to the classroom,  greatly enhancing the students' learning experience whilst simultaneously reinforcing target language. The texts and three Discovery Education video clips per unit often revolve around teenage protagonists. The wide variety of themes, such as natural history, inspiring personal stories, unusual lifestyles, international festivals and customs, teach students about the world around them through the medium of English, whilst also promoting values such as cultural awareness and social responsibility. Each unit also has an accompanying CUL lesson (with accompanying Discovery Education video) which contains a reading text and activities. Each unit's texts, together with the videos, encourage the students to reflect on, discuss and explore the themes further.

 

Extra support for speaking and writing:

Most learners find speaking and writing particularly challenging, and so the Speaking and Writing pages in the Student's Book and the Workbook are structured in such a way as to lead the students step by step through the tasks necessary to reach the final goal of that page. This approach has been designed to help build students confidence and fluency. In addition, the guided Your turn sections at the end of lessons give students the opportunity to activate new language.

Visual impact:

Youth culture today is visually oriented and teenagers are easily bored by material that is not visually attractive. In addition to the video content, images in Eyes Open have been chosen to appeal to young students. Each unit begins with a large impactful image designed to attract the students' attention and encourage them to engage with the content of the unit. Reading texts are accompanied by artwork which draws the students into the page and stimulates them to want to know what the text is about.

A personalised approach:

Secondary students also need to see how the world they are reading about, watching or listening to relates to them and their own world. They also need ample opportunity to practise new language in a safe environment. Eyes Open offers multiple opportunites for students to personalise the topics via the carefully structured Your turn activities which appear at the end of lessons. These sections add a relevance to the subjects and themes which is central to their successful learning. In Eyes Open students are encouraged to talk about themselves and their opinions and interests, but care is taken to avoid them having to reveal personal information which they may be uncomfortable discussing.