Title: The OPD in Jail
Product review: I use the Oxford Picture Dictionary at least twice a week with the inmates at a county jail in Illinois. My students are adult males from 18 to 56. Some have never been to school and are illiterate in their native language as well as in English. Because my students come and go at the will of the courts I use various year one textbooks. The one consistency in my materials is the OPD. No matter what the lesson of the day, there is something in the OPD that can reinforce the lesson and give opportunity to use the language. I am a great believer in the value of interactivity in the classroom, and the OPD offers many opportunities for valuable small group, partner, and around-the-circle verbal exercises. Even when I have not specified using the OPD, I find my students leafing through it or, better yet, using the Index, to find out what I am talking about. My students love the OPD, and so do I.
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