The book Brilliant!

Five has 120 pages, 5 units of 8 lessons each, that is 40 lessons, created

by Jean Denise Salazar Wolfe and Laura Aurora Núñez Sierra published by Santillana, it is

an elementary level book recommended for 5th grade or for children from 9 to 11 years.

The book contains a good structure and an interesting syllabus for student learning. In each

lesson, students have readings or audios that give them a specific context of what the topic

will be about, they have practice sections, either written or oral, and at the end of the unit

they can share what they learned during the lessons, even It has a section where they can

replicate the topics in an original and personal way to reinforce them. Lastly, in each

section they have a self-assessment section. The book provides specific instructions that

help each student to be evaluated in a similar or equal way. The book has different

materials such as the student's book, the teacher's book, the reader's book and a CD to use

in the lessons that need an audio. Brilliant! Five has the availability to work in a team with

it, but in the same way, it can work individually if necessary, more than teamwork, the

book encourages sharing ideas and information with other students. It has a good

grammatical structure for teaching how to use it and when to use it, it has a varied

vocabulary but not so wide, but an effective vocabulary that will help to express oneself

and to know its meaning.

The activities provided by the book allow the necessary skills to be developed, such as

Listening, Reading, Writing, but very little speaking, however, the teacher can adapt them

with the help of dialogues, role plays to help a more real interaction, as well There is a clear

disadvantage, which is that it does not teach how to pronounce it, there is no reinforcement

of how to speak it with more precision or accuracy. Although there are many topics in the

book, it is not 100% guaranteed that it will be completely of interest to the student, the
topics provide information that will help the student in terms of knowledge, but it does not

end up developing in topics of great interest. The level of language is adequate and well

written for students, as well as varied inclusion in the book, highlighting that being a book

created by a Mexican publisher, illustrations can be found with which students can feel

identified. However, the book does not propose more approaches, it is handled with a single

structure, such as a cycle, an audio, a reading, an exercise to complete words, vocabulary

review and production, it does not focus on any other didactic activity that can be to do

outside of the syllabus.

The design of the book is practical, colorful and attractive to the student's eyes. The

advantage that you have with it is that it is a free distribution book, that is, it is provided by

schools and it is easy to acquire, either physically or digitally.

 Reference:

Salazar Wolfe, J. D., & Nuñez Sierra, L. A. (2012). Brilliant! Five (2nd ed.). Santillana.

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