Methodology Pill No. 25 Planning a Writing Skills Lesson

Hello again,

This entry is about how to plan a writing skills lesson and the reason for it and the accompanying videos is that often trainee teachers and sometimes also teachers cannot identify the main stages of a writing lesson. Writing, like all the other skills, needs to be approached by looking at what specific sub skill(s) we want to focus on in the classroom as simply saying 'We'll do some writing today' or 'We'll write a letter today' is enough.Needless to say, we need to exactly which are of writing we are going to focus on in that given lesson e.g. genre or text types, accuracy, fluency, coherence, cohesion, punctuation, layout, paragraphing, etc. Often when observing writing lessons either on teacher training courses or as part of the internal teacher training development program, stages are not clearly identified and this usually means there is not enough of clear scaffolding for students to complete the tasks successfully and benefit from going through the process.

Now, there are different ways to approach writing depending on what you want to achieve with your group of learners, what level they are, what their immediate writing needs are, the course syllabus and the time available.  Here I just want to offer a set of suggestions on what stages may be followed when approaching Writing skills in the ESOL classroom as found in the literature available.

I created both a longer video which addresses all the stages one by one and also give ideas for each stage - ideas which I have tried and tested over the years :-)...

and a shorter one using PowToon for those on the go and which may help you quickly revise those ideas you are already familiar with.

Bye for now and I hope your find this post helpful.

Methodology Pills No. 23 and 24 - Planning Receptive Skills and Language Focused Lessons

It's been almost 6 weeks since my last public post so I think it's time for one more before my few followers think I'm gone! I started my second MA in October and so I've been rather busy with work and study and family troubles :-(, but I'm back!

This entry is about Planning Receptive Skills (reading/listening) and Language Focused (Grammar, Vocabulary or Functions) lessons while on a CELTA course, but the suggested stages and ideas given here are certainly applicable to receptive skills lessons in general and beyond the course. The main idea behind this entry and accompanying video is that of supporting my trainees on the course by offering a few ideas for each of the different stages. It became more evident than ever on my last course that if we want to get the message across and we want our students to 'see' what we mean, then the best way to do it is by 'showing' them what we mean.  With this in mind and a few questions posed by my trainees, I created this Methodology Pill No. 23 so I trust it will be useful not only while on the course but after it.  The video is also up on my YouTube channel and it is public so I'm simply linking it here for ease of access.

The Methodology Pill No. 24 Planning Language Focused lessons aims at showing different ideas and examples for the different stages of any of these lessons. Something to take into account is that all the suggestions made are while adopting a Guided Discovery approach so very different from the traditional PPP (Presentation Practice Production). Again, the reason for this video was also in response to my trainees' request for extra ideas and a way to be able to access these ideas other than through their notes.

I hope you find both screen casts useful.

University of Nottingham MA in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching - Here we go!

I have started a second MA, this time on Digital Technologies for Language Teaching with the University of Nottingham and the course program the tutors and the online facilities are excellent.  We're using the latest version of Moodle which is pretty slick and I love it already. I'm also using it on the course I tutor on, the Cert ICT by TheConsultants-e and it's great to be able to use it both as a students on the MA course and as a tutor on the CertICT program as this gave me an enhanced understanding of the Moodle platform when I first did it a couple of years ago first when I did the CertICT myself and then when I started tutoring.

Anyways, we've started with socialisation tasks using Popplet, and it's great to do this because I hadn't used it for over 6 months now so it's great to get back to it and see how much such a simple tool can be used to establish relationships, build group rapport and all done in the spirit of technology being harnessed to reach a very clear pedagogical aim.  I love it already and can't wait to get into the nitty-gritty of my course program.

Needless to say, my posts from now on will be heavily influenced by my studies while on the course. All the same, this doesn't mean that my Methodology Pills will stop from coming along!  On the contrary, I hope they will get even better with all the new stuff I will be reading about and studying and learning!  Yay!

Methodology Pill No. 22 Lead-ins & Warmers

It's been a month since my last post so time does fly fast! It's now two weeks since the Aug CELTA course finished and although it's by no means less hectic than before, I've managed to set some time aside to do this Methodology Pill which became evident on the last course my future and now ex-trainees would appreciate.

The idea is that of giving a few ideas and examples of lead-ins and warmers via examples built around a real text found in a popular course book, in this case - Cutting Edge Elementary page 21. I've used this text before and thought it would make sense to use a real teaching text as an example.  Now, I don't claim to own any of these ideas as some I've picked up through my 20-year long teacher career in 8 different countries and from different colleagues so I just put them all together in this video as examples of what can be done. Of course, there are lots of possibilities and combinations so the sole aim is to get you started with some tried and tested examples which can enhance the learning experience of your students.

Adobe Voice - storytelling in minutes

It's been a while since my last post, but it's been a hectic summer with our summer intensive CELTA courses going on, finishing and completing the admin for the Trinity CertICT I moderate and getting started on my second MA (in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching with the  University of Nottingham :-) which rocks big time :-) so here we go again...

I've got AppsGoneFree in my iPad and it's great because every day you get a short listing of apps that are free for the day. I always make sure I take a few minutes to browse through to see if there's anything that would capture my interest for the classroom for students,  trainee teachers or my own professional development. One very nice and super easy to use app I came across recently was Adobe Voice. I initially thought it looked cool but I didn't give it much attention until last week when I was trying to find a way to make a quick video to help my trainees with the Guided Discovery and Receptive Skills Frameworks, which they always struggle with at the beginning.  I decided to give it a look and so I went and watched their tutorial video and voila, I realised it was easier that I thought.  In minutes I created two 3 and 4 min videos for the topics above:

Guided Discovery in the English Language Classroom

A Framework for Receptive Skills in the English Language Classroom

The feature I liked the most is the simplicity with which you can choose your images and record the audio. All you have to do is type in a key word and lots of options come up. For the audio, press the record button and then say what you want to say. I must admit that I had to record several times so that I would have clear and complete thought groups on what I wanted to say but the fact that each stage is individual means you don't have to worry about editing the audio as you can re-record each time your slide from scratch and when the app puts the whole video together it does it seamlessly!  OK, I think it's now for you to go and enjoy using it!

Searching Google more efficiently using 'Search Operators'

Right, it's been a while since my last post and as usual it's been manic here. I know I haven't got many followers ;-) but I do feel bad for those of you following me whenever I get caught up in all the different things I do, like this time, and then do not post regularly :-(! 

Anyways, one of the topics I was discussing with trainees the other day was that of how to run searches on the internet in a more efficient way other than simply writing a string of words and hitting enter. At the same time, I was to update a task on the course I tutor on and which initially led me to the creation of this blog some years back (the CertICT) and so after getting some ideas from colleagues, suggestions from trainees and trolling the internet, I came across several options which I then decided where too 'textual' and not very engaging for my taste!  I like colour, visuals, sound and the like and manage to retain information longer if I'm exposed to these so I created the Powtoon below with the info I found. Hope you like it! ;-)

Internet access? Posts app will help you if blogging on the go

Hello everybody,

I just came back from my annual leave so I'm back blogging :-)! Anyways, today's post is rather a self reflection entry on my trip to Nepal and how not having always access to the internet made me think about how much access I do have when at home. Of course this is not a criticism of the availability of internet in Nepal as it is widely spread. I simply didn't always have it because I was travelling around the country! I was still moderating the CertICT by TheConsultants-e.com via my iPad and so this was not an easy task - doable but not easy-peasey! 

One of the things I noticed and quickly had to adapt to was making sure I was writing entries, making comments and doing things in general more efficiently and faster than when I'm home so not a bad consequence of the limited access I had! In this respect I found my iPad app Posts(Version 1.1(24) was a great help as I could prepare the posts there and save them as drafts offline for latter posting. This was sometimes frustrating as even if entries had been prepared in Pages a slow connection meant I couldn't always publish my posts in the Moodle. I'm using MoodlEZ (paid for app for Moodle at USD2.99) and although it generally works well when at home, in Nepal it was hard to use because of how long it would take to have all the features active on the screen. Again, I believe this was really more due to the low speed of the connection than to the app.

I also realised that technology has permeated our lives in ways we could not have dreamed of a decade ago. I wonder how positive this is and whether we can actually make sure it is positive somehow! Along the same lines, it reminded me of how important it is to make informed decisions when planning IT integration into our lessons, training sessions and in general whenever we are in the classroom. I think that less is more as they say and in this light I'll keep an even more critical eye on how I use IT to ensure it is more quality IT than quantity IT. Would you agree?

Robert

Methodology Pill No. 19 - Planning Lessons for Young Learners

Hello everybody,

In this methodology pill I explore the planning of lessons for a young learner audience. I work as main tutor on the University of Cambridge Young Learner Extension to CELTA course (Age range 8-13) and so the aim is that of helping trainees get their head round how to plan lessons for young learners. Now, these are simply guidelines and needless to say I do not claim that this is the only way to do it - extremes are never a healthy approach and there are many other ways of doing so approach the screen cast with a flexible mind!

I was curious myself as a trainer to find out more about how to approach lesson planning and design for young learners and this led me to re-read 8 books on Teaching English to Young Learners (they're listed in the video). I then summarised the main ideas about the stages and lesson patterns discussed in the literature and put together a table - the one I talk about in the video - with the aim of trying to provide some general guidelines which trainees could make use of. I then, look at a suggested plan of action for the planning and delivery of a 2 hour lesson (here at out centre lessons are 2 hours so on any Teaching day of the course there are 3 trainees delivering 3x40min lessons with a 10min break after the second one). I also make comparisons between the PPP framework for adult lessons and how the similarities between the stages appear although under different names and also through a different approach in YL classes.  These comparisons are made to try and help trainees see similarities and differences.

You will notice that this analysis is done for the young group on the course, that is, our Juniors (8-9 yo) and that the materials we are currently using with them (Footprints 1) also condition or have an impact on the way the lesson is conducted as these materials suggest a specific set of stages for the lessons. Once again, please note that different centres do it differently and yet this does not mean anyone is right or wrong! This is the way we have  been doing it at our centre and the results and feedback have indicated it works, students are happy and show they have improved their English while on the course and so I want to share this experience with you. I hope you find it helpful and if anything that it makes you reflect on your own way of doing things! After all, reflection is a powerful catalyst for change!

Thank you!

Robert

Blogging Services Compared

I've just come across this post by Richard Byrne in his Free Technology for Teachers Blog and I felt compelled to share it through my blog too as I think it's very clear and informative besides the fact that I'm a blogger too! Thanks Richard!

I'm sure you will draw your own conclusions after reading his post and table. I'd say it is rather straight forward as Blogger offers far more possibilities and options to you as a blogger, and the only fee incurred in would be if you wanted some custom domain mapping which sounds fair as it would require extra work.

I've been using Blogger since 2008 and my experience has been very positive. As you may have read at the top of the main page this blogging experience started as an experiment, grew and continues to grow as a personal repository of tools I come across, try and experiment with, and then mention here reporting on what I found out. I now have 19 followers and so I think it's no longer just a repository of tools I find but I somehow feel obliged to them - thank you so much for following my blog! 

Ok, I'm sure you'll find Richard's post interesting and informative, and that if you want to get into blogging then that you go for Blogger!

Methodology Pills for Induced Reflection No. 18 Language & Skills Lesson Planning Guidelines

One of the most common complaints on the CELTA course is that of trainees finding it difficult to plan coherent lessons. Thornbury (1999) says that this is due to the fact that novice teachers lack experientially-derived lesson schemata. Although this is more often than not the case it is also due to the fact that many teachers come to the course with different levels of experience and as such they need to both learn and unlearn behaviours which may not have been the most appropriate to address their students' needs.

With the above in mind, I decided to make a screen cast on lesson planning while on the University of Cambridge CELTA course for which I am a tutor and assessor. The idea is that of giving trainees general guidelines which will help them get started with their planning of receptive skills lessons or language lessons by looking at the PPP and Guided Discovery frameworks. While on the course trainees also look at Text-based, Test-Teach-Test, and Task-based Learning frameworks, but focus on PPP or Guided Discovery for their Teaching Practice as 'it is better that they become proficient at executing and automating a limited repertoire' (Thornbury 1999).

Please note that these are guidelines and therefore I do not claim them to be the only frameworks available, the best ones or anything along those lines. The idea is to provide trainees with the basics for lesson planning while constantly underlining the fact that whichever framework they choose should always revolve around their making of informed decisions while planning to address the students' needs. This screen cast is designed to support trainees before, while and after the course by providing a checklist they can refer to until they feel confident enough to unleash their creativity by adapting, meshing, re-creating, designing whenever necessary these frameworks.

Methodology Pills for Induced Reflection No. 17 Lower & Higher Order Thinking Skills

Lower and Higher Order Thinking skills have been a recurrent theme in all my conversations and reading lately and so I thought it was a good idea to create a PowToon on it. I drew on different sources from the internet and so all the content is traceable and obviously not mine! This video has helped me consolidate and what I knew and also think more carefully about LOTS & HOTS so I hope you find it as useful!