March

This was never meant to become a monthly thing.... but it seems to be becoming one. Oh well... time to get on with the writing.

First thing this month is that I've posted some materials on www.talent.ac.uk (or http://www.talent.ac.uk/dsearch_details.asp?DocumentID=1946 and http://www.talent.ac.uk/dsearch_details.asp?DocumentID=1945 to be more precise) I've been meaning to do it for ages but I needed to sort out some concerns that I've had about copyright... it's all Skills for Life stuff just tweaked for interactive whiteboards and powerpoint - so it's not like I wrote them or anything - it's just very useful. It is visually stronger than just using printed notes and allows for some kinaesthetic work to break up long lessons. Having the sound files embedded as MP3s is so much easier than having to faff about with tapes as well...

What I hadn't realised is how much easier it makes it for me to recap what I had covered in a previous lesson - I can easily show the content covered and play the recordings again for students to get further practice (also good for students with v.flaky attendance!). The only problem is that they take a while to produce.... hopefully by the end of this year I'll have a full set of files for E1 (though the first few need a lot of tweaking).

This month I have also been trying to implement a more student centred approach to my teaching and trying to identify individual targets for students, but in a practical way. It seems to be working - I'm still at the learner training stage of the trial at the moment.
Basically the approach I'm taking follows these steps:

• Ask students to identify interests/relevant areas from the front page of each Sfl unit.
• I identify SMART(ish) targets for each student for the unit and discuss this with the students.
• From these targets I extract the component skills ie. The ESOL Curriculum references.
• I compile a list of skills that are relevant to the targets of each student.
• Lessons are planned to include at least one skill from each student's target.
• An end of unit test is compiled to test each student's target.

It is practical and it is having some effect on how I plan my lessons, hopefully this will motivate the students more.... we'll see.


Today we had a session on the course about teaching the writing process (and other approaches) It was interesting and there was some stuff that I can work on there - especially with my E1s, I've done some similar stuff using the computer, but I should try some on paper.

The other session was on the lexical approach - This had some pointers which I should be able to include in my teaching:

• Always give contexts for words presented.
• Give extra collocations for words presented.
• Train students to look for collocations in texts.
• Train students to record new vocab with its collocates.
  
• Use authentic materials where possible.

Ok, I think I'll have to leave it here for now.... til next time.....

...so here it begins....

....at the beginning. Well, no - in fact it's beginning around the middle, but all's well that end's well, so I'm assured.

I guess I should include some beginning type stuff - I am a lecturer in ESOL at a Further Education College on the outskirts of East London and I am taking a training course with a huge great long name that is crying out for an acronym - I can only imagine that the English Language Teaching, sorry ELT world seems to have run out of acronyms. In my case this course is a follow up to a CELTA (Certificate in Language Teaching to Adults) in order to help my transition from teaching EFL (English as a Foreign Language) to teaching ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) so that the DFES (Department For Education and Skills) will recognise me as a QTLS (no, still not sure on this one).

This is a result of last weeks session on the (ahem, wait for it) Certificate in Further Education Stage 3 with the Certificate for Subject Specialists qualification (try saying that when you're, er... tired) at Tower Hamlets College.

We had the importance of reflective development impressed upon us - and as well as being a requirement for our course it seems to be a very sensible procedure. So here goes....

I recently had an observation at short notice, well it was kind of a meta-observation - my boss was being observed observing me... It was a bit of a disaster to be frank, so I've been a bit concerned about the observation that I'm going to have this week on the course. I've been trying to plan my lessons with a lot more thoroughness - I usually get a bit (read, very) lazy so that's my target at the moment. That and making my lessons engage my students a bit more.

Another thing which happened recently was that I went on a training course in a Kensington Hotel (very, swish) on Differentiation last week. This was a real eye-opener when it comes to teaching multi-level (as ESOL classes often tend to be) classes. Basically differentiation is something which has to run right through my classes - which means that I just need to write down things that I would normally do... that and manage my group work much closer... Ok that's one to put on my list.

This weeks session at Tower Hamlets (slightly less posh) was looking at Assessments, Diagnostics and ICT/IT/e-learning/ILT (insert current buzzword here) and it was very useful. Particularly thought provoking was looking at Douglas-Brown's criteria for assessing assessments - and that basically the diagnostics used by most colleges (including ours, lovingly cribbed from Tower Hamlets College) are somewhat lacking, because - among other things:

• They feel like an exam, so Ss don't relax.
• They don't set any context so Ss can't get a hold easily on the content.
• They don't give realistic tasks that transparently test the four skills independently

We then looked at some currently being used at THC which seemed amazing - they basically run as mini lessons with small groups of learners, where learners are discreetly assessed by a teacher and then detailed diagnostic grids are recorded. It seems to be a much better way of doing things - much more pleasant for the students and probably more likely to give useable data.

Next week we'll be looking at ILP's (spits on floor with disgust). It seems that the Arbour Square team have almost completely eliminated them for ESOL. How they managed to do that and not get an OFSTED SWAT team abseiling through the windows is beyond me, so I'll be paying very close attention to that one next week.

Then in the afternoon with Graciano Soares, we looked at e-learning policies - to sum everything up, basically the government sees it as essential that teaching practitioners remain up-to-date with Information Technology. That's probably a sensible thing, because almost all areas of work need IT, so it fits with the vocational 'into-work' focus of the current government. I couldn't really disagree with it - but I could do with a bit more training in how exactly to TEACH IT, I have no problem using it, but I could do with a few more opportunities to practice.

Anyway, got to go now... it's getting late - hopefully this should be pretty much a weekly occurrence - I'm definitely going to try and keep it up.