Examiners and those responsible for internal assessment follow a similar process, and in many cases use the same criteria and grading scales. Consistency of application and of approach come from training and from moderation; these sessions review the appropriate evaluation criteria and descriptors, samples of student writing, marks or grades assigned to the pieces and reasons for those marks. Participants "trial mark" student writing, which is then compared to the actual marks awarded.
Talking about the not-so-smart among us is challenging. How to be neutral and descriptive without being pejorative? How to say a potentially bad or thing in a nice way? How to tell a parent that his/her pride and joy is not ... um ... not-so-smart? Join us as we review common expressions which can be used, and those which should be avoided, for those who are not intellectually-blessed.
What is "writing"? Why teach writing and when and how? How to evaluate writing? If you have questions, we can help. Keep reading.
What is "speaking"? Why teach speaking and when and how? How to evaluate speaking? If you have questions, we can help. Keep reading.
Groupwork is one of the most effective teaching and learning tools, and is of course an integral part of life beyond school in all contexts. Accordingly, evaluating a student's groupwork performance should be a part of his/her oral performance profile.
Pairwork is likely the most effective teaching and learning tools, and is of course an integral part of life beyond school in all contexts. Accordingly, evaluating a student's Pairwork performance should be a part of his/her oral performance profile.
Several universities in Chile have international and US accreditation through the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), however many of the academics and administrators involved with both accreditation and re-accreditation are unfamiliar with the English of accreditation and with the MSCHE process. This Advanced English series reviews MSCHE publications, using them as prompts for advanced language development.*
Schools can be run, led, administered and governed and the differences are not always clear. In small schools, one person may perform all these functions, while in large schools and school corporations, several people may be responsible for all or even for each. While these functions are interesting to review, the English involved is both general and specialised. These Advanced English sessions develop and extend the English of, for and about school administration.
An Open Study is a student-selected and student-directed piece of writing where s/he applies the Response and Analysis tools and techniques acquired and developed in class to literary and non-literary texts. Students select the texts and areas for discussion, while also producing a piece truly representative of the student's competencies and suitable for summative evaluation.
Over the course of a year or a programme or a cycle, students amass a significant quantity of written work, some of which shows progress and development, some achievement. These are of course not the same, and a focus on the latter harms the former. Portfolio assessment means the student selects pieces from his/her annual, programme or cycle corpus against defined criteria and the selection as a whole is then assessed, being both representative as will as summative.
Play for young(er) chidren is seen as "a good thing" and is often described as the child's "work". "Play-based" programmes abound, however play is frequently misunderstood and mis-applied and can have little or no educational value. This session considers Developmentally Appropriate play and how it can be an effective learning and teaching strategy.
Click on the event title(s) below for more information. Leave your questions or comments below, or contact us for registration information. The events below are open group sessions from our Seminars, Advanced Use of English and Professional Conversation programmes; contact us to ask about scheduling open on demand or closed private programmes.
This page is updated twice a week so please check back, or join the emailing list for event announcements.
A useful simplification and generalisation for Beginner to Lower Intermediate level students is that uncountable nouns cannot be counted. Sadly, this is not absolute; they are not exceptions to the rule. Many, if not most, "uncountables" can in fact be counted. Waters, fishes and two lagers all exist, and many "uncountable" plurals are actually quite common. Advanced learners should know this, which and when and why.
This session covers the Report and Review options of Cambridge English's Advanced C1 Writing examination. (We call it CAE because that is how it is known, although its official name has changed to "C1 Advanced".) This section of the examination focusses on genre, audience, purpose, Use of English and on assessing the candidate's range.
Click on the event title(s) below for more information. Leave your questions or comments below, or contact us for registration information. The events below are open group sessions from our Seminars, Advanced Use of English and Professional Conversation programmes; contact us to ask about scheduling open on demand or closed private programmes.
This page is updated twice a week so please check back, or join the emailing list for event announcements.
Research* shows that "round the class" reading (or round robin reading or reading in turns) is ineffective. So what works? This one-hour session reviews four highly-effective, teacher-friendly communicative approaches to unlocking a text and promoting reading comprehension, both explicit and implicit. The prompt is a G4 text on Volcanoes and activities are targetted at that level, although the model and approaches can be used all levels. For EFL, immersion and bilingual teachers, including teachers of subjects other than English.
This session covers the Writing section of Cambridge English's C1 Advanced examination. (Formerly CAE, its official name has changed to "C1 Advanced".) This section of the examination focusses on genre, audience, purpose, Use of English and on assessing the candidate's range.
Applying for a new position will often include an interview, or several, and just like an athlete prepares for a competition or an actor for a performance, teachers should prepare for an interview. Please scroll down for session feedback.
Lower Primary is all about gaining, inculculating and developing the skills and attitudes for success in Middle School and beyond. These sessions focus on both and are also applicable to Early Years and Middle School teachig and learning.
"New treatment destroys head and neck cancer tumours in trial"- a plug-and-play lesson involving Reading Comprehension, Use of English, vocabulary acquisition and development, speaking and listening and writing. For use with High School, college and adult learners at B2 and above levels in an EFL programme, or for Middle School and above in an E2L or bilingual programme. Based on a 60-minute lesson.
The third pair of modes (after oral and written language) is visual language, and with the same productive and receptive aspects. One of the significant differences between EFL and E2L / E1L is that the latter increasingly include the acquisition, development, analysis and response of visual language.
Student speaking often needs direction and guidance and of course speaking in one language can be quite different from speaking in another. While spontaneous, authentic speaking is of course among the teacher's goals, formal prepared speaking is also important. This session reviews a quck-and-easy, reliable, teacher-friendly method for assessing an oral presentation.
A selection of essays suitable for Advanced English users, students and teachers, and for literature teachers, teachers of Cambridge and IB literature or lang & lit programmes. Texts or text-links are sent to participants the day prior to the session(s) to allow for pre-reading. These sessions provide introductory overviews to the essays rather than in-depth literary analyses or methodology programmes.
Writing is hard. Very hard. There is a very good reason why we have one Shakespeare, one Orwell, one Cortazar and one Neruda. The most important time in developing a writer is during his/her Primary years; these sessions explore how to develop and implement an effective writing programme with successful plug-and-play teacher-friendly approaches.
A selection of short stories suitable for literature teachers, teachers of Cambridge and IB literature or lang & lit programmes, or advanced EFL high school and adult students. Sessions consider works chosen from Cambridge's IGCSE English Literature text lists*, many have also previously featured on IB prescribed book lists, and so are among the works studied worldwide by students at that level.
Early Years (aka Early Childhood or PK - K) teaching and learning is critical to Lower Primary success, and sets the student up for his/her entire academic career, so adopting and implementing appropriate philosophies and practices is essential. Each session in this selection of our most popular Early Years sessions include both ready-to-use strategies and a framework which can be applied to the rest of your Early Years programme.
Although the sessions and examples are in English, the approaches are suitable for programmes in other languages. Lower Primary and/or Infant teachers will also find these sessions useful.
A selection of practical sessions for current and prospective Heads of Department, Co-ordinators. Heads of Section and Academic Directors using real-world examples and applications. Sessions are not specific to any particular programme, or to leading an English Department
These sessions review tasks from recent Cambridge English "C1 Advanced" examinations. (We use "CAE", the examination's former name, because it is the more widely-known term in Chile.) They are not General English or Language acquisition and development sessions, but Exam Preparation : Practice; while we review possible responses, we do not explore the language behind correct and incorrect responses.
Texts or text-links are sent to participants before each session for prior review. This is a "Knowledge and Understanding" programme, with the addition of Language acquisition and development; participants are asked about the text's "explicit meaning" and any Language questions they may have. The Guided Discussion format also allows for Advanced Speaking Practice.
A plug-and-play lesson involving Reading Comprehension, Use of English, vocabulary acquisition and development, speaking and listening and writing. For use with High School, college and adult learners at B2 and above levels in an EFL programme, or for Middle School and above in an E2L or bilingual programme. Based on a 90-minute lesson.
Cambridge Primary Science should not be a subject, but a student's exploration of the world around him/her while s/he develops scientific inquiry and learns how to follow scientific practice. Science should be incorporated into daily activities and into the regular classroom; a laboratory and specialist equipment are not required; this science can be done on the top of a table.
Play for young(er) chidren is seen as "a good thing". It is often described as the child's "work" and "play-based" programmes abound. However play is frequently misunderstood and mis-applied, and it can have no educational value which is where purposeful play comes in. This session considers one view of Developmentally Appropriate play and how it can appear as an effective learning and teaching strategy.
From a young age, the Early Years (or PK - K), children are well aware of things in parts, also known as "fractions", and teachers should take advantage of this awareness to further develop these essential concepts of number relationships.
English teachers are often tasked with running "English Day" or "English Week" with little or no guidance, while even those with experience look for support and new ideas. These sessions provide a road-map to a successful English Week (or Day) and ideas you can incorporate into yours.
Click on the event title(s) below for more information. Leave your questions or comments below, or contact us for registration information. These are open sessions from our Seminars, Advanced Use of English and Professional Conversation programmes; contact us to ask about scheduling on demand or closed programmes. This page is updated twice a week so please check back, or contact us to be placed on the emailing list for event announcements.
Are you a Chilean teacher interested in or thinking of teaching in the USA? Second-semester (January) starts for exchange-teacher visas are in general no longer granted; appointments now run typically September - August (possibly late July for states like Az, NM). Top schools start hiring October - December; most schools recruit January - March.
It can take longer than you think to get everything organised; note the windows above and don't procrastinate, be proactive!
October update :
September is when we plan our December and January professional development and personal growth programmes :
• one-day closed in-school programmes
• one-hour open single-topic / single-skill programmes
What would you like us to offer? Please let us know by email or by commenting below. Keep reading for some of the topics and areas we have offered in the past :
The opposite of an adjective is not always what it seems, for example the opposite of hot may not be cold. Some words have several opposites with quite different meanings such as happy, not happy and unhappy or satisfied, unsatisfied and dissatisfied. This session reviews several of these words, and the significant distinctions available to the advanced speaker.
Teachers have little time in class and rarely enough to cover the syllabus, prepare for external assesments, or to do the important stuff like sharing, helping others and being kind (not to mention sun safety, financial literacy and civics). Accordingly, certain things may best be assigned to time out of class, in particular lesson preparation (lucratively re-packaged as "flipped instruction").
Numbers and expressions for things we count pop up in all kinds of unexpected places, and an advanced user should be able to navigate these. Many would have originally been encountered in high school mathematics or science, but if that happened in a language other than English ... Added to that are historical or figurative oddities, and frankly just odd usages, which make English so rich and such a challenge.
Children in the Early Years (or PK - K) are well aware of the parts of things, also known as "fractions", and teachers should take advantage of this awareness to further develop essential concepts of number relationships. Although the examples given relate to English Language Teaching, the philosophy and approaches are developmentally appropriate for programmes in all languages. Lower Primary (G1 - 4) teachers will also find this useful.
Click on the session title(s) below for more information and for topic or content details.
Click here to see the January 2022 Professional Development and Personal Growth programme by Area.
Scroll down for the list of Areas included in this year's programme. Click on the Area title(s) to see the sessions by date and time.
Click here to see the January 2022 Professional Development and Personal Growth programme by date.
Click on the event title(s) below for more information. Leave your questions or comments below, or contact us for registration information. These are open sessions from our Seminars, Advanced Use of English and Professional Conversation programmes; contact us to ask about scheduling on demand or closed programmes. This page is updated twice a week so please check back, or contact us to be placed on the emailing list for event announcements.
Talking about death is not always easy or welcome and English speakers have developed several ways of doing so without being too direct. Session I looks at literal uses of "die" and its related forms. Sessions II and III consider metaphorical uses, some euphemistic and some a little bizarre.
These advanced-vocabulary one-hour single-topic sessions focus on accuracy, appropriacy and on developing the speaker's range, while considering the many different forms, meanings and usages, both literal and metaphorical.
These sessions cover the Reading and Use of English test (Paper One) of Cambridge English's Advanced C1 (formerly CAE) examination. This section of the examination focusses on accuracy, appropriacy and on assessing the candidate's range.
Science in Lower Primary should not be a subject. For students, Science should be an exploration of the world around them while they develop scientific inquiry and learn how to follow scientific practice. For teachers, Science should be incorporated into daily activities and into the regular classroom. A laboratory and specialist equipment are not required; this science can be done on top of a table.
Science in the Early Years should not be a subject. For students, Science should be an exploration of the world around them while they develop scientific inquiry and learn how to follow scientific practice. For teachers, Science should be incorporated into daily activities and into the regular classroom. A laboratory and specialist equipment are not required; this science can be done on the top of a table.
Lower Primary (G1 - 4, 1º ciclo) students are story-tellers, and will even make a tale out of what they had for breakfast. Take advantage of this impulse to develop and inculcate composition basics, and the organisation of thoughts within the context of language acquisition and development. This session includes tips for assigning topics and assessment strategies.
Lower Primary (G1 - 4, 1º ciclo) students are focussed on themselves and their world. They are particularly interested in and knowledgeable about their homes, their family and friends, and their hobbies and interests. Take advantage of this to develop and inculcate composition basics, and the organisation of thoughts within the context of language acquisition and development. This session includes tips for assigning topics and assessment strategies.
Writing is the least natural of all language skills, requiring guidance and practice, and it is that combination which places demands on teachers. The only way to develop as a writer is through producing written texts and receiving feedback, and providing that feedback takes time.
Click on the event title(s) below for more information. Leave your questions or comments below, or contact us for registration information. These are open sessions from our Seminars, Advanced Use of English and Professional Conversation programmes; contact us to ask about scheduling on demand or closed programmes. This page is updated twice a week so please check back, or contact us to be placed on the emailing list for event announcements.
