Recently, Teaching Reading and Reading in the Early Years (aka "Very Young Learners") have been widely discussed in both the general and educational media, and several popular approaches have been discredited and debunked. Join us as we review an effective and proven Philosophy and set of Practices to help you get your students reading which does not require intensive investment.
Our four-part series on this moving reflective essay for students, teachers and those interested in literature, and with a passing knowledge of Chemistry. This deeply-poignant. personal and humorous text by one of our most significant contemporary authors was written on the eve of his death; you may know him from The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat.
Narrative writing is both the entry point for Creative Writing and Fiction, and the best and least challenging vehicle for developing writing and language skills. Join as we review this introductory quick-and-easy teacher-friendly approach to teaching Narrative Writing which can be used at all ages and all levels.
Chile's National Curriculum is an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) programme, yet many teachers and students are functionally at an English as a Second Language (E2L or ESL) level and so an E2L programme would likely be more appropriate. How about you? What are your E2L skills like?
From our series of Cambridge English as a Second Language (E2L or ESL) Practice and Feedback programmes for teachers and students, this session reviews three reading comprehension exercises. Suitable for E2L students in a bilingual programme, and Advanced EFL students.
From our series of Cambridge English as a Second Language (E2L or ESL) Practice and Feedback programmes for teachers and students, this session reviews three note-taking exercises. Suitable for E2L students in a bilingual programme, and Advanced EFL students.
From our series of Cambridge English as a Second Language (E2L or ESL) Practice and Feedback programmes for teachers and students, this session covers the characteristics of and then writing and reviewing summaries.
Report writing has been identified as the most important skill for engineers, and a highly important skill in many other fields. Reports are also linked to writing summaries, a regular exercise in Language assessments, including EFL, E2L and E1L. This one-hour single-topic session begins with what may be a new activity for many, providing excellent practice for learners and an excellent model which can be duplicated for teachers.
More in our plug-and-play reading activities, these can be used for comprehension, for identifying opinion and bias, and as a prompt for speaking, debate or writing tasks.
Key to an effective Writing Programme is "Publishing and Feedback", yet for teachers considerations of the how, what, where and when of publishing can be daunting. Join us as we review Publishing, Feedback (and the relationship to evaluation) and Considerations, and twelve publication possibilities. The material covered does not apply only to student work and will be of interest to writers.
Chile's recent constitutional plebiscite prompts the question of how to use news reports on current events in an English class. The answer is that it's easy : task, not text. This session reviews a simple, teacher-friendly and highly-effective lesson structure which provides a language-rich, reading-comprehension and authentic discussion plan.
Small groups offer one of the most effective classroom approaches, and some recent research shows what works and what can be counter-productive when it comes to reading development and practice.
This session reviews the findings from five international studies into best practice at the Lower Primary level (G1 - 4), and provide useful insights for Upper Primary / Lower Secondary (G5 - 8). Although conducted into English Teaching & Learning practice, they are also applicable to programmes in other languages.
Class-time is so limited that doing some things beforehand can exponentially improve lesson effectiveness. Two related activities are receptive practice and pre-reading; if a student has already read a text, class work can take advantage of this.
When assigning pre-reading, how can a teacher be assured that it has actually been done? This session reviews eight quick-and-easy, plug-and-play, teacher-friendly reading checks, each of which incorporate Reading Comprehension, Use of English and Speaking. Participants will receive a ready-to-use Lower Primary / Middle School lesson!
Not only are volcanoes in the news, but they are a frequent topic in G4 and they provide an excellent base for a Science / Social Studies / Art / Music and of course Language unit. This plug-and-play Reading and Vocabulary lesson is based on an authentic G4 text and can be used as-is, or as a model for similar lessons on other topics in EFL and E2L / bilingual programmes.
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.
