Active Language online staffroom

Observations

Now that we’re settled into the first term, it’s time to think about first term observations.  At Active, we hope that all our observations are seen as what Jim Scrivener identifies as developmental rather than appraisal observations.   We have two main objectives for observing: partly it’s an opportunity for the coordinators to get to see the learners in action and also we can determine how to help you develop as an individual.  For this reason, the choice of which lesson is observed is a two-way process – you may have identified a group which you are having an issue with in a particular area (such as use of L1 or level of challenge) or when chatting to a coordinator, they may suggest an observation of the group in question.

In terms of the process, once you have decided which group will be observed, you’ll have a ten-minute chat with the coordinator observing.  This is the time to have a brief chat through your plan and determine what aspect of the lesson you would especially like us to focus on (e.g. clarity of instructions, Marta’s engagement in the lesson, etc).  You don’t need to provide us with a stage-by-stage lesson plan, but it will be good to identify your aims and materials for the lesson.

Following the observation, you’ll again get together to reflect on the class.

Also, just to add that we all know what it’s like to have a “foreign body” in the room and learners can be incredibly unpredictable during observations – the quiet ones suddenly start showing off and playing up whilst the more disruptive learners can suddenly become little angels for the hour.  This can sometimes throw you a little and so rest assured that if you talk to us about an issue (such as learners getting out of their seats every other minute) which isn’t apparent during the observation, we will still aim to provide you with support and ideas on that particular issue.

If you’re interested in the process of observation and what the TEFL world has to say on the subject, here are some links:

What is best practice for observing teachers? – #ELTChat summary

10 things I don’t think I really want to hear in feedback sessions – quite an amusing rant from Michael Griffin

Tony Gurr has a series of posts on Classroom Observation

 

 

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Peer Observations

PEER OBSERVATION LIST March 2019

During the second term, we have a series of peer observations.  At Active, we believe these are a very worthwhile professional development opportunity and here are some of the reasons why:

  • We all have a professional curiousity to see how other people work and to compare and contrast our class to another.  By doing so we uncover a number of similarities and differences within our environment
  • It’s a great moment to borrow and use ideas from a colleague – it serves as an opportunity to pick up new ideas, as a reminder perhaps of activities we’ve done in the past and since forgotten and also to enforce that what we’re doing in our own classes is ‘a good thing’
  • It’s a time when we spread best practice – using the feedback session to compare how we do things and provide constructive comments on other ways of working
  • The democratisation of observation, by which we mean that observation should not be seen as a top-down, evaluative tool in which a teacher is ‘judged’ on their performance
  • It provides a break from routine
  • It raises your awareness of your peers
  • Perhaps more specifically to Active where we work in a number of different environments, it gives teachers the opportunity to see how different styles of teaching work (e.g. bilingual classes, speaking classes)
  • It’s a wonderful moment to reflect on your own teaching – after an observed lesson, we’re likely to be more reflective and analytical of the class than we would be on a daily basis; but it also allows a moment to reflect on the bigger picture – perhaps not just thinking about that one lesson, but other lessons with that group, or other classes in general

 

Here are more ideas from Education World:

Teachers Observing Teachers:
Everybody Benefits

Administrators benefit from:

* the opportunity for reflective dialogue with and among teachers.
* an increased sense of shared responsibility.
* an increased focus on student achievement.
* an increased trust and collegiality among staff.
* participation in a professional and collaborative learning community.
* a cadre of self-reliant, confident teachers who love teaching.
* enriched teacher efficacy
* participation in a professional and collaborative learning community.

Teachers benefit from:

* an opportunity to engage in reflective dialogue about their work.
* the focused classroom support.
* improvement of classroom practices.
* support from an “expert” (peer) who understands the daily demands of the classroom.
* satisfaction with one’s work.
* reduced job stress, especially for the new teacher.
* a welcoming atmosphere for new teachers.
* the comfort of knowing that someone is available to help, explain, and assist.

The school benefits from:

* increased collaboration among teachers.
* the establishment of a professional learning community.
* an increased focus on student achievement.
* enthusiasm for the teaching profession.
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PDTM on Exam Classes

Welcome to everything exam related! Exams are a big part of academy life these days and at Active, exam classes come in many shapes and sizes.

These include Cambridge Speaking lessons at San Felipe Neri (this year down to Lucy, Nick, Kate, Karin, Alex B and Simon B) as well as the full Four Skills exam practice that goes on at La Salle Viña (this year the preserve of Edel and Nathan).

But of course, most of our students are part of the academy-style KET, PET, FCE and CAE exam classes – which most teachers are also involved in this year- and this was the focus of the PDTM on exams on Wednesday the 14th November 2018.

Teachers had come with answers to a questionnaire we´d sent out the week before (scroll down to the bottom see it) and we dived straight into discussing attitudes, experiences and general approaches.

Something interesting that came up was how varied individual approaches were. These ranged from being very exam-based rubric-aware approaches to freer lesson designs which did deal with exam parts but focused more on general English, especially for .1 or first year exam classes. Knowing the exam handbook inside out was considered a must for everyone across the board.

In terms of tracking marks, some teachers keep very tight records of parts of exams practiced and indeed student scores, encouraging students to do so themselves in order for them to chart their progress. Other teachers prefer to limit mark-tracking to more formal testing occasions. A lively discussion ensued but all teachers agreed that what was important was to be aware of student progress over time and use this to guide their decisions in the classroom  (say to spend more time on particular areas) and use it to raise awareness of weak areas in students too. Good for report writing we decided as it gives us something concrete to talk about.

We went on to cover understanding examiner mindset and the importance of embedding it in our lessons regularly; student-created content to engage our students in their own learning (people love to use and talk about stuff they´ve made) and, of course, best use of CEXTRA papers going forward. We concluded that the students would benefit more from the mock-exam experience if we forced them to self-mark using the marksheets before accepting their written work in the hope that it would eventually raise the quality of the writings handed-in. No-one wants to hand in something they know to be poor- part of the benefit of arming students with success critera in the first place. There are some signs that this approach is bearing fruit.

Kate then showed everyone the black folders again, highlighting the parts that could be of particular use in particular situations such as practice activities outside of class, the at-a -glance exam format, the error correction and self-study pages to train the students into becoming better learners. And , of course, the CEXTRA mark sheets I refer to above.

The folders were a really useful part of the session and as Keara and Alex CB said, you get given them in the first week of term and you know you are meant to use them but there is so much to take in that a lot of it goes over your head, so thanks Kate for the refresher and for reviewing such a wonderful practical work tool.

We finished off with a Show and Tell where teachers got to share their favourite practical activities in turn. My favourites? those that cultivate curiosity and team work as these lead to spontaneous communication. “Do nows” whether sentence transformations or discussion questions on the board to welcome students as they arrive in dribs and drabs and to focus that first moment (teacher´s book full of ideas for these). Student-generated content also proved very popular- Make your own gap-fills by blocking out all prepositions in a text, dictaglosses or “write an extra comprehension question” for fast finishers.

In short, individual experiences, varied approaches, different priorities. And all as valuable as the next. Thanks everyone for the fruitful morning of chat and discussion. Hopefully it left you feeling re-energized and inspired for you next exam lesson.

 

QUESTIONNAIRE FOR EXAM CLASSES

TEACHER-FOCUSED QUESTIONS

How do you feel about teaching exam classes?

How are they different to teaching general English classes?

What are the pros and cons of teaching exam classes?

How do you approach exam classes? Is everything in your class directed at exam practice? Should it be? Or not?

How do you prepare yourself for teaching exam classes?

 

STUDENT- FOCUSED QUESTIONS

How do you prepare students for teaching exam classes?

Do you keep a track of the parts of the exam you´ve covered and how many times you´ve covered them? How?

Do you keep track of the marks your students get? How?

Do you know which of your students are going to CEXTRA?

What do you do and/or your students do with the papers after they´ve done the exam?

Any other comments you´d like to add.

Exam Class Questionnaire for Teachers

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Bank of online observable lessons

Hi, thanks Daniel Barber for fb sharing Sandy Millin´s bank of observable lessons from her blog designed to help time-short teachers observe and learn from other teachers’ lessons.

Sandy has divided the videos into loose categories, with a sentence or two to help us decide which are the most relevant to us. Within the categories, they’re just in the order she´s found them!  If you find any broken links she´s happy to hear from you to fix them.

Feel free to comment on any real gems or any particular focus that interests you.

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De-stressing exams

 

(courtesy of pixabay – great source for zero creative commons images)

Today’s PDM was led by Simon P, Simon B and Amy.  Thanks to the three of you for creating a space for reflecting on, discussing and developing our thoughts and policies concerning the first round of exams.

We kicked off with the question of how exams can be dealt with “affectively”,  being a positive experience for all involved.  The decision to remove the exam results from the reports has already taken us a step in that direction.  If we can emphasise the process rather than the product, the process of familiarisation with the Cambridge exams, then we can possibly lighten the emotional load for all involved.

We went on to discuss what we found out about our students from the exams, what areas they are struggling with, and came back to revisit this question later with Amy.  And in a third round of discussions we explored our expectations, our students’ expectations and parents’ expectations of the exams themselves, of the Cambridge exams and of the system of recommendations.

We turned to look at some problem levels in particular, focusing especially on the S2/S3 level.  It was generally felt that the S2 exam is too long and could do with being shorter, and that the students really struggle with the concept of the activities.  It was suggested that the students in S2 should see some of the activity types beforehand so that they are familiar with them when it comes to doing the exam. It was also suggested that they might not have to do the speaking in February, but could build up to it in the May/June exams.  Layout was also mentioned as an important feature at this level.  All these things will be taken into consideration in reviewing the S2 exam for the future.  If you have any specific comments about any specific exam or level, please let one of the coordinators know! It’ll be really helpful in moving forward.

The idea of being able to scaffold and support the exam with younger learners was explored by Simon B who talked through his approach to leading his students through the M1/M2 listening exam, giving plenty of time for the students to activate language and schemata, to get their heads around the pictures on the page and what’s needed from them in each question.  Pausing between questions to elicit language and focus attention on the task at hand.  Jill mentioned how she lets her students in on the “tricks” of the distractors so the students are on the hunt for them.  Lucy G commented on how this approach can also help the teacher to feel more confident and less stressed by the whole exam experience.

We discussed whether there may be a “labelling” problem here, with the word “exams” evoking a certain approach and a certain dread in teachers and students alike.

Amy took the lead at this point to look in more detail at the diagnostic value of the exams and how she learned from her students that she needs to look more carefully at certain areas (her example was questions with how many).  Having identified a problem area she’s now thinking about how she can include it in her routines with her class and work on it “little but often”.  This discussion was opened out to the groups. T mentioned her students’ problem with the “tell me about” prompt, JG mentioned problems his PET kids are having with the matching task in the reading paper.  Niamh talked about how her students take the easy way out in the speaking, and she asks them to repeat and repeat and repeat the same task with new partners until they’re performing it as they should. Jill talked about embedding adjectives in the names routine at the beginning of class, and Edel talked about ways of consolidating and recycling wh question words.

To round off we came up with a short list of possible approaches to improving the exam experience for evrybody:

1 Destressing (emphasising the process and not the result, helping and supporting rather than simply invigilating)

2 Differentiating (between the needs of the first half of a level with a class that is preparing for the exam that same year)

3 Changing the name (possibly change from exam week to Cambridge Familiarisation?)

 

Other suggestions that are worth noting were :  doing the speaking part of the exam over a longer period of time, avoid doing exams and writing reports in the same week, getting students to mark their own exams as much as possible.  If you think I’ve missed something (more than likely, it was difficult to keep up!) or there’s anything you’d like to add, add to, correct, question …   Please leave a comment!

Thank you 🙂

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Change to PDM programme

(courtesy of pixabay)

Hi there,

Happy February and two quick updates on the PDM programme. First of all you’ll see that it’s been added to the list of links to the right under Active Resources. Second, in response to popular demand (well, to various conversations off and online), we re-jigged the PDM programme this term in order to dedicate this week’s meeting (Wednesday, Feb 8, 12.15)  to a discussion of the recent round of exams.

We’d like to give a big thanks to everyone who’s been working so hard over the last couple of weeks (and that’s all of you!) and open up a debate on a possible new direction/tweak to the exams experience.

Looking forward to seeing you all there – and to sharing views and experiences!

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Classroom management

Hi everyone,

Just a quick word to say that we’ve sorted out the glitches and the online staffroom is back up and running. Apologies for the delay.

New additions include:

Notes on the PDM sessions by T (Expectations) and Kate (Discipline and Classroom Management).   Both on the PDMs page.

I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who shared a takeaway from Kate’s session.  I’d like to share them all with you here:

Takeaways from Kate’s session

Victoria:

It’s sometimes such a relief to hear how other peoples classes are going and issues that they have because you realise that your daily challenges are not just ones that you are dealing with but ones that other people are too! I think sitting down and sharing them and asking the consensus for advice in a supportive atmosphere is great!

I really liked discussing the nitty gritty issues in the classroom with everyday examples of annoyances/problems and how to handle them. The issues that come with different age groups are exactly the ones that I’ve have witnessed in my classes e.g. teens – lateness, no homework, no interest! Also I have tried some of the suggestions mentioned so it’s good to hear I am on the right track.

I know I need to work on L1/L2 control, giving clear instructions and handing over some control to my students.

 

T:

terrible as it may sound, my takeaway was that I enjoyed hearing about the problems other people are having with their groups as we can often feel a little isolated in our classes and like problems we’re having are only happening to us. No matter how long you’ve been teaching, you can still be faced with difficult situations and so it always feels ‘nice’ to hear that colleagues don’t have perfect classes all the time too!

Kasia:

The ideas that I liked were:

  1. giving 3 points to SS who finish first, to encourage them to do an activity they were reluctant to do.
  2. writing a list of stages of the lesson on the board so that SS know what’s coming up.

 

Andy:

I’ll remember for the future that if I have particularly difficult teens or adults in class, I can be quite straightforward about discussing their reasons for being in class. Should the problem persist I could even invite them to leave. Hopefully this would get them to reassess the situation.

Dani:

My takeaway..a steal from Ceri on there being support around for those problem classes. ,I noticed that people felt comfortable to share experiences on those classes-not always easy to do. Loved the fact that the room`s brimming with ideas on how to deal with those issues.Great brains! 🙂

Nick:

AL support was my takeaway.

Always good to meet up as, by choice, I’m in SFN.

 

Kate:

My main takeaway as a co-ordinator is that I’ve become aware of some problems which teachers are having with students.  I knew about 97% of them but a couple came to light which were new to me!  Hopefully, some of the teachers’ takeaway will be to share their problems with co-ords and colleagues.

Simon B:

My takeaway…it’s helpful for the new teachers that there are sessions like this and they can use all the ideas in their classes. It backs up what co-ords say and you can see confidence growing in them.

Carmen:

I enjoyed the whole session for its usefulness and timeliness. Some of the questions raised are exactly what I am facing in my classroom right now, from bored teens to a particular 8 year old I have who doesn’t see the point in doing any written work. It was good to share ideas with my little group and with the wider room. My favourite bit was when Kate went round the room and we each had our idea (classroom management solution) put up on the board. I wish I’d taken a photo now!

[Ceri: here’s the list from my notes, may be missing one or two:  L1/L2 control, instructions, monitoring, routines, variety, flexibility, adaptability, groupings, consistency, teacher energy, mood, attitude, handing over control, learning about the students’ motivations, realistic expectations, positive approach, resources, rapport, support, groove, reward system implementation ]

Jill:

my takeaway was the moment near the beginning when we had 20+ factors up on the board that determine/affect classroom management. ugh sooooo many. struck me that it’s quite awesome that we are sometimes able to get all (or enough of) these factors right at the same time and actually achieve a well-managed classroom, and it therefore shouldnt be at all surprising or disappointing (demoralising…heartbreaking…sigh) when we don’t quite manage it! a little emotional detachment in that sense is a good, important thing. as is reminding ourselves of all those things that we ARE doing right while still struggling to find that magic combo of factors that will make for a smooth, effective and happy class.

Edel:

One of my takeaways was I was going to email you about what you said you’ve done in the past with teen classes about the homework excuse I’d love to use it with a teen group who can’t seem to arrive on time.

The dog ate it

JG

My takeaway was definitely the affirmation that I’m lucky to be surrounded with so many brains to pick. Every problem / challenge that was raised was offered a practical solution. Thanks to T and Amy for my sentence lengthening technique for the teens

Lucy G

Points that stuck with me is that there is support for classes that are a bit more challenging and also to bear in mind the difficult/challenging days that the students may be having themselves.

 

Ceri:

I think my main takeaway was the reminder that if we do have challenging (or puzzling) classes, students, levels etc, we should remember that there is always someone who’ll be happy and interested to talk about them, and that the academic coordinators at all the centres are there to offer help and support.

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ZPD – Vygotsky

Hee hee – pretty cool having so many under-used letters in the title there!  Ceri shared an explanation of the Zone of Proximal Development after it popped up in the session on Receptive Skills.

And, Carmen posted a link to an article on different approaches to listening tasks.

Simon also posted this article which is about the power of language.

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IATEFL 2016

IATEFL is in full swing in Birmingham and for those of us unable to attend, there are LOADS of resources available online so we won’t feel like we’re missing out (except on all the socialising!).  In association with the British Council, you can check out a lot of live coverage here and many talks will also be recorded and available at a later date.  A number of publishers also live-stream or record sessions which can be viewed from their own sites.

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ELT Journal

Simon posted a link to the ELT Journal which you can read online.  There’s a number of volumes available with articles on a range of different topics, from authors around the world.

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