WEBINAR: Teaching Towards The Young Learners. (Macmillan)

Teaching Towards The Young Learners

By Katie Foufouti

This webinar was devoted to teaching Young learners (about 7-12 years old). She gave a variety of strategies and activities to implement with Young learners groups no matter the places where we work. She talked about how to teach students towards the exams and how important is to test them during preparation. We should test them without imitating the official exam all the time. We should do this testing through games so they can have fun in the classroom while learning at the same time.

  During the webinar, she presented several questions about how we would prepare students for exams. We had to choose a suitable option for us.

  Then, she talked about the assessment and the different ways of collecting information about a learner´s progress and achievement. We should do it every lesson and not only at the end of a unit or at the end of the term. It has a big influence on learners when we make sure that we are giving a positive feedback. We have to be careful of the words we use every time we asses students. All young students should have a feeling of achievement. We should use students´ results to plan the following lessons according to what they need to improve.

  In the last part of the webinar, she presented a set of activities that are commonly used to prepare young learners to sit for the exams (such as Cambridge exams).

  I liked this seminar because it was really interactive and it talked about the importance of assessing students permanently. Although not all of our students may sit for exams, the activities she proposed can be adapted for any classroom context and they seem to be very effective.  

SEMINAR: "Reaching and teaching students effectively"

Reaching and teaching students effectively.

By Professor James Duncan

This seminar was in charge of Professor James Duncan who is specialized on the study of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP).  His lecture is based on this approach. I could remember some concepts of NLP but I wanted to have a clearer view of it. According to NLP, our mind and body are interconnected and we are responsible for the models of the world that we create. In language teaching, NLP is concerned with the study of how we communicate with others and how we communicate with ourselves.

If we trained ourselves in NLP, we would learn how to get rapport with anybody, we would know how to become flexible in our communication, in fact we would be able to use language effectively.

Jamie said that NLP can help any person who wants to improve the way in which they live and develop an understanding of how to maximize their potential.

  Then we made a quiz to see what kind of teaching practice we carried out and how NLP could help us.  

Jamie also talked about the different ways in which our students may perceive the world through their senses. That is why within the same class we may have students that are visual, auditory or kinaesthetic. Each of them has a physical location in the brain where the experience is sent, processed, and stored. Our assimilation of this input can transform the information into something different from the original. What we later recall is a representation or model of that what our sensory organs transmitted to us.

  We saw the possible ways in which visual, auditory and kinaesthetic students learn. We had to think of suitable activities for those learners´ needs.

   I found this workshop highly interested and I learnt many new things about NLP. It was such a dynamique seminar. I think it is useful for teachers because we need to know what happens in our students´ brains every time we are in front of the classroom. We need to encourage students to become aware of what their own learning style is so as to have a better learning experience when studying a language.

Share Convention Certificate.

SHARE CONVENTION: "Off the Beaten Track: Unconventional Tasks for the 21st Century Classroom"

Off the Beaten Track: Unconventional Tasks for the 21st Century Classroom

By Mariano Quinterno

        This workshop was in charge of Mariano Quinterno. The main purpose of his workshop was to reflect about the activities that we use in the classroom and to see if they are really suitable for students of the 21^st century. Mariano began by saying: “There is no 21st century classroom, but 21st century classrooms”. That means that although the educational system has not changed so much throughout time, students´ interest and needs have really changed in the last decades.

  Descriptions of the 21st century classroom are overgeneralizations which do not take into account the huge number of educational contexts around the world. We as language teachers have to keep in mind that classrooms are not neutral territories.

   It does not matter what teaching method or approach we decide to use, it will not be effective if we design our lessons for an atemporal and decontextualized learner. He also said that each classroom and what happens inside has an impact beyond that particular context.

  Mariano mentioned the importance of using unconventional tasks since Why use unconventional tasks. It is really positive for our students because according to recent research in the field of neuroscience, novelty aids memory and contributes to meaningful learning. When educators use similar strategies too often, the classroom becomes a predictable environment and, as a result, learners´ motivation decreases easily. Besides, a region in the midbrain, which is responsible for regulating our motivation and reward-processing, responds better to novelty than to what is familiar.

Every time we decide to think of unconventional task, we need to keep in mind that these features have to be present in those tasks:

v  They must have both linguistic and educational value.

v  They must be divergent (i.e. they must encourage a range of possible responses).

v  They must be context-specific.

v  They must include an element of novelty.

v  They must encourage problem posing rather than problem solving.

    Finally, he showed us very practical examples of different unconventional tasks.

   I liked this workshop and I found it very interesting. I also liked the way in which the speaker presented the topic. He made me think that it is high time to start changing the conventional tasks, which normally appear on the course books we follow, because they are not suitable to students of the 21^st century. It seems that we do not take into account the reality they experience.  We should stop teaching about the Big Ben or the Tower of London because they are not meaningful to our students.

SHARE CONVENTION: "Teaching English through Educational Drama"

Teaching English through Educational Drama

By Susan Hillyard

This workshop was in charge of Susan Hillyar. I had already attended one of her seminar but on this occasion she made a presentation with other women that belong to the group “English in action”. They explained what the purposes of the group are and they also showed us the way in which they normally work.

  They presented a “Human PowerPoint” of an original idea based on The Talking Statues of Rome. The programme English in action was designed to teach English through Educational Drama in twenty Special Schools under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, in Buenos Aires. It also emphasizes the use of stories and Action Sacks(bags full of different objects to tell a story, sing a song ,etc.) as a motivational force in the teaching of values in English to students with some form of challenge. They explained both the theory and the practice of the approach they use.

 They work mainly with children who need special education but their ideas can be applied to any classroom context. They defined Special Education as a variety of educational establishments such as special schools which deal with students with learning difficulties, from emotional disorders to ADHD students to selective mutes and they also work in hospital schools with students who are waiting for transplants, or who are suffering from medical conditions which keep them absent from school for long periods of time.

  They consider drama as the best way of teaching English to those students because it is an extension of childhood play which uses the whole body and mind, the heart , the soul and the emotions in a social context so that students can collaborate with each other and learn the social skills necessary for effective learning. Drama as Education is considered to be a holistic discipline covering all the processes of education, often summarized in the word SPICE. The five developmental processes are:

·         Social

·         Physical

·         Intellectual (cognitive)

·         Creative

·         Emotional

   Finally they mentioned the advantages of drama for all students:

 

·         Drama for transformation

·         Drama as empowerment

·         Drama for fluency ( speaking)

·         Drama as culture (play and storytelling)

·         Drama for thinking ( all types)

·         Drama for literacy (reading and writing)

    In my opinion, this workshop was very useful to see language teaching from a different perspective. The work that the English in Action group carries out is really admirable and their ideas are really creative. I think that we should not highlight the differences among students every time we have a student with special need, we should integrate them. Some of the activities presented by Susan seem to be really effective and motivating. Sometimes we are limited by the curriculum to cover a lot of contents within the year. However, we should try to implement some of those techniques to reach students in different ways.

SHARE CONVENTION: "Development of Communicative Skills"

Development of Communicative Skills

By Alejandra Ottolina

This workshop was to talk about what really matters in the development of communicative skills. It is a difficult task at the time of asking students for their own production. Productive skills are essential because they help students to integrate everything they have learnt. The results motivate students and there is room for developing creativity. It also requires life skills such as thinking, relating with others, caring or working.  Most teachers find it difficult to develop these skills because of the unsuitable materials, lack of time or some traumatic experience with language that they may have had.

  According to the speaker, our main aim should be get students to use language to its full effect in the context of the XXI century. In practice, this means promoting active listening and reading, turn-taking among students is also important. We should give students the possibility of learning about their own abilities and difficulties. Finally developing learners’ creativity is another key feature of communicative learning.

  Finally, he gave us some examples of reading comprehension exercises taken from Macmillan books. The book limited the teacher to just playing the cd to listen to the story. However, it is our tasks to propose creative and meaningful tasks out of those texts.

  I really liked this seminar because we could express our opinions and I totally agree with the idea that effective teaching only takes place when the teacher helps students see relevance to their learning, when they are able to draw conclusions about how their learning relates to the world around them. The main purpose of teaching English is to give learners the chance of using it as a tool in their own reality. 

SHARE CONVENTION: "When our students could talk in English."

When our students could talk in English

By Omar Villarreal

This seminar was delivered by Omar Villarreal. According to his lecture, sometimes we should try to go back to those old times when students could really talk in English. Although the methods of the past were inefficient in many aspects, some of them allowed students to speak in English. Then he started talking about the evolution of language teaching throughout the different methods that have been developed. He started with the grammar translation method.  He showed us pictures of exercises that belonged to that method. He said that the common belief in those times was that practice made perfect and there was no room for innovation and creativity so it seemed easier to teach English in the past.

  Omar went on talking about the different methods up to the communicative revolution. He said that with the communicative approaches students feel much freer to talk although they may not pay so much attention to grammar. It seems that the primary goal is to communicate at the expense of grammar.  He particularly mentioned Task-based learning’s disadvantages. Sometimes it seems impossible to implement it in the classroom because students do not have enough vocabulary to do it. They need to know the language very well to have real access to it.  He also talked about CLIL (Content and Language integrated method), which has become quite popular. However, it seems not to be so effective for students outside the classroom.

Finally, he talked about the importance of using grammar and how to teach it properly. He gave us some activities as examples that we could include in our lessons.

  I liked the seminar but I did not find it very useful. I could remember the most relevant features of the methods. I do not agree with the idea that language teaching used to be better in the past because it was an unsatisfactory experience for learners. In fact, I think that it has improved throughout time and we still need to go on looking for innovative ways of teaching so as to reach all students.

SHARE CONVENTION: "Selfies and Motivation"

Selfies and Motivation

By Mathilde Verillaud

  This seminar was mainly devoted to talk about the new fashion which has recently emerged among teenagers and also some people of all ages.

She mentioned that selfies belonged to the Y generation, which is a generation of students that grew up with technology. They also help students to learn about themselves and it helps teachers to connect to their students by facilitating a self- discovering process.

 To carry out an effective teaching in our classroom we need to have a clear understanding of what our students´ reality is since it is essential to establish a connection between English and students´ daily life. So it is our work to use selfies as a creative tool. Teachers earn students´ respect by getting interested in them and their needs.

  During the workshop we discussed some of the possible reasons why people are so fond of taking selfies. For example, to be cool because everyone does it, they may have an obsession with technology, some of them want to promote themselves on social networks since they look for others´ acceptance and positive comments or they may want to create a better version of them.  In fact, selfies show personality and who our students really are.

  Finally, we saw on screen some possible sequences of activities in which the concept of selfies and photographs in general is present. Those activities were really creative and motivating. The one I liked the most was one in which students had to look at pictures of painters or writers and they had to guess what their personality was. Some of them were also useful to work on vocabulary related to photography.

  In conclusion, I really liked this workshop since consider that students´ interests should be present in lessons as much as possible. Selfies and many other fashions are really significant for our students´ life since they are part of their culture and reality. The real task for us is to take advantage of those interests to enhance English learning and students´ motivation. 

SEMINAR: "Improving Learners' Pronuciation Skills."

Improving Learners´ Pronuciation Skills

                                   By Professor Andrea Gil

I attended this seminar in charge of Andrea Gil because I am really interested in pronunciation and how to encourage students to improve their own pronunciation.  The main purpose of this seminar was to make us aware of the importance of using pronunciation activities in our lessons since there is a general tendency among teachers to skip those activities every time they appear on course books.

  We worked in groups to revise most features of speech such as stress rhythm and intonation and we also explore and tried out simple activities, which we could implement in the classroom. The teacher also talked about the importance of technological digital tools that would really help to increase learners´ autonomy when dealing with pronunciation. Students can use these tools both in and out the classroom. We have to motivate them to practise at home.

 We also discussed about the importance of intonation and little by little we could get our students used to reading properly giving a bit of rhythm an intonation to the texts.

  We also saw on screen some useful websites that offered further practice on pronunciation. In one of them, for example, students could record themselves to practice pronunciation.

  In my opinion, it was a very interesting seminar since I consider that speaking and pronunciation should be essential for our students so as to be able to communicate in English. I really agree with the fact that teachers normally avoid pronunciation activities because they may think that they are difficult for students or they may have no time in their lessons because they have to cover all the contents from the curriculum. We have to feel comfortable and confident about integrating pronunciation within our teaching practice.

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: Essay #18

Children exploitation

The industrial Revolution in England contributed to improve people´s living conditions. That meant an expansion in population, for the first time the birth rate in London was higher that the death rate, so children became a huge part of society.  Poor children had always worked in England but during the industrialization their work became highly valuable to factory owners since they realized that it was more advantageous to employ children rather than adults.

    Most factories’ owners were interested in employing children because they were tractable, cheap and easy to discipline. Children were very efficient when carrying out simple repetitive operations. Unlike adults, they did not show antipathy to factory labour. Due to these advantages, factories and mines absorbed children who were much more exploited than ever before. Children as young as six years old during the industrial revolution worked hard hours for little or no pay. In extreme cases, they sometimes worked up to 19 hours a day, with a one-hour total break. They worked also in horrible conditions. Children normally used large, heavy, and dangerous equipment so many accidents occurred in which they were injured or killed. Besides, they were paid only a fraction of what an adult would earn, and sometimes factory owners would get away with paying them nothing.

   The treatment of children in factories was often cruel and unusual, their safety was generally neglected. The youngest children, who were not old enough to work the machines, were commonly sent to be assistants to textile workers. The adults tended to beat them, abuse them verbally, and take no consideration for their safety. One common punishment for being late or not working efficiently would be to be "weighted." An overseer would tie a heavy weight to worker's neck, and have them walk up and down the factory aisles so the other children could see them and "take example." This could last up to an hour.

  Children´s parents knew how terrible the working conditions at the factory were but they were almost forced to accept them because they needed the income. However, many years later there appeared some important figures that fought for the regulation, improvement, and abolishment of child labor. The first step to improve conditions was in 1833 when the Parliament passed the Factory Act. This act limited the amount of hours children of certain ages could work. The children were also supposed to attend school for no less than two hours during the day. The most important part of this act was that the government would appoint officials to make sure that the act was carried out properly in every factory.

  To conclude, in the time of the Industrial Revolution, the families who moved to the crowded cities had a terrible economic situation. When children lived in rural areas, they used to work long hours with hard work for their families farms, but in the cities, they worked longer hours with harder work for large companies. The treatment was more severe; there were more sickness and injury. 

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: Essay #16-17

A better taste is coming -

A belief in order, efficiency and social discipline.

The industrial Revolution caused a big impact on the English society and it really influenced people´s attitude towards social matters. After this period, people began to think more critically about the politic institutions and the social conflicts that they used to take for granted ad accept as their reality.  The administrative class and the new industrial magnates, who were the leading figures of the industrial revolution, increased their belief in order, efficiency and social discipline.

   Firstly, people adopted a new attitude towards the old problems of society, such as poverty, crime, debt, disorder and waste. They also became more critical to the inefficient constitutional machinery. Satire or self-satisfaction among people was replaced by analysis and constructive criticism. As a consequence, there was a growing moral imperative, which held that human virtue could be measured only by its immediate social value. This new moral outlook did not affect the aristocracy since they had always lived in a golden age of power, privilege and wealth.

    Secondly, there was a rivalry between the Whig and Tory squires. However, the political animosity had already started to weaken since the hard times affected both of them. For instance, the problems of rural poverty touched both big and small landowners. The industrial expansion and the threat of the new world were weakening the antagonism between old Whig and old Tory.

  Thirdly, the new industrialists were concerned about law, order and efficient administration of towns. It was highly necessary to reform the local government. After the industrial towns became modern towns, the lack of local government and local administration became unbearable. The government wanted to maintain the immense privileges and profits that they enjoyed at the expense of citizens.

   Finally, people started to fight for their rights and the proper living conditions which they deserved. They also claimed for powers to run social services in their towns. As a result, between 1761 and 1765, a body of enterprising citizens secured Private Acts of Parliament by which they were enabled to charge a house rate in exchange for providing paving and lighting to each house. They would intervene in case any anarchist citizen refused to pay for those improvements. This marked the end of a long local struggle. Citizens in charge of bringing those changes received different names, such as Paving Commissioners, Lighting Commissioners or Improvement Commissioners. Those groups were formed by people with different religions who gather to achieve the same goals of contributing to England’s social development.

  To conclude, people of different social classes, Whigs and Tories, people with different religions put their differences aside to reach a common purpose together. They all wanted to achieve development and improvements on society, to make authorities respect people’s rights and to have a more efficient local government and administration.

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: Essay #14

Journalism and Literature

  During the eighteenth century newspapers multiplied both in London and the provinces due to the plethora of pamphlets produced by political or religious development.  There was a high demand for news all over England. In 1727, seventeen new newspapers had been successfully established. A considerable growth in literacy among people was the reason of the demand for books and newspapers. Both Journalism and literature books had a clear and defined style during this century.

   Most people became fond of reading because there was a significant increase in literacy. Since the revolution, the number of undergraduates at the universities was rapidly declining. However, primary education improved immensely trough the charity school movement. Those schools were run largely by Dissenters and after some time, by mixed groups of Anglicans and Dissenters. Charity schools provided education for the artisan’s and small shopkeepers´ children. People who ran those societies were essentially puritan since they believed, like their grandparents before them, in godliness, industry, and thrift. Then they would form the Methodism movement.

 Some people became professionals on letters due to the products of charity school and the new grammar schools. Consequently, there was a great increase in literary styles apart from theology and travel.  Writers started to work on good, bad or indifferent poetry and plays. But in those times, novels were quite unusual. Other writers such as Young and Thomson, wrote smooth, elegant and formal verse to gratify the conventional tastes of their patrons. The growth of literature and the development of journalism deeply affected the writing of prose.

  To conclude, the seventeenth century´s pieces of writing were embellished but there was a lack of effective and deeply personal use of words. Instead, writers started to implement plainer writing and a simpler vocabulary to produce suitable books for the simply educated people.  The readers were more varied than before when only high classes used to read.

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: Essay #12

Reason and Religion

  Before the Industrial Revolution took place in England, people used to accept the dogmatic theology of an early age without questioning it. But during the period of industrialization there was a really important improvement in science, which enlarged man´s understanding and made him question the whole nature of the biblical universe in which his ancestors used to believe with great faith.  The Englishman´s horizon was expanding rapidly and curiosity grew. 

 In the seventeenth century, the triumphs of reason had been so startling and astounding that it was impossible for intelligent men to accept unquestioned the dogmatic theology that used to prevail.  Science had begun to dominate people´s intellectual life so it was difficult to reconcile reason with religion. In an attempt to do this, the preacher and the publicist played down miracles, banished the terrors of hell and they stressed the reasonable nature of Christian ethics. Pope and Bollingbroke imposed “Deism”, which was the belief that reason and observation of the natural world are sufficient to determine the existence of a Creator, accompanied with the rejection of authority as a source of religious knowledge. As a consequence, Christians started to defend religion and in the twenties and thirties there was a violent theological controversial.

  Philosophy was also affected by the same skeptical spirit which was clearly represented by David Humes in his book “Treatise on Human Nature” in 1738. In literature philosophy was not as popular as theology. So that book was not spread among people maybe because it did not show revolutionary views of the world. 

  To conclude, people during the Industrial Revolution needed the light of reason as much as the nature of the physical universe or the mysteries of God. So it was very important to find a way of conciliating reason and religion so as to avoid the disputes that emerged between religious people,philosophers and scientists.

  

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: Essay #10

Transport

   In the eighteenth century England´s transport system was in terrible conditions and it did not contribute to the nation´s growth since it was very difficult to move goods from one place to another. It seemed impossible to cover long distances. England was experiencing a time of great commercial expansion so merchants began to claim for solutions to have an improvement both on roads and means of transports.

   One of the most serious difficulties that merchants found in English towns was the bad conditions of the roads. The government ignored the damaged roads and they did not offer money to repair them. Instead, some people from the near parishes tried to repair them with the scarce resources they possessed. Roads in that time used be like a swamp infested with swarms of armed robbers. As a consequence, pack horses appeared as the only available method for transporting goods for short or long distances but it was very expensive.

   Coast water-borne trade was quicker, cheaper and freer than pack horses. Traders and the government wanted to take advantage of this so they established more control over the rivers. This helped to connect important cities such as Manchester and Derby. Consequently, the products became cheaper and they managed to rich both local and national market.

   During that time, many businessmen were looking for the opportunity of investing their money wisely so as to obtain convenient benefits. That’s why some of them decided to keep the maintenance of a particular section of a read and in return they were allowed to charge a fee every time people used those roads for transportation of goods. Parliament supported enterprisers to do this by giving them private acts. These investors were known as the Turnpike Trusts and they turned out to be quite dishonest since they only cared about money and they did very little to help road transport. London was the exception since its trustees were really involved and concerned with the ease of transport.

   In conclusion, the improvement of transport was highly necessary for guaranteeing merchants the possibility of trading with other towns. That would give them the chance of growing economically and having a better position among society. The improvement of roads was not a difficult task for the unconcerned government and it really facilitated merchants´work.