Delta conversations: Lizzie

This is part of a series of posts showing you all the different ways you can approach the Cambridge Delta. They are designed to help you find out more about the course and what it involves, as well as helping you to choose the right way to do it for you, your lifestyle and the time you have available. If you’ve done the Delta (or any other similar higher-level teaching course, including a Masters), and you’d like to join in, let me know by leaving me a comment or contacting me via Twitter@sandymillin.

Lizzie Pinard is coming to the end of her M.A. with integrated Delta at Leeds Metropolitan University and will soon be dividing her summer between writing a dissertation and teaching at a private language school in Leeds. She answered questions about her Delta here, then used the same questions to write about her M.A. over on her blog. She blogs at Reflections of an English Language Teacher, tweets @lizziepinard, and is interested in materials development as well as doing research and presenting at conferences.

How did you do your Delta?

I did my Delta as part of a full time M.A. at Leeds Metropolitan University. This course integrates the Delta modules into an M.A. in English Language Teaching. However, at Leeds Met you don’t have to do the M.A. in order to do the Delta (or vice versa for that matter!), and you don’t have to do it full time either. If you only want to do the Delta, you join for Semester 1 of the M.A., which starts in September. As it is fully integrated, this route would still give you a Postgraduate Certificate in English Language Teaching and Professional Practice from Leeds Met as well as your Delta. You gain the Postgraduate Certificate or M.A. credits by doing Leeds Met assessments as well as the Delta assessments. However, this isn’t as bad as it might sound!

• Module 1: you do a series of homework tasks, which help you learn how to do Delta module 1 Exam paper questions and these provide 50% of the Leeds Met module 1 credits. Then at the end of the semester you do a Delta Module 1 exam paper. This gives you the other 50% of the credits necessary for the Leeds Met module but also acts as a mock exam for the real Delta exam.
• Module 2: you submit a portfolio consisting of your Delta module 2 work (LSA essays, lesson plans, PDA) and observation tasks. Leeds Met provides a set of observation tasks as guidance, but you are also free to create your own, tailored to your PDA. These are graded against Leeds Met criteria.
• Module 3: you do an oral presentation based on your Delta module 3 extended specialism essay. People generally found that this really helped them get their head around their specialism and made completing the Delta essay much easier.

If you choose to do the Delta part-time, you do Modules 1 and 3 one year and then module 2 the following September. The teaching lasts for 12 weeks, and then there are two assessment weeks, the sum of which is the duration of the university’s semester 1.

Why did you choose to do it that way?

I chose to do it this way because I found a leaflet advertising the course in my conference pack at IATEFL and it looked perfect for someone like me who had faffed around a lot in my twenties before discovering teaching and the CELTA. I wanted to gain two of the most highly sought after qualifications in ELT in one go – saving time in the long run and equipping myself, hopefully, to get a stable, permanent job. (That is the plan! I am just coming out of the end of the course, only got a dissertation to go, and am optimistic about the future! Starting with a couple of conference presentations based on work I’ve done for the M.A. portion of the course. It won’t happen immediately but it is now possible and that is distinct progress!) I had thought about doing Distance Delta before but then relocated to the UK, decided I’d rather do it face-to-face style and happened on that leaflet. Fate! In hindsight, I think I would not have coped with Distance Delta, as the whole course was a very steep learning curve for me so I found all the support I had from tutors and classmates absolutely invaluable and don’t think I could have got through without it! We were very much in it together and got through it together.

What do you think you gained from doing the Delta?

• I think the most important thing I gained from doing the Delta is learning how to keep learning. That is, how to be a reflective teacher, how to develop my teaching through research, experimentation and reflection.
• Also, I learnt how to approach a lesson in a principled, systematic yet flexible way. I would also say that doing the Delta helped my classroom practice to line up more closely with my teaching beliefs.

What were the downsides of the method you chose?

I don’t think there were any downsides, to be honest! I suppose, yes, it was incredibly intensive, intense and hard work, but those were good things too. Being completely immersed in Delta for a semester was immense. You have to be ready to put real life on hold for the duration, pretty much, and just work like a demon but it’s an incredibly rewarding experience. I suppose unless you are doing it part-time, you can’t work at the same time, so there’s a financial factor there. Worth it if you can manage it though.

What were the benefits of the method you chose?

The benefits? Where to start…

• One thing I really liked about this course was the way the input sessions were carefully planned so that learning from each module fed into the other two modules too.  For this reason I’d recommend doing all three modules in one go. (I don’t know how intensive courses work elsewhere but I think the Leeds Met way definitely works!)
• A very important aspect, for me, was all the tutor support I received: LSA1 was a very steep learning curve for me, but my tutor helped me understand what was expected in terms of the essay and the lesson plan, by giving me incredibly detailed and helpful feedback on my drafts. I then managed to scrape a pass in both essay and lesson plan. Following the assessment, we had individual tutorials to get our feedback, which again were very thorough and helpful, and given very supportively. And this, together with similarly helpful feedback on future drafts, enabled me to go from scraping a pass in LSA1 to getting a distinction for my essay and a merit for my lesson in LSA2 and 3. Also, I didn’t realize at the time that it wasn’t standard, until Sandy sent me an LSA lesson plan of hers to look at, but Leeds Met very helpfully provide a template for the lesson plan, which is very helpful in guiding you to meet all the criteria. It sounds like a small thing but every little helps when you are starting off and don’t have a clue what you are doing!!
• Doing the Delta intensively is a mental and emotional rollercoaster, but the tutors understand that and help you through it. For example, with Module 3, another near-vertical learning curve for me, there was a point just before we got our needs analysis tools back, having previously submitted them for feedback, where I lost all confidence in myself and emailed my tutor saying I was convinced I was going to fail this module and so on, pretty much ready to give up on it, and very quickly had the very reassuring response that I needed to be able to keep going as well as all the support I needed to get to grips with what was required. Module 3 was very well managed actually: we had mini-deadlines throughout the semester, where we submitted drafts of each section of the extended specialism essay and received feedback on those, as well as individual tutorials. I was able to go from not having a clue at the beginning to producing a completed assignment by the end, in structured, well-scaffolded little steps.
• The camaraderie of the cohort shouldn’t be underestimated either. Having regular contact with a small but close-knit bunch of classmates going through the same thing as you is one of the great things about face-to-face Delta. We jollied each other along, whinged to each other, helped each other, gave each other kicks when necessary and so on.

What tips would you give other people doing the Delta?

Top tips from me would be:

1. Read as much as you can before you start the course.
2. Do the course somewhere, like Leeds Met, with lots of support built in for all the wobbly moments and a course that seems designed to maximize on the learning potential of all modules.
3. …Or just do it at Leeds Met!
4. Read my blog post of top tips for Delta trainees!!
5. Don’t forget to enjoy it – it’s an amazing opportunity so get as much out of it as you can.

If you have any questions about the course, contact Heather Buchanan (course leader) on h.buchanan@leedsmet.ac.uk; if you have any specific questions you want to ask me about my experience of the course, that aren’t answered above, feel free to get in touch – lizzie.pinard@gmail.com.

Disclaimer: This blog post consists of my experience, my views and claims to be no more and no less!

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has been one of my favourite books since I first read the trilogy in five parts at the age of 11. (It also led to me reading A Town Called Alice by Nevil Shute, because my grandma would only buy me H2G2 if I promised to read A Town Called Alice too!) Since then, I have read all of Douglas Adams’ books, and regularly return to different iterations of them, the latest being the BBC version of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. Douglas Adams was a genius, and he is sadly missed.

When my advanced (C1) class told me they wanted to do some reading, I thought Hitchhiker would be perfect. The activities I put together are in the document below. It contains the complete text of chapter one of the book. No copyright infringement is intended – I only want to introduce the book to as many students as possible!

This activity requires a bit of cutting out beforehand (it’s the activity on page 6 in the document above):

Overall, we spent about 7 hours on all of the activities, including discussion between them. In the final lesson of the week, we watched the film.

Thinking about it while I write this post, I believe Douglas Adams has had a huge influence on the way that I think. His books were some of the ones that really influenced my teenage years. I don’t know now, but it’s possible that his words were the ones that led me towards being a lover of Macs, or consciously deciding that God doesn’t exist. And his essays on ‘Y’ and on attitudes to technology in The Salmon of Doubt have stuck with me, still memorable 12 years later.

I’ll leave you one of my (many) favourite quotes from Douglas Adams:

“A learning experience is one of those things that says, ‘You know that thing you just did? Don’t do that.”
― Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt

Delta conversations: Mat

This is part of a series of posts showing you all the different ways you can approach the Cambridge Delta. They are designed to help you find out more about the course and what it involves, as well as helping you to choose the right way to do it for you, your lifestyle and the time you have available. If you’ve done the Delta (or any other similar higher-level teaching course, including a Masters), and you’d like to join in, let me know by leaving me a comment or contacting me via Twitter @sandymillin.

Matthew Smith has done most of his teaching in the Czech Republic, but has also taught in Spain and in the UK. I taught with him at IH Brno, where he is currently teaching. He has just started a blog at: http://mattheweltpages.wordpress.com

How did you do your Delta?

First I did module 1 online with Distance Delta in December 2011.

I then did module 3 with Bell Delta as an on-demand online course from June-August 2012

Then I took module 2 last as an online course, also with Bell Delta from Sept-Dec 2012. I had a local tutor (my DoS  [Director of Studies]) who had to be accepted and trained by Bell, and an online tutor from Bell Delta.

Why did you choose to do it that way?

I never intended to take the whole Delta, but I decided to take the module 1 exam after finishing the IH CAM (Advanced Methodology Certificate) in June 2011. After passing the exam I decided that I wanted to finish it and the online option just suited me much better. I took into consideration the extra cost of accommodation, lost work, time away from my family, (and the fact that I wanted to do triathlon in the summer, meaning I would need to train in the spring!) if I did one of the other options and finally chose the online courses at Bell Delta, as the module 2 course with Distance Delta required a 2-week full time induction, followed by 9 months of work, finishing in June (not good for triathlon!) but the Bell course was a 3-month course with no face-to-face induction course. The on-demand option for module 3 meant I could write my assignment during the summer when I had less work and submit it in December.

What do you think you gained from doing the Delta?

I don’t think that it was as life-changing as Katy said [Delta conversations: Katy] but I now feel more confident in what I am doing in the classroom and am more aware of what is happening in the classroom and the positives and negatives of doing things in different ways.

I completely agree with Katy that I got ‘a renewed passion, buzz, and thrill out of teaching.’

I think that it teaches you to look at things from a whole new perspective. When I started the course, particularly module 2, I looked at gaining Delta as the end of the road but after few weeks on the course I could see that it was not the end of my development as a teacher, but the beginning.

What were the downsides of the method you chose?

• It was expensive (although possibly cheaper than the other options, after factoring in travel, accommodation, etc.)
• The course(s) were intense. 10 weeks to do module 3 in the summer was ok, but 10 weeks to do module 2, on top of a full-time teaching schedule was VERY hectic! I am lucky that my wife was supportive, and took care of everything while I was doing the course!
• We had too much material to read for module 2, far too much, and some of it was conflicting with things I had read in other documents provided to me by Bell. This was confusing, and was definitely the biggest downside of doing the course alone.
• As above, all the input for module 2 is limited to PDF files, so although the course costs the same I don’t think you get the same support for your money.
• No (or limited) peer support. Obviously doing the course online means that you feel much more isolated than doing the course with other people who can share the highs and lows with you.

What were the benefits of the method you chose?

• A massive benefit for me was already knowing my local module 2 tutor. It meant that we could talk honestly to each other and I didn’t need to worry if I sounded stupid. It also meant that he knew my teaching style and had a good idea of my strengths and weaknesses from the start.
• All of the tutors, both at Bell Delta and Distance Delta were very professional and always sent my work back well before the established deadlines. This meant that you always felt your tutor was there by your side.
• The stress was separated because each module could be submitted individually and you were not waiting on all of your results at once or trying to get all of your work done for the same time.
• Because I had already written module 3 I was not worried about how to lay out my LSA assignments for module 2.
• Another benefit, although I didn’t realize it at the time, was that I had saved the most stressful part until last!

What tips would you give other people doing the Delta?

• Do plenty of reading before the course starts and get to know the course (what happens in what module and how it will happen) to avoid any unpleasant surprises.
• Be prepared for your life to stop, especially if you are doing the course intensively or if you are doing a 3-month course. I can’t speak for a 9-month course, but most of the people I know who did it this way were also stressed most of the time!
• Make sure that you choose the most convenient method for you, and don’t be afraid to go to the provider who offers the course which best fits for you. I think this is much more important than the cost.
• And the most important tip for me, which was not immediately clear on the course:
  Don’t try to follow your plan too closely, but be willing to react to your learners as you would in any lesson. In my first observed lessons I was too nervous to deviate from my plan, but my grades improved when I realized that I was not being marked for following my plan to the letter, but also being marked on decisions I made in the lessons.

Delta conversations: Mike

This is part of a series of posts showing you all the different ways you can approach the Cambridge Delta. They are designed to help you find out more about the course and what it involves, as well as helping you to choose the right way to do it for you, your lifestyle and the time you have available. If you’ve done the Delta (or any other similar higher-level teaching course, including a Masters), and you’d like to join in, let me know by leaving me a comment or contacting me via Twitter @sandymillin.

Mike Harrison is currently teaching in London. He tweets @harrisonmike and blogs http://www.mikejharrison.com

How did you do your Delta?

I did my DELTA part time at UCL. I chose to opt for this mode rather than the Distance DELTA option as I knew I wanted the face-to-face time with both the tutors and fellow trainees. I learnt as much, if not more from the interactions with my peers as I did from the tutors and the reading I did. The course that I took part on included all three DELTA modules in the period from January to June. There were two evening sessions every week (apart from holidays) and 7 (I think) Saturday full day sessions. Course work and assignments were done and uploaded onto the course moodle website, which was also where information was communicated from tutors, articles and resources were shared, and where online discussion outside the sessions could take place.

What do you think you gained from doing the Delta?

The DELTA was an immense fillip. I felt like I was investigating everything in so much detail, much more than I had ever thought of before, and in ways I hadn’t considered. I did find some of the reading a little bit impenetrable, but I think I gained so much from all the different sources of information that I was exposed to. Overall it made me consider how best to develop in my teaching, gave me the opportunity to explore different paths in teaching (e.g. course design, experimental practice, etc.).

What were the downsides of the method you chose?

Although part time, the modeI followed was intense! It was 2 evenings and some Saturdays, but in reality it required at least that much work again in the week, if you wanted to make real progress. It was certainly heavier in terms of workload around certain times (e.g. fast turn around of research, essays and lesson plans for the LSAs). I *had to* work part time at college while I was doing it. I don’t know how other people managed a full time teaching load while studying for it at the same time.

What were the benefits of the method you chose?

Studying part time, having face to face and online components I think gives the best of both worlds. The time frame of 5-6 months does give you the opportunity to explore a fair bit (much more than you would have in 8 week DELTA course I imagine).

What tips would you give other people doing the Delta?

My tips for potential DELTA candidates, don’t stress too much, but do put in the work as you will benefit in the end. Try to start reading around ELT (areas you are weaker on especially) before you even apply for a course. Above all, recognise it as the fantastic opportunity for development that it is but also that you are in charge of how much you get out of it.

Delta conversations: Katy

This is the first in a series of posts showing you all the different ways you can approach the Cambridge Delta. They are designed to help you find out more about the course and what it involves, as well as helping you to choose the right way to do it for you, your lifestyle and the time you have available. If you’ve done the Delta (or any other similar higher-level teaching course, including a Masters), and you’d like to join in, let me know by leaving me a comment or contacting me via Twitter @sandymillin.

Katy Simpson-Davies is currently teaching in Dubai. She tweets @katysdavies and blogs http://lessonsfrommystudents.wordpress.com. She used to teach with me at IH Newcastle, and we saw each other again at IATEFL Liverpool:

How did you do your Delta?

- I did module 2 first, and I did this face-to-face at IH Dubai, intensively, full-time over six weeks.
- I did module 1 six months later, after going back to work. I followed an online prep course over three months through IH Wroclaw, before sitting the exam at my local centre.
- I’m still working on my module 3, and will pay a consultant for guidance (when I’ve made a bit more headway!)

Why did you choose to do it that way?

I was advised to do module 2 first by my tutor, on the basis that it’s easier to understand the theory once you’ve already tried putting it into practice, and I think it was great advice. Module 1 felt so much easier than I think it would have done otherwise.

Having done a Masters online, I knew that I wanted to do module 2 face-to-face, and I was in a very fortunate position to be able to give up work for six weeks. I appreciate that not everyone can do this, but if there’s any way you can, I would really recommend it. I feel I got so much more out of it by being able to completely immerse myself in it compared to people I know who didn’t do it this way. I didn’t learn much more on the module 1 online prep course than I’d already learnt on module 2, as it was more about exam technique, which was what I expected (and was why I didn’t mind doing it online).

What do you think you gained from doing the Delta?

Where to start?! SO much. For me, it’s not an exaggeration to say that it was life-changing. I gained a greater understanding of:

- how to teach skills. I was a very grammar-orientated teacher before, and only ever really helped students to practice things like listening, not really develop it.
- the importance of helping students to reflect on their learning, and how to encourage them to do this.
- how to hand over more control to the students, and to take myself out of the equation more.
- how to help students to see patterns and make connections.
- how to use the same activity in different ways for students of different abilities.
- how to deal with emerging needs in the classroom, and adapting my plan depending on how the students are coping.
- how to conduct action research (particularly through the exploratory practice).
- the importance of the different teacher roles, and how to switch roles at different points to maximize the learning opportunities for our students.

The most important thing, overall, was a renewed passion, buzz, and thrill out of teaching. I gained confidence to experiment, and to see the classroom as a laboratory where you’re constantly trying to improve your work. Since doing the Delta, I can’t imagine ever doing a job where there wasn’t scope for constantly improving and learning new things. My husband is a pilot, and there’s a wrong and right way of doing it, and they learn it and they do it. I would hate that! Delta taught me that we’re incredibly lucky to have a job where we can experiment and take control of our own development, every single day, not just on the Delta.

What were the downsides of the method you chose?

- Obviously the money! Doing module 2 full-time means not earning, before you even consider the fees.
- It was VERY intense. If you don’t cope well with intense pressure, you could really crack up under the stress of it. I personally work better under pressure with tighter deadlines, but by LSA4 I think I was basically suffering from exhaustion. I didn’t get to bed before my LSA4 because I was still writing my lesson plan at 5am. I literally ran out of time because I was the first one to do it out of the group, and there physically weren’t enough hours. I still wouldn’t change the way I did it (even though this did end up messing up my grade), but if you can find an intensive course that’s over seven weeks instead of six, that might be better.
- We didn’t have as long to ‘digest’ everything, and perhaps if you did module 2 over a long period, you could implement things you’d learnt before moving on to the next new thing.
- Spreading the modules out, and separating them in this way means that it’s now a while since I did module 2, and I kind of feel like I’ve ‘done’ Delta, even though I’m actually missing a third of it! It means that I need to get all the books out, all over again, and study harder than someone else might need to who had done them all together, as it’s all feeling a bit rusty now. I’d recommend doing them in quicker succession.

What were the benefits of the method you chose?

- I learnt so much from my tutors during the input sessions of my Delta module 2. They brought the hefty books to life. The input sessions alone were worth every penny of the course fees.
- The intensity of it meant that you could visibly see your progress, and made it easier to make connections between everything.
- We were a very small group (five of us), and became very close with it being so intense, and really supported each other, and could trust each other to give honest feedback. I know I’ve got friends for life from that experience.
- The tutors really got to know you, which I think helped them better understand why you might be teaching something in a certain way, which meant they could better help you to improve.
- Because you had so much time together, you didn’t feel that the course was just about exam technique, or complying with the Cambridge criteria. I felt that the tutors’ aim was really to improve my teaching, and that’s what the course did.

What tips would you give other people doing the Delta?

- Do Module 2 first.
- Choose your centre very carefully, and preferably go on a recommendation. I LOVED every single minute of my Delta module 2. I was in tears on my last day because I couldn’t imagine going back to real life after such an amazing experience! That’s down to the fantastic tutors I had, and I can imagine it would be a totally different story if you didn’t have such good tutors.
- Study the criteria very carefully, and when your tutors give you advice, make sure you follow it to the word!
- Remember you’re there to develop, not to just get a certificate, and try not to let the grades get to you. It’s about so much more than grades.
- But if you are someone who can’t let go of the grades (I admit that I struggle with this!), then be careful about pacing yourself. I messed up LSA4 and all the other grades I got counted for nothing. If you’re interested in getting a good grade, then make sure you think ahead to LSA4 carefully (e.g work backwards in your choice of LSAs, so you don’t scupper yourself by having to do a skill, for example, when you’d rather do a system).
- If you’re doing an intensive course, then try to do as much reading as possible beforehand, because it’s a whirlwind once it starts.
- Think carefully about the geographical location you do the course in. I really appreciated coming home every day to a supportive husband who put a meal on the desk in front of me as I carried on writing! Your whole life is literally put on hold. One of the other trainees came from abroad and was staying in a hotel, and I think that was emotionally very tough. If you can’t do it in your city, can you do it in a close friend / sister / parent / grandparent’s city?!

My favourite TV show

In my first lesson with my B2 Upper Intermediate group way back at the start of January, I found out that all of the students were fans of American TV series. We brainstormed the series they watched, and came up with about 30 different ones, everything from Big Bang Theory to White Collar (which I’d never heard of before). Because of that, I decided to base my first week on giving opinions about TV shows. (It was possibly a little too easy at times, and I think it could work with a  B1 Intermediate group)

[Well after my lessons, but before I finished writing this post, Scott Thornbury wrote about the value of soaps and TV for language learners.]

Vocabulary

We started with vocabulary, like so:

• Tell each other about your favourite TV show, and say why you like it. While they were doing this, I monitored and noted examples of missing vocabulary and language would could be improved later in the week.
• On the board, write as many words as you can think of connected to TV shows.
• Fill in as many words as you can on this sheet:

• Look at the wordcloud and match any missing words:

• The teacher check the meanings and definitions with students. They drill any necessary pronunciation.
• Students test each other by saying the definition, and the others in their group remember the word.
• You can give students the link to the whole set on Quizlet to practise the words at home.

My favourite TV series

I then introduced the class to one of my favourite series, and one I was fairly sure they wouldn’t know, namely Doctor Who, through this very entertaining video by Charlie McDonnell:

They had to listen to the video twice and answer the questions on the first sheet, then listen again and correct the mistakes in the transcript. It bears repeated listening because Charlie speaks very quickly – be prepared for a look of shock the first time they hear him! The corrected version of the transcript is in the second slideshare document below. To download them, click on ‘view on slideshare’. You need to join to download, but it’s free.

Other people’s favourites

In the next lesson, we started off by revising the vocabulary with a board race. The aim for this lesson was for students to learn some useful phrases to talk about their favourite TV shows. We started by listening to Adam, with three questions:

• What’s the show?
• Why do they like it?
• Do they give you any extra information about it?

Adam – The Walking Dead

Here are the phrases I pulled out of Adam’s text:

• The first thing you think about when I say…
• The main purpose of the show is…
• There are deeper things than this in the show.
• That’s why I like it.
• The show really looks at the human condition.
• It looks at…what happens when…
• He was in one of my favourite shows.

I then divided the class into two groups (there was an empty classroom next door). One group had my iPad, and the other my phone (I trust them!). Each group listened to three of the other recordings – Vicky/Deniz/Matt or Rachel/Sian/Lea. They had the same questions as above, plus the additional job of choosing any useful phrases they could steal.

Once they’d listened to their three texts, they told the other group about what they’d heard.

They then talked about their own favourite TV shows, trying to use some of the phrases.

Deniz: How I Met Your Mother

• It’s a sitcom set in…
• The main character is…
• In each episode…
• The reason why I like this show is…
• If you haven’t watched the series, I really recommend it.
• I’m sure you’ll enjoy it, just like I do.

Vicky – Glee

• My favourite TV series is…
• I really like it because…
• It deals with…
• It’s also something I really enjoy because…
• I really look forward to watching each episode…

Lea – The Borgias

• It’s set in…
• It’s all about… [described in present simple]
• What I like about this series is…
• You find yourself rooting for them.
• My favourite character is…

[Side note: thanks to this lesson, I'm now a big fan of The Borgias and How I Met Your Mother ]

Matt – Six Feet Under

• My favourite TV show of all time is…
• It’s about… [described in present simple]
• It’s an amazing show because it deals with…
• It can be very dark.
• The opening credits are something I enjoy in and of themselves.
• The acting was incredible.

Rachel – Eastenders

• It’s a bit of a guilty pleasure.
• It’s a soap opera which is set in…
• I just love it.
• One of the other reasons that I love it is…

Sian – The Killing

• One series I enjoyed very much last year was…
• It’s quite funny that I enjoyed this because…
• …and that’s something that I’m not particularly used to…
• There was a good strong central character.
• By ten minutes into the first episode I was completely gripped by…
• A fantastic supporting cast…
• …were so good that…

[Thanks to these lovely people for answering my Twitter/facebook call for one-minute recordings about favourite TV shows. If anyone else wants to record one and post the link in the comments, that would be great!]

To finish the week, I taught this lesson from allatc, based on the first episode of The Walking Dead. They mingled at the end to tell each other about their favourite scenes from any TV show. It brought together everything we’d been discussing all week perfectly.

So, what’s your favourite TV show?

Verb-noun collocations

I’ve just created these powerpoint slides based on some brainstorming we did in class today. What would you do with them? I’ll try to update the post later with what I do with them after the lesson tomorrow!

(You can download it by clicking ‘slideshare’ and logging in – it’s free to create an account, and you can link via facebook if you want to.)

Teaching English British Council interview – IATEFL 2013

Just before IATEFL started I was interviewed by Ann Foreman and Paul Braddock for the TeachingEnglish British Council facebook page as part of a series of interviews with those of us who have been awarded ‘Blog of the Month‘ (the blue badge at the top of the blog). Each of us will be asked three or four questions suggested by members of the TeachingEnglish British Council facebook page. Here is my interview, talking about IATEFL, building and retaining vocabulary and helping students learn to love English:

Of course! Using the coursebook AND engaging with emergent language – Rachael Roberts (IATEFL 2013)

Part of a series of summaries of the talks I’m attending at IATEFL Liverpool 2013. Please feel free to add things or correct me if I’ve misinterpreted anything!
These are the main points from Rachael Roberts’ talk, taken from my tweets.

Coursebooks and emergent language don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Learning is located in the interactivity between teachers and learners, and between learners themselves. (Teaching Unplugged). To counter Dogme, @jimscriv say it is fairly drastic to dump materials and syllabus and wander naked through the Dogme forest. But Rachael also says you don’t need to go in like a tank either, with so many materials you don’t connect with students. Materials should not be the tail that wags the dog says @thornburyscott, but doesn’t mean you can’t use them. Structure can be very helpful though – we like to have an idea of a series of steps. We might have a vision of a series of steps leading upwards, but students may not feel this. Might wander off/tunnel vision

Emergent language is the idea that a system can emerge from a lot of smaller interactions, like flocks of birds or snowflakes. Sorry…that was emergence, not emergent language! #iatefl @teflerinha says it’s about having a framework, with interaction between CB/EL. These are key ingredients, which could come from people in the room or materials.

‘Freeing the classroom from third party imported materials empowers both teachers and learners.’ is a quote from Teaching Unplugged. @teflerinha disagrees with the slavery language here.

The first key is in engaging the learners. What is between the learners and the materials? What is in that gap? .@teflerinha showing us an excellent video from her blog from StoryCorps with an interview between a child with Asperger’s and his mum. She says the video is an example of something that isn’t just going to turn up in the classroom, but students can still relate to it. Materials can help students grow and see new things in a different way, in a way that materials-free perhaps can’t. Teachers should mediate the materials, not be mediated by them. We need to make the materials relevant to the students. For example, when monolingual groups are reading about different cultures, they get something they might not with materials-free.
Get students to write letters to themselves in the future using futureme.org – it will be emailed to them.

The second point is noticing and restructuring. Coursebooks often have lots of them, but you can do more with them. For example, you can turn a coursebook text into a dictogloss/translation. They can see the gap between what they produced/Eng. After listening, students can be asked to notice language which has been used by looking at the transcript. Students could also try some self-recording and transcription tasks. Helps them notice. T can reformulate.

The third point is repeating and recycling. People often complain that coursebooks don’t do enough of this, but impossible to do. To recycle activities, repeat them in different ways, with a different audience/purpose. Listening to a model after doing a task for example. There’s a site called Textivate, which allows you to break up a text. Great for repetition, though not perfect. You can return to the same text later, and do something different with it.

Coursebooks are like recipe books – some people follow them, and some people learn from them and run with it. Rachael Roberts/teflerinha’s website is http://www.elt-resourceful.com if you want to see some of her resources.

Conversation
.@chiasuan now clarifying that she respects coursebook writers and that she learnt a lot from them as a newly-qualified teacher. There are extremes of people who don’t understand how coursebooks/dogme actually work. @irishmikeh says that’s not how writers write: Coursebooks are a tool not a result – that’s not how writers write. As @irishmikeh and @MarjorieRosenbe clarify that. .@hughdellar emphasising recipe idea, that it’s difficult to get to the stage of being a good cook without having internalised recipes. .@elawassell @hughdellar said this means we need to be training people to use materials on their initial courses, not reinvent the wheel

Update:
Mark Hancock on the same presentation

Creative pedagogy, language learning and technology – Graham Stanley (IATEFL 2013)

Part of a series of summaries of the talks I’m attending at IATEFL Liverpool 2013. Please feel free to add things or correct me if I’ve misinterpreted anything!
These are the main points from Graham Stanley’s talk, taken from my tweets.

How many people do you see? It’s a creativity test!

(9)
Creativity should be a cental part of what you do, not an add-on.

@grahamstanley is focussing on the activity IWB Island in ‘Language Learning with Technology’ from CUP. Learners created their own islands on paper, and @grahamstanley asked them to add e.g. mountains. @grahamstanley scanned them, then traced over them on the computer, so you can then create something like this.

Students created a tourist guide for their own islands. The central island is @grahamstanley’s, which SS travelled too and explored. Students had a copy of a picture of their island, decided on style of government, elected a president and ministers, and chose a currency.
The central island was the location for a lot of fluency games, like ‘werewolf’. Werewolf can be played with 7+ students. The villagers have to eliminate the werewolves, the werewolves eat the villagers. During the day,the werewolves have to pretend to be a villager too. Demonstrates it’s difficult to lie over an extended time. There’s a day phase and a night phase. Everyone closes their eyes. 6 people chosen as werewolves secretly. WWs open eyes. WWs identify other WWs, then choose a victim. Everyone opens eyes, narrator/T points out victims. Villagers identify WWs. While they’re playing, the teacher has to be storyteller. Also notes lang SS using to identify werewolves. To identify WWs, students use sounds they heard to help, and ask questions. Students can produce role cards as villagers. It can be used with many levels – adaptable, language can be changed. You play the game until all of the villagers or all of the werewolves are dead. You can find the rules by searching for ‘werewolf:the game’ on the net.
Rory’s Story Cubes can be used too. There is an app, or you can take the set around the room, ask students to take a photo, then move the dice to the next group. By situating the games in the island, there is an ongoing narrative, and it makes them more real. There’s a continuity.
Graham emphasises that even though he’s written books on technology, he regularly teaches tech-free too. Not always necessary!