Have you ever set up a new EAL department? If so, how did you go about establishing your targets and priorities for development? In this (very niche) post, I’ll summarize how I approached this at the start of the academic… Read More ›
General
Our EAL teaching and learning principles
Last term, Heads of Department (‘HoDs’) in our school were given an interesting task! We were instructed to work with our teams to devise a list of criteria for ‘what makes an outstanding [subject] lesson?’ These criteria would then help… Read More ›
Culturally sustaining pedagogy
In our upcoming resource, Adri Szlapak and I mention culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) in EAL teaching. Here’s a quick summary of the concept and some random reflections on it. What is CSP? In the intro to this article, Paris (2012)… Read More ›
Dialogue around displays
I had a great moment today that I’m banking through this blog post. Basically, I’d never really considered how much could be gained from collaborating over a wall display. Sounds random. But you know what it is like as a… Read More ›
Peer observation tasks / Walkthrus
I’m setting up a peer observation scheme in my department. Basically, it’s like this: I’ll work out how we can evaluate the process down the line – we’ve just started. But I have ideas. Anyhow, the areas for development aren’t… Read More ›
Materials writing conversations #17: The front cover
Dear Pete, As author of the book English for Ticking Boxes, we’d appreciate your input regarding the image choice for the front cover. You’ll be familiar with our earlier range of front cover images for books such as… English for… Read More ›
Language Learning Role Models
In our EAL space we wanted to celebrate the success of our language learners. We chose language learning ‘role models’ from Key Stage 4. These were students who have had success/overcome challenges in their English learning journey since joining the… Read More ›
Pitching ideas to publishers
You want to approach a publisher with an idea for an ELT resource. How do you write a proposal/plan/pitch? Some publishers have proposal forms. Myself and my co-author pitched a book to a publisher last year using an in-house proposal… Read More ›
Year in review
Where to start? January obvs… ‘The big one’ At the start of the year I was deep into a project with Pearson International, writing the 2nd Edition of their IGCSE English as a Second Language coursebook. I’ve written about the… Read More ›
Implementing the Bell Assessment Framework
We’ve introduced the Bell Assessment Framework to monitor the progress of our EAL learners. Here are some early reflections on the framework and tracking tool, including some challenges arising from its implementation. Why Bell? Adri Szlapak and I are working… Read More ›
ELT Planning 