teacher development

New ebook! 100+ Professional Development Tips for Post-CELTA Teachers

So, here it is, my first self-published ebook! Here’s the blurb:

This book is aimed at new teachers such as those who have recently completed a CELTA or Cert TESOL course. It offers a range of development tips and ideas to help teachers gain confidence in various areas of their practice. These areas include lesson planning, reviewing vocabulary, teaching pronunciation, classroom organization, and getting teens to talk.

This book is a result of my participation in Self-Publishing for ELT Professionals – a course run by iTDi.pro and hosted by Dorothy Zemach. I’ve just posted a bit about the course here.

Why did I write this book?

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Towards building a whole-school approach to EAL

I enjoyed Adri’s post on EAL vs ESL the other day. It’s great to read so many positives regarding EAL culture at her school: teamwork, addressing individual needs, building a whole-school EAL approach, etc.

Based on Adri’s comments, I feel like she’s a few steps ahead of my school in her context. As an EAL teacher, I’m still trying to work out how best I can promote EAL support to other teachers at my school, and explain how our approach can benefit the students. Adri seems to have made progress with that already so I’ll be reaching out to her for ideas, that’s for sure!

I do have one idea for building a whole-school approach to EAL. It’s basically to put the EAL dept out there – make it clear what we are doing, why we are doing it, and prompt other teachers to collaborate more with us. I’m putting together a series of videos to explain what we do both during in-class support and in our EAL lessons.

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Jason Anderson and the TATE

There’s a Mercury Music Prize-winning band name if ever I heard one. This post is actually a long one about Anderson, CAP/TATE, British Council and Project-based learning – that didn’t have quite the same ring to it.

I attended Jason Anderson’s webinar last night on contemporary lesson planning and frameworks in TESOL (hosted by DublinTEFL). Really well-presented, very informative.

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Materials Development Task 11: Future-proofing

Think…

Have you ever created a resource that aged quickly?
What aspects/features of a published resource might make it more susceptible to ‘ageing’?
How could you, as a writer, minimize the chance of a resource becoming dated?
Do you think that resources aimed at certain markets are more likely to date quickly? Why/Why not?

It’s time to play… DATE THAT RESOURCE!

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Materials Development Task 10: Knowledge and the notes

This is a new series of blog posts for teachers looking to become materials writers. It aims to help future writers explore topics and issues in writing, encourage deeper insight into the content of published materials, and promote a principled approach to materials development.

Think…

How would you rate your knowledge and skills in the following areas? Give yourself a mark between 1-10 for each category.

1 = Huh?

10 = I’m an expert!

Subject/content knowledge – e.g knowledge of grammar, vocab, pronunciation, language skills and strategies, etc.
Pedagogical knowledge – e.g. knowledge of teaching approaches, how students learn, etc.
Cognitive knowledge – e.g. knowledge of the science of learning; memory models, encoding, storage, retrieval, etc.
Technological knowledge – e.g. knowledge of how to best use technology to enhance learning.

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Materials Development Task 9: Functional language

Think…

How would you define functional language?
To what extent does transactional language differ from interactional language?
How do you approach teaching functional language?
In your experience, how is teaching functional language approached in published materials such as coursebooks? How do you feel about the approach(es) used?
In a general sense, how might the functional language needs of YLs, teens and adults differ?

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Materials Development Task 8: Questions

Read this extract then answer the questions.

What is the International Birdman?
What does the competition involve?
Why do birdmen attempt to fly off the pier?
Where is West Sussex?
When did the event first move to Bognor Regis?

Think…

What do you think of the above questions?
What’s wrong with Question 4?
How effective is each question for checking understanding?

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Materials Development Task 7: Tomlinson’s principles

Think

Rank these features of materials development in order of importance. There is no correct answer, it’s just your opinion!

challenge
personalization
affective engagement
raising learners’ confidence
enjoyment

Do you feel that published material should address all these features as standard? Why/Why not?

Do feel that each stage of a lesson should address some if not all these features? Why/Why not?

Tomlinson

Some of Brian Tomlinson’s key principles of materials writing (2011).

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Materials Development Task 6: Purpose and redundancy

Think…

How much/often do you evaluate the materials you create?
Do you ever take a step back and consider ‘flow’ in your own resources?
Have you ever taught or created a resource that you felt (on reflection) included redundant stages?
How often do you think about the ‘why?’ and ‘what for…?’ of lesson staging?

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Materials Development Task 5: Pronunciation activities

Think…

What are your overall views on pronunciation activities in published materials such as coursebooks?
How often do you write pronunciation activities for your own resources? How easy/difficult do you think these materials are to create?
What staging principles do you follow when writing pronunciation activities?
Are the stages you follow based on research, teacher experience and intuition, or both?

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