Context: Year 10 EAL support slot, approx 1 hour. Materials: board pens (at least two colours) and a table to write on. Scrap paper. Lead-in: General chat with the learners. See what they want to study (now this is bold… Read More ›
teacher development
In-class support: building trust and rapport with teachers
Here are some general tips for EAL support staff. The focus is on providing in-class support. In particular, how do you start building that rapport and trust with subject teachers? Make the first move! Teachers are busy. Very busy. Don’t… Read More ›
Targets for our new EAL department
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
WalkThrus parent workshop – Tom Sherrington
I attended a parent workshop this morning by Tom Sherrington, co-author of the WalkThrus series. Sherrington is working with Bangkok Patana School to help embed an instructional coaching programme in the primary school. The workshop was good timing for me,… Read More ›
Review: Off the Page
‘Off the Page: Activities to bring lessons alive and enhance learning’ (Thaine 2020) is a resource for practicing and trainee teachers. It aims to provide a range of activities which supplement and enhance coursebook-based provision – helping teachers to lift… Read More ›
EAL support for disciplinary writing
I’ve been writing a bit about disciplinary literacy this week. If you’re not familiar with the term, it’s *basically* how people communicate, share knowledge, etc within a particular discipline. For the purposes of teaching EAL, think about how we teach… Read More ›
Embedded formative assessment (New Directions)
I was lucky enough to deliver a video presentation alongside Alan Pulverness (TransformELT) at New Directions East Asia conference. We introduce the concept of formative assessment, explain typical formative assessment strategies, and discuss some challenges in embedding such strategies in… Read More ›
ELT Planning 