NATECLA Midlands is delighted to announce details of their Midlands Spring Half Day Conference: Keeping ESOL Real. The focus for this conference is on keeping ESOL engaging and relevant to learners' lives whilst working against a backdrop of exam pressures and other institutional and governmental priorities.
All ESOL practitioners - from managers and researchers to teachers and trainees - are invited to join us for an innovative programme of practical workshops and networking opportunities.
Workshop titles:
How to be creative under pressure by Jenny Roden- Edmodo, Kahoot, Socrative, Planboard , WriteAbout- you name it! Extend your practice to a new level by Aleksandra Bradshaw, Rotherham College
- Fertile conversations: making the most of classroom talk by Richard Gallen, Tower Hamlets College
- Bringing the Outside In by Sam Shepherd, Kirklees College
A resources exhibition will also be available on the day.
Exhibitors - find out more about our sponsorship opportunities,
Programme
This exciting programme will focus on keeping ESOL as creative and relevant to learners as possible - something we all know is difficult to achieve in the light of the increasing pressure of exams and other targets.
13:00 - 13:30 - Registration, coffee and resources exhibition
13:30 - 14:45 - Workshop 1 (choices below)
14:45 - 15:15 - Coffee break and resources exhibition
15:15 - 16:30 - Workshop 2 (choices below)
Workshop choices - available in both sessions
How to be creative under pressure
Jenny Roden, Co-chair of NATECLA and previous ESOL Manager
Constant pressure to get students through accreditation can sap your creativity and narrow everyone’s focus- yours and your students’. And yet, by adopting a creative approach, you can revitalise your lessons and make them more relevant and useful to your students without losing the input they need for the exam. Find out how to introduce variety (and fun) into your sessions by using the learner as a resource. Explore ways of creating your own resources quickly and easily around authentic materials to practise all the skills. Liven up your approach to practice tests.
About Jenny:
Jenny has forty years of experience in the field of ESOL and ELT as a teacher, manager, teacher trainer and materials writer. She is currently working as a freelance consultant and is co-chair of NATECLA.
Jenny has a master’s degree in Educational Studies and has edited the NATECLA journal, ‘Language Issues’. She was a member of the Advisory Group for the British Council ESOL Nexus project. She has written for a number of Macmillan ELT series as well as for NATECLA publications.
Edmodo, Kahoot, Socrative, Planboard , WriteAbout- you name it! Extend your practice to a new level
By Aleksandra Bradshaw, Rotherham College
This workshop will demonstrate how to use a variety of free technology tools for teaching all four skills with the examples from my own practice which worked well at different levels. Bring a paper based worksheet and we could transfer it into an engaging, digitally enriched lesson.
About Aleksandra
I'm interested in blending learning and embedding technologies into teaching ESOL. I've practised various digital resources and would like to share good practice with the like-minded individuals. I've recently delivered an on-line training on using "Kahoot!"via Periscope broadcast and because it went so well, I decided to extend my work in this area of the interest- teaching language through technologies.
Fertile conversations: making the most of classroom talk.
By Richard Gallen, Tower Hamlets College
Are classroom conversations underused as a source of spontaneous vocabulary learning? In this workshop we will use recordings and transcripts from ESOL classrooms, extracts from learning diaries and evidence from language learning research, to investigate how teachers and students, through techniques of active listening and reformulation, can leverage classroom conversations to seed and develop a vocabulary syllabus.
We will also consider what techniques and activities we can adopt to not only capture words and phrases as they emerge during a class, but also how we can recycle and develop this language through a lesson and beyond.
About Richard:
I am currently an ESOL teacher at Tower Hamlets College. Previously I worked as an EFL teacher in London and abroad. For the past 2 years I have been involved in classroom research projects, which have investigated how teachers and students can leverage classroom conversations for language learning.
Bringing the Outside In
By Sam Shepherd, Kirklees College
This workshop will look at ways to bring the learners’ outside lives into the classroom, including visual metaphors and materials, and make use of these in a meaningful and interesting way to generate language which can be exploited as language learning activities. We will look at some practical classroom ideas, as well as how these approaches can be developed to fit in with observation and inspection regimes which may require a more teacher-led, fixed input approach.
About Sam
I am an ESOL teacher and teacher trainer working at a college in Yorkshire. As well as technology in teaching and teacher CPD, I have a significant interest in the uses of authentic materials and methods which maximise language development without relying on extensive preparation and materials.