Webinars

Looking for lightbulbs: reflecting on your teaching – with Claire Martine Moloney

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Looking for lightbulbs: reflecting on your teaching - with Claire Martine Moloney (webinar)
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Is your brain in sync with your heart when you’re in the classroom? This is Claire‘s aim in the session today and she started out by sharing a quote from John Dewey: “We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience.”

As teachers, we all have a toolbox, whether it’s practical activities or techniques and Claire started by sharing our Emotional Intelligence (EQ) toolbox. This is divided into different parts – our self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management. She started out by talking about self-awareness and why it’s important to recognise why we do what we do, both in life and in the classroom. She highlighted how it’s useful to reflect on what we do well in the classroom (where our strengths lie) and also to be honest, rather than critical, about the areas we need to improve in. In terms of our professional development, self-reflection on our reactions to situations in the classroom can help us develop our self-awareness. Another aspect of self-awareness to be cautious of is how our relationships with learners are affected by how we perceive those learners. She also suggests being aware of our own emotional baggage, journalling our emotions and revisiting moments of difficulty and visualising how we would have preferred to respond.

Claire then showed the image below, Robert Plutchik’s Emotions Theory, highlighting that it can be useful to work on the wheel with learners to help them communicate their emotions better, but also to reflect on our own emotions and discuss how we are feeling with colleagues.

Robert Plutchik Emotions Theory

Knowing what the emotions we’re feeling are, helps us to manage them better, which leads into our self-management.

Claire shared an interesting idea called the window of tolerance, when our body is in its optimal state. However, there are areas outside the window of tolerance; hyperarousal – when we can’t calm down – and hypoarousal – when we shut down. Learning ourselves how to stay within the window of tolerance better enables us to pass on these self-regulation techniques to our learners.

Some other suggestions she shared to help with self-management are the following two videos, Safe Place Visualisation and Alan Watkins TED Talk, Why you feel what you feel.

Another thing which she says works well is to practise dealing with stress when you’re NOT stressed, so you have the necessary tools when you need them.

Moving on to social awareness, it’s important to listen actively to our learners and colleagues as we often have quick bursts of communication with the people around us, but may not be able to remember that short conversation if asked about it later. She suggests that we take notes for important conversations as well. She also talked about our body language, both in the in-person classroom and online and gave some suggestions for how we can communicate more to our learners through our body language in the online classroom – looking directly at the camera, nodding, waving to signify the end of the lesson, and so on.

One final aspect of our EQ toolkit is relationship management and a key point here is Mary Ainsworth’s Attachment Theory – how we relate to others in different contexts. Claire also talked about how we can take on the role of both mentor or mentee, for example, when we ask our colleagues for help with a challenging class or reach out to provide support to others. She also shared a visual for dealing with conflict and our reaction to it – avoiding, compromising, accommodating, collaborating or competing.

Now that we have our toolbox, she moved on to talk about being more reflective. This is a continuous process, as can be seen from the image on the right. However, we often get into automatic mode when we’re teaching, rather than actively going through the process of reflection. Claire highlighted that teachers who get into automatic mode are likely to suffer from burnout as they won’t feel like they’re developing.

Some ideas for working on your reflection include keeping a teaching diary (Claire shared some guiding questions from the British Council that you can use to reflect) and peer observation (including ideas such as identifying a focus question or looking for specific data through scripting, tracking and counting). 

She talked as well about the different phases of reflective development. For example, in the initial stage, we tend to do more formal, planned and explicitly structured reflection; as we move through the developing phase, we have more tools at our disposal for reflection and an increased confidence in what we are doing and how we are reflecting on our practice; finally, in the advanced phase, our reflection is more seamlessly integrated into our practice and we feel able to mentor others through the process.

Reflective process: teach, self-assess, consider, practise, repeat

Claire finished with some Amazing Activities which we can use when we observe our teaching and reflect on our practice:

  1. the ratio of interaction
    Through counting or tracking, you can assess the interactions you have with individuals, and the interactions they have with each other. Identifying your goals for these interactions before the lesson – taking into account the class size, level and objectives – can help you to later reflect.
  2. growth mindset or fixed mindset
    Which do you facilitate in your classroom? And how do you move learners from a fixed to a growth mindset? Check out Carol Dweck’s talk if you’re not familiar with these terms. Claire talked about how our approach to error correction or competitiveness might be facilitating a fixed mindset in our learners.
  3. consistent corrections
    This is not only related to how we correct our learners’ language, but also how we deal with behaviour in a consistent way.
  4. opportunities to respond
    Claire talked about promoting different ways to respond to learners in the lesson, such as using response cards or nominating individually.
  5. type and level of questions
    Track whether you’re asking enough open-ended questions, or questions which help learners develop their critical thinking skills
  6. instructional vs. non-instructional time
    How much of the time in the lesson was useful? This will obviously vary depending on the age and level of the learners, but tracking what’s happening throughout the lesson can help you better reflect on a number of aspects: time it takes to settle, time for routines, time devoted to giving instructions, and so on.
  7. teacher talk vs. student talk
    Related to the idea above is a reflection on who is communicating more during the lesson and how learners can do some of the teacher talk (for example, encouraging other to respond if a learner asks for repetition or clarification).

It was a great session, with lots of interesting theory on the different aspects of EQ, practical takeaways and lots to reflect on!

Inspiring Young Writers – with Katherine Reilly

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Inspiring Young Writers - with Katherine Reilly (webinar)
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It was fabulous to be joined by Katherine Reilly, a coursebook and graded readers writer for young learners. You can see more of her work on her blog and her session today looked at getting our younger learners to develop a love of writing.

Katherine started off by talking about receptive and productive skills and how we can use speaking to encourage learners to write. She then went on to discuss some of the problems of working on writing during lessons: a lack of time, curriculum demands, a fear of learners making mistakes in writing – which are more obvious and lasting than mistakes made when speaking. 

She also said that at times, we provide students with a model, but don’t encourage them to think critically around the text, or provide them with the motivation they need to produce their own work.

Katherine suggests using games to motivate our learners and also to focus on helping them develop their writing, rather than expecting them to produce a perfect text from day one.

Here’s a plan she suggests for working with young learners:

  1. Choose a theme – something that will motivate the students
  2. What language do you want them to focus on?
  3. Think about the materials you’ll use (flashcards, presentation)
  4. Spark their imagination through the theme and the language. Get them to draw pictures.
  5. Look for opportunities to upgrade their work

She also suggested using pictures from the web or GIFs to engage the students and in the webinar she shared some great examples of an elephant in strange contexts. One of the benefits of using created resources is that learners then need more language and will be more motivated to ask for it. Learners can also feel inspired to find their own images.

She also noted that learners are very perceptive and will see things in images that we might not imagine they will.

Once we have done more simple activities, we can demand more from our learners. For example, Katherine suggested brainstorming vocabulary around the theme. This also allows for more personal choice in the language they’ll use.

She also suggested that we can get learners to proofread their text – even from a young age, they should learn to process and evaluate their work as this sense of responsibility is an important skill for the future.

Some text types she suggested are:

  • Descriptions
  • Comic strips
  • Sentence building with flashcards and wordcards
  • Substitution activities
  • Postcards

So, why should we work on writing in class?

Katherine highlighted that it enables teachers to diagnose flaws in structure, vocabulary and spelling. She added that it allows for creativity and personalisation in the lesson, giving learners the chance to express themselves. It also provides the opportunity for consolidation of what they have learnt in that lesson.

Grey elephant playing with mud
If you're a fan of elephants, Katherine shared some fabulous images during the webinar. This image comes from Andrew Rice on Unsplash.

Beyond ableism and inspiration porn: representing disability in ELT materials – with Lottie Galpin

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Beyond ableism and inspiration porn: representing disability in ELT materials - with Lottie Galpin (webinar)
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A really interesting session today with lots to think about! Lottie started out by highlighting that we have created an ableist norm and ‘pop in’ elements of disability and that furthermore, we tend to limit inclusion of disability to ‘inspiration porn’ – terms which Lottie went on to define later in the session. 

Lottie identified some key concepts in the area of disability and two wich are key in terms of how they’re represented in materials: the medical model of disability looks at what is ‘wrong’ with the problem; the social model of disability says people aren’t disabled by their difference, but by societal factors which may be physical, attitudinal or institutional. A final concept she mentioned is ableism: the unfair treatment of disabled people.

She then talked about what can come under the umbrella of disability, as can be seen in the image to the right. There are diverse conditions and within each impairment, they may be differeing views about how people would like to identify themselves.

Why is it important to represent disabled people in educational materials?

Probably a lot of our students are affected by disability, either personally or within their family. Hugh commented that people need to see themselves, the challenges others face and how they deal with them. Lottie added that textbooks establish a kind of ‘normal’ and are often seen as an authority, having been created by established institutions or government agencies. 

Spidergram showing different types of disability: learning disabilities, auto-immune conditions, body or brain injury, sensory impairments, organ-specific illnesses, progressive illnesses, fluctuating and recurring effects, neurodiversity and mental health conditions.

If students can’t see themselves in the materials, they’re less likely to engage with the topic and perhaps even with the learning process. However, it also helps everyone become global citizens and learn aout lived experience.It’s also important that people aren’t being represented as ‘lesser than’ through the materials. UN research suggests that around 15% of the world’s population live with disabilities.

What examples of disability have you seen in ELT materials?

I’ve certainly noticed students in wheelchairs in some YL materials recently but there weren’t many comments in the chat for that question, which perhaps suggests that people haven’t seen much representation!

We tend to have limited representation of disability, most of which are visible disabilities like being in a wheelchair. We also tend to limit disability to particular topics, such as Paralympic athletes. Furthermore, the focus is often on the person’s disability or follow particular themes such as people requiring help or people who are inspiring and succeed ‘in spite of’ their disability.

Lottie recommends watching Stella Young’s TEDtalk, “I’m not your inspiration, thank you very much”. She added that one of the big tropes that we rely on in materials is including disabled people who inspire non-disabled people.

How can we represent disability better?

Lottie highlighted six things we can do:

  1. Avoid the non-disabled norm, stereotypes and ableist tropes
  2. Represent throughout the book or your materials and avoid tokenism
  3. Show a range of visible and invisible impairments and different types of people
  4. Take a person-first approach and focus on the person, not the impairment
  5. Show disabled people as active, independent people
  6. Show disabled people authentically, naturally, living everyday lives

Representing disability: artwork

We looked at some examples of artwork which is quite overt in its representation of disability, but which could work without drawing attention to the disability. We can also use images which show disability in a more subtle way. For example, the image which Lottie chose for the webinar ad from Disabled and Here. She also suggests that representationsof disability could be included in the background of images or considering  whether images show accessible environments. Some photobanks are getting better at inclusive images, but Lottie also shared a number of more independent photobanks such as pixabay, Unsplash, Pexels and Disability: In.

Representing disability: texts and audio

When we create texts, we can consider how inclusive and representative the materials are. For example, focussing on the person’s achievements first or telling the story from the person’s perspective and showing them as a whole person. Lottie also talked about the need to talk to people whose disability you’re including to ensure that you get their lived experience right.

If we just stick disability in particular topics, it can either problematise it or make it very tokenistic. Lottie argues that you can include disability in any topic. For example, on the topic of technology, you could produce a text on writing good alt text for images online or on the topic of films and TV, you could feature films about or by disabled people – but avoid the trope of a non-disabled person reviewing the film or series and being inspired by the character.

She also suggested how we can show that disability is a part of a person’s life. For example, in a dialogue between two people who are about to leave the house, one of the characters says they need to grab their inhaler. This could then be highlighted through the teachers’ notes to raise awareness. We chatted a little then about whether we need to point out disability when it is implicitly included and Lottie said that it could be left up to the teacher if the option is there through the notes. 

We also considered some cultural restrictions: in some countries and cultures, disability is still very stigmatised and materials need to be adapted for particular contexts. There was also a question from Dan regarding the grading of language – for example, inhaler. Lottie says ideally we would decategorise this language to enable it to be included at any level. As she says, the CEFR is based on frequency…but frequency for whom?

Autonomy Development in Writing Classes

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Autonomy Development in Writing Classes - with Gizem Genç (webinar)
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This week we were joined by Gizem Genç, a fabulous educator and ELT professional with a passion for teacher development. Gizem shared her ideas on how to increase autonomy with students to help develop their writing skills. 

She has a very well-written blogpost which outlines the ideas she talked about during the session. You can also find downloads of the reflection tasks and checklists she used on the page.

Behind the scenes of Business English materials

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Behind the scenes of Business English materials - with Silvina Mascitti (webinar)
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It was a real pleasure to sit down with Silvina Mascitti as she creates incredibly well-considered materials and came along to share her tips. She started off by asking what challenges you might face when making Business English materials. For me, it was knowing how specific to make it for a particular group of learners or whether to make it more generalised. Silvina shared some of the things she had considered, such as dealing with imposter syndrome or thinking about the time it takes to create materials and research the topic – and she pointed out that it can often be just as time-consuming to scour through the internet looking at what has already been created. She also highlighted that grammar doesn’t always need to be the starting point and that we can use our students to guide us to relevant topics, using them as the experts in the topic rather than feeling that we should know the ins and outs of the context. She also noted that as we get more experience and feel more confident, things become easier.

What do you take into account when making Business English materials?

BE materials can quickly become outdated – for example, Silvina said that a couple of her lesson plans were based around the pandemic and the Great Resignation, which might be less relevant going forward. However, the functional language will always be relevant and necessary, for example, talking about describing graphs or giving presentations. Silvina went on to share John Hughes’ ideas from a MAWSIG webinar: representing students’ context, personalization through real-plays, 21st century skills, DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion), HOTS and LOTS (higher and lower order thinking skills) and an intercultural approach, considering ELF (English as a Lingua Franca), different accents and cultural aspects of communication.

Silvina recommended a webinar from Rhona Snelling, Developing Global Skills in Adult Learners and discussed some of the 21st cenury skills our learners needs: learning skills, life skills and literacy skills, and also a book from John Hughes and Paul Dummett, Critical Thinking in ELT.

Next, she shared some questions to consider when starting to plan a lesson, such as identifying whether you’ll be working mainly on skills, a langauge or phonological point, teaching functional language or preparing students for an exam. She recommended Ethan Mansur’s article, How to conduct a needs analysis.

What’s the starting point when making BE materials?

Around the 19-minute mark, Silvina shared some ideas for how to get ideas. She suggested following business accounts on LinkedIn to look out for interesting topics; she also uses articles, images, videos, current affairs, audio from coursebooks and talking to colleagues or friends who work in other professions. She follows a fairly standard framework for her lessons.

  • She starts with a lead-in discussion to activate prior knowledge and to allow learners to share their knowledge and experience.
  • Then in the Before (reading / listening / watching) stage she does some minimal pre-teaching of lexis as she feels it’s good for learners to infer meaning from the text. She says it’s good to do tasks early on to engage learners and to start using critical thinking skills, for example by predicting the content of the input text. Another tip here is to read Sylwia Clayton’s article, Why should you use warmers?
  • In the While stage, she moves from gist to detail and scaffolds tasks to support learners, whether because they have a low level or because the input text is long. She also works on bottom-up skills and recommends checking out the Gianfranco Conti and Steve Smith book on effective listening skills, Breaking the Sound Barrier.
  • After, she asks for students’ reaction to the input text and how it relates to their own context. They then go on to look at quotes from the input and analyse the purpose, tone, source and potential bias within it, further developing their critical thinking skills.
  • Next comes a focus on lexis or pronunciation, perhaps choosing contextualised, high-frequency, meaningful chunks. She uses an inductive approach to encourage students to work out the meaning for themselves. For anyone interested in using a lexical approach, Silvina recommends the Hugh Dellar and Andrew Walkley book, Teaching Lexically, as well as Harry Waters’ interview with Dellar on Teacher Talk Radio.
  • As a follow-up task, she takes ideas from TBLand suggests looking at Activities for Task-Based Learning from Neil Anderson and Neil McCutcheon. She stresses the importance of the final productive stage being linked to earlier learning in the lesson, whether through the lexis or functional language the students have been exposed to or the topic.

She warns of cognitive overload – trying to include too many elements from the input and then (around 33 minutes in) shared some guidelines for creating materials:

Layout – allow some blank space so learners can make notes, ensure your materials are easy to navigate

Images – make them contextualised and representative

Consistency – numbering or lettering tasks, using effective fonts and use of bold or italics

Instructions – making them clear and concise, with simple language

Scaffolding – use a glossary or useful language box to support learners

Task balance – ensure there is variety between what Lindsay Clandfield terms as heads down (individual work), heads up (focus on the teacher or board), heads together (pair or groupwork) – here is a link to the article which is available to Modern English Teacher subscribers.

Silvina then shared examples of some of her earliest lesson plans and suggests what not to do: including unnecessary images, using images which are unclear, adding frames to the page, not using numbering, and so on. As she notes, keeping them has allowed her to see how her materials have developed. 

Around the 39-minute mark, she shared one of her most recent plans and highlighted the good aspects, such as leaving blank space, separating tasks and using bold to show instructions clearly, using images which provide visual support. She talked through the material and stressed the importance of crediting your sources on your materials and the flow of the lesson, linking one stage to another.

She went on to talk about adding teachers’ notes, including the CEFR level, an outline of the aims and topic, instructions, suggestions for extension and the answer key. When writing instructions, she points out that you can either use imperatives or hedging language with modals.

Here are some useful resources which Silvina mentioned:

And for continuing professional development:

Finally, she shared some tips to help develop your materials, such as starting a blog or Facebook group and asking for feedback on your materials, or finding a writing buddy. She also shared a list of some BE trainers on LinkedIn around the 53-minute mark. A really wonderful session with lots of useful resources and tips and Silvina has made her slides available too 🤩

Behind the scenes of Business English materials (Silvina Mascitti)