In this month’s blog post, Katherine writes about using K-W-L charts with primary children. She explains what K-W-L charts are and how they can be used to develop critical thinking skills that mirror those needed in the real world. She suggests how K-W-L charts can be adapted to enhance the
Tag: 21st Century Skills
Learning journals for young learners: what, why and how?
In this month’s blog post Katherine shares some ideas for using learning journals with young learners. She explains what they are, why they are a good idea and how they can be used. She also provides a simple reflection task to support your professional development. We invite you to send
What do you prefer?
It’s World Book Day on April 23rd. In this month’s blog post, I will share a ‘Books and Reading’ survey idea for teachers to try out with their primary students. I will also provide a simple reflection task to support Professional Development. We invite you to send us your feedback.
Our Names, Our Words
In this series of blog posts Katherine will share a selection of learner centered classroom activities for teachers to try out with their own learners. Each month she will suggest something new to try out in the classroom and provide a simple reflection task to support Professional Development. We invite
Tips for teaching the four skills in every young learner lesson
In Part One of this blog post I look at getting organised in terms of focusing on the four skills in each lesson. Then I suggest some practical ideas for practising the skills through classroom routines. In Part Two I suggest ideas for adding skills practice into simple add-on activities,
You can use a TED talk without the sound – try it!
A simple hack to control language level In the first post of this blog series TED Talks work for all levels: Try it!, I talked about how TED Talks can be used in the classroom for students at any level, as long as the activities that support them are level-appropriate.
Personalization: Tiny steps at the shallow end or diving in at the deep end
The previous post in this series looked at how personalization in the classroom helps to build rapport, add authenticity and make classroom activities more motivating. It’s an aspect of teaching that is normally seen as beneficial and desirable. However, integrating personalization into your teaching is not without ‘risk’, according to
Brilliant Beginnings
Teenage students have a famously short attention span, and with plenty of other distractions around them, you need to get them hooked as soon as they walk into the classroom. That’s why I often say that a lesson can be ‘won or lost’ in the first five minutes. In this
Making Learning Last: Stories and imagery
Do you ever feel frustrated that your students can’t hang on to what you’ve taught them? Actually, about 70% of what we forget is forgotten in the first 24 hours after learning. That may help to explain why our students, who seem so good at using a particular grammatical structure
It’s Good to (TED) Talk
If I told you that TED Talks started in the same year that one pound notes were taken out of circulation, Virgin Atlantic had its maiden flight, Michael Jackson released Thriller, and Ghostbusters, Gremlins and The Karate Kid were some of the year’s biggest films, what would you think? TED