E V O L V E S C H O O L: TeachingEnglish newsletter 01 April 2020

TeachingEnglish newsletter

01 April 2020

Welcome to the latest edition of the TeachingEnglish newsletter!

The British Council is committed to supporting teachers and teacher educators during the Covid-19 crisis.

This week we bring you news of a second webinar related to teaching online; a blog post on getting your students to improve their reading levels online; and three free online professional development courses for you.

We also have festive activities for primary learners that can be adapted and used via online teaching, and a global survey for you to complete.

We hope you find these and other resources on our website useful.

The TeachingEnglish team

Support for teachers and teacher educators during the Covid-19 crisis

The British Council is committed to supporting the use of technology for the continuation of education in a crisis. As many teachers find themselves in an unfamiliar situation of having to teach their classes online, with little or no experience, the British Council TeachingEnglish website is committed to providing as much support as possible to help you navigate your way through the world of online teaching. Here you can find a list of initiatives that we are currently providing, or planning to provide, in the coming weeks.

Teaching online – if the tech fails, and structuring lessons

This is the second in our series of three webinars which offer guidance in key areas of teaching online. This webinar focuses on what to do if the technology fails and transferring some of the course elsewhere, plus lesson structure and task-types. Watch a recording of the webinar and find out about other webinars in the series here.

Teaching for Success online courses

We are currently running our three Teaching for Success online courses via FutureLearn. Enrol for free and take your professional development to a new level. Explore 21st-century skills, ICT and multilingual approaches with 'The classroom and the world'; understand learners, policy and practice with 'Learning and learners'; look at lessons, courses and resources with 'Lessons and teaching'. Find out more.

Easter

Children love learning about festivals and the way other people celebrate them. It’s also fascinating for them to compare how they celebrate the same festival in their own country. Why not adapt some of these activities to online teaching? Or get young learners to do activities on the LearnEnglish Kids site? You could also get parents involved in helping out during remote teaching.

Artificial intelligence – a tool for inclusivity in education?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the very fabric of the world as we know it. This blog post reviews an approach to improving students' reading comprehension that has been provided to the teaching profession to use for free. Readtheory allows a teacher to create a class to which their students enrol. The reading level is assessed for each individual student, which the teacher can observe in the class dashboard and then monitor the individual progress each student makes. At the same time, students can also see their own progress. Find out more about getting signed up and started.

Global survey for English language teachers: how far does published research matter to you?

In conjunction with the British Council, Northumbria University, UK, has recently launched a survey for all English language teachers, teacher trainers and other English language teaching professionals – 'Reading research: English language teachers' practices and priorities'. We are interested in the opinions and activities of all English language teachers, whether you read published research or not. Find out more.