E V O L V E S C H O O L: TeachingEnglish newsletter 25 November 2020

TeachingEnglish newsletter

25 November 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.

First, we are pleased to announce our upcoming webinar, 'Teacher professional development through WhatsApp-based Communities of Practice in challenging contexts', on Wednesday 25 November.

And on 27–29 November it's the IATEFL YLTSIG online conference – register now to avoid disappointment!

For the classroom, we have lesson plans and activities for primary learners to mark International Day of People with Disabilities and to prepare for winter and Christmas.

This week we also bring you a blog post and a free online course on assessment in the classroom.

And finally, we have a new publication reporting on the current situation in 44 countries as schools begin to reopen, and news of a recently launched PEPELT Practitioners' Blog on using picturebooks.

We hope you find these resources useful.

The TeachingEnglish team

Teacher professional development through WhatsApp-based Communities of Practice in challenging contexts

This webinar describes the setting-up of WhatsApp group Communities of Practice (COPs) in rural areas of Côte d’Ivoire, where teachers typically have little access to professional development opportunities. It explains the rationale for the use of WhatsApp in the project and shows how the project began with learning from the use of WhatsApp to support COPs in Rwanda, another challenging context. Join us on 25 November for a webinar looking at using WhatsApp for professional development in challenging contexts.

IATEFL YLTSIG 2020 online conference

Places are filling quickly for the IATEFL YLTSIG 2020 web conference. While the theme ‘Ages, life stages and educational spaces’ is aimed at supporting early-career teachers, all English teaching professionals are welcome. The line-up includes six plenaries, seven inspire sessions and 19 shorter talks. Sessions will take place over three days: 27–29 November, 12.00 to 20.00 UTC. The event is free of charge for all participants. Find out more.

Susan Laughs

Thursday 3 December is International Day of People with Disabilities, and this year's theme is 'Not all disabilities are visible'. To mark the day and raise awareness, try out this lesson plan for A1 level primary learners aged 9 to 10. The plan includes a series of activities and related worksheets which you can use with the storybook Susan Laughs. Learners will make a personalised or class book based on the story and give a presentation.

A test about testing: Let's see how you score!

'We tend to correct mistakes, we tend to tell our students what they can improve, but we don't normally tell them what they've done well. Let's reflect on our assessment and on the feedback we give to our students.' In this post, Ingrid Mosquera poses seven questions that we can ask ourselves when correcting and marking an activity. Test yourself and check your final score.

Picturebooks in European Primary English Language Teaching

The Picturebooks in European Primary English Language Teaching (PEPELT) team have recently launched a PEPELT Practitioners' Blog to provide a platform for student teachers, teachers, librarians and teacher trainers to share their experiences of using picturebooks for teaching primary English. This is a great opportunity for sharing your work with like-minded colleagues who are passionate about using picturebooks in the primary English classroom, as well as an excellent opportunity for your professional development. Read more.

A global snapshot of Ministries of Education responses during the period of school reopening

In June 2020, the British Council published a report which provided a snapshot from late April/early May 2020 of how Ministries of Education were responding to the challenges of the educational crisis in respect of English language teaching and learning. This report gives an updated snapshot, with data collected in September and October 2020 from 44 countries and territories.

Winter, Christmas and making decorations

It's that time of year when primary learners get ready for Christmas by making decorations for the classroom or the home. In this lesson, children practise Christmas words with flashcards and online games. Then they make a Christmas item – a snowflake, a snowman or a Christmas tree – and enjoy a Christmas song or story. And if you don't celebrate Christmas where you are, why not focus on winter and make a snowflake?

Language Assessment in the Classroom MOOC

Improve your language assessment skills and discover new types of assessments. This free British Council course is aimed at teachers and teacher educators who want to learn more about best practices in assessing learners. The MOOC started on Monday 16 November and will continue for four weeks.