Monday, July 15, 2013
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Demand High ELT - An Invitation / An Introduction
Hello, fellow teachers! Welcome to our session!
I am not going to give away much about our presentation today because I want you all to take part in the discussions that my colleague Juliana Squinca and I are going to conduct!
What you need to know by now is that we are both teachers at Friends Language Center, in Uruaçu-GO and we both have a lot of experience in teaching English as a Foreign Language. We have attended a number of seminars and workshops, and we have recently come across the idea of Demand High ELT. As I told you I am not going to give away much about it now, but it is of paramount importance to know what Demand High is NOT!
Demand High is NOT a method and it is NOT anti any method. We are NOT anti-Communicative Approach. We are NOT anti-Dogme. We are NOT anti-Task Based Learning. We are simply suggesting adjustments to whatever it is you are already doing in class - ways of getting much greater depth of tangible engagement and learning.
The idea of this post is to start a series of in-class investigations and activate discussions through which we will eventually become better teachers and have better learners.
We hope you all have a good time today!
Ricardo and Juliana.
I am not going to give away much about our presentation today because I want you all to take part in the discussions that my colleague Juliana Squinca and I are going to conduct!
What you need to know by now is that we are both teachers at Friends Language Center, in Uruaçu-GO and we both have a lot of experience in teaching English as a Foreign Language. We have attended a number of seminars and workshops, and we have recently come across the idea of Demand High ELT. As I told you I am not going to give away much about it now, but it is of paramount importance to know what Demand High is NOT!
Demand High is NOT a method and it is NOT anti any method. We are NOT anti-Communicative Approach. We are NOT anti-Dogme. We are NOT anti-Task Based Learning. We are simply suggesting adjustments to whatever it is you are already doing in class - ways of getting much greater depth of tangible engagement and learning.
The idea of this post is to start a series of in-class investigations and activate discussions through which we will eventually become better teachers and have better learners.
We hope you all have a good time today!
Ricardo and Juliana.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Teach English Like a Champion
A little bit about myself!
Hello, fellow teachers! My name is Ricardo Cézar and I'm from Goiânia-GO, originally. I'm 29 years old, I'm married (no, she's not a teacher!) and I have three kids (I know, I know!).
I've been involved in the TEFL/TESOL world since I was 18, when I first started teaching! I've taught in public and private schools, college prep courses and mostly language centers. I started studying English when I was 14 and I used to hate it! But one day, this wonderful person (a champion teacher, by all means!) changed my mind and made me decide to become a teacher and be like her! I thank her every day for that!
In fits and starts I found myself in the one job I had been born to do! I knew I had a role to play and decided to make every effort to become a champion teacher! I opened my own language school when I moved to Uruaçu-GO, in 2010, and we're doing great, thank you!
Being here today with all of you only confirms that we should be constantly learning from and with each other. Great teaching is an art! And great art relies on the mastery and application of foundational skills, learned individually through diligent study. This talk is about the tools of the teaching craft, an adaptation of Doug Lemov's "Teach like a Champion", having the EFL context in mind.
Thank you very much for being here today. I hope you have a great time!
Ricardo Cézar
Hello, fellow teachers! My name is Ricardo Cézar and I'm from Goiânia-GO, originally. I'm 29 years old, I'm married (no, she's not a teacher!) and I have three kids (I know, I know!).
I've been involved in the TEFL/TESOL world since I was 18, when I first started teaching! I've taught in public and private schools, college prep courses and mostly language centers. I started studying English when I was 14 and I used to hate it! But one day, this wonderful person (a champion teacher, by all means!) changed my mind and made me decide to become a teacher and be like her! I thank her every day for that!
In fits and starts I found myself in the one job I had been born to do! I knew I had a role to play and decided to make every effort to become a champion teacher! I opened my own language school when I moved to Uruaçu-GO, in 2010, and we're doing great, thank you!
Being here today with all of you only confirms that we should be constantly learning from and with each other. Great teaching is an art! And great art relies on the mastery and application of foundational skills, learned individually through diligent study. This talk is about the tools of the teaching craft, an adaptation of Doug Lemov's "Teach like a Champion", having the EFL context in mind.
Thank you very much for being here today. I hope you have a great time!
Ricardo Cézar
Monday, October 10, 2011
Braz-Tesol Event
Hello again,
I was at the Braz-Tesol Brasília One Day Event last Friday and I have to confess it was one of the best events I have attended in the past few years. It was very well organized, the plenaries were awesome (as well as the coffee break :P), the presenters were very well prepared and the receptiveness was impeccable.
I myself conducted a workshop entitled "Enhancing Communication in the EFL Class - A Task-Based Approach", in which it was discussed how tasks can be used as the central focus in a supportive methodological framework, highlighting the advantages of a Task-Based approach over the more traditional Presentation, Practice and Production approach.
Reflecting upon the workshop, I could see most of the participants were engaged and interested in the topic, which led to good discussions and group bonding. I mentioned I would make everything available here, so if you attended the workshop or just feel like reading the documents, you can download all of them here.
See you soon.
Link to the presentation: http://prezi.com/pt2chqfvowuu/enhancing-communication-in-the-efl-class/
Link to the handouts: http://pt.scribd.com/doc/68186581
Contact me: ricramcezar@gmail.com
I was at the Braz-Tesol Brasília One Day Event last Friday and I have to confess it was one of the best events I have attended in the past few years. It was very well organized, the plenaries were awesome (as well as the coffee break :P), the presenters were very well prepared and the receptiveness was impeccable.
I myself conducted a workshop entitled "Enhancing Communication in the EFL Class - A Task-Based Approach", in which it was discussed how tasks can be used as the central focus in a supportive methodological framework, highlighting the advantages of a Task-Based approach over the more traditional Presentation, Practice and Production approach.
Reflecting upon the workshop, I could see most of the participants were engaged and interested in the topic, which led to good discussions and group bonding. I mentioned I would make everything available here, so if you attended the workshop or just feel like reading the documents, you can download all of them here.
See you soon.
Link to the presentation: http://prezi.com/pt2chqfvowuu/enhancing-communication-in-the-efl-class/
Link to the handouts: http://pt.scribd.com/doc/68186581
Contact me: ricramcezar@gmail.com
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
A TBL Attempt
Lately, I have been trying to put the theory of Task Based Learning to practice in my classes. I can say it is not an easy thing to do when you are used to a "fail-safe" approach. Well, at least so I thought.
I have been using ideas mainly from Jane and Dave Willis, who have comprehensively contributed to the area. For them, especially Jane, a task is "a goal-oriented communicative activity with a specific outcome, where the emphasis is on exchanging meanings not producing specific language forms". Just perfect!
I have a group of teenagers on Mondays and Wednesdays and that is the group I am trying to make the shift from PPP to TBL. Students age range from 11 to 15 years old and very different interests and personalities, not to mention motivation. Most of them are false beginners, with a little knowledge of the language, but there are some real beginners, which make the lessons much more challenging.
In our previous lesson last Monday, which was based in two texts students were supposed to read and answer some questions, I tried to use the TBL approach to see the results. Here is what I did and my reflections:
I started off by checking homework. After that, I started one of the topics of the lesson by saying that U2 is my favorite band and then I asked the students if they knew where the band is from. Then I asked what their favorite band is and if they knew where the members are from.
After their contributions (most of them didn't know where the members of the band were from or didn't even have a favorite band), I wrote One World on the board and told the students that they are a pop band and the four members of the band are from four different countries but their language is English.
The task they had to do in pairs (which ended up being done in small groups due to some students' absence), was to write down five questions they thought would be answered in the text they were about to read. Failure! The students took a while to understand what they were supposed to do, but in the end they came up with very basic questions like "What's your first/last name?", "Where are you from?". That was not what I was expecting, but at least they tried.
After a long time, they shared questions. According to the TBL framework, after the task, students are to plan and report about the task. I saw this was not going to be possible with that group at that time. So I asked them to open their books and read the text to find answers to their questions. Few were answered. After that I was supposed to have asked students to prepare seven quiz questions to give the other group to answer from memory. I didn't do that because they spent a long time reading the text.
Finally, I asked students to answer the questions in their books, first about the text then about themselves. Again, it took a while because there are some students with sentence formation problems, which I must act on soon in order to avoid future biggest problems.
Well, that was only part of the lesson I taught that day which I would like to share here. Any ideas will be welcome now. Take the chance to write about one of your lessons.
Wow! That was a huge post! :)
See you soon!
I have been using ideas mainly from Jane and Dave Willis, who have comprehensively contributed to the area. For them, especially Jane, a task is "a goal-oriented communicative activity with a specific outcome, where the emphasis is on exchanging meanings not producing specific language forms". Just perfect!
I have a group of teenagers on Mondays and Wednesdays and that is the group I am trying to make the shift from PPP to TBL. Students age range from 11 to 15 years old and very different interests and personalities, not to mention motivation. Most of them are false beginners, with a little knowledge of the language, but there are some real beginners, which make the lessons much more challenging.
In our previous lesson last Monday, which was based in two texts students were supposed to read and answer some questions, I tried to use the TBL approach to see the results. Here is what I did and my reflections:
I started off by checking homework. After that, I started one of the topics of the lesson by saying that U2 is my favorite band and then I asked the students if they knew where the band is from. Then I asked what their favorite band is and if they knew where the members are from.
After their contributions (most of them didn't know where the members of the band were from or didn't even have a favorite band), I wrote One World on the board and told the students that they are a pop band and the four members of the band are from four different countries but their language is English.
The task they had to do in pairs (which ended up being done in small groups due to some students' absence), was to write down five questions they thought would be answered in the text they were about to read. Failure! The students took a while to understand what they were supposed to do, but in the end they came up with very basic questions like "What's your first/last name?", "Where are you from?". That was not what I was expecting, but at least they tried.
After a long time, they shared questions. According to the TBL framework, after the task, students are to plan and report about the task. I saw this was not going to be possible with that group at that time. So I asked them to open their books and read the text to find answers to their questions. Few were answered. After that I was supposed to have asked students to prepare seven quiz questions to give the other group to answer from memory. I didn't do that because they spent a long time reading the text.
Finally, I asked students to answer the questions in their books, first about the text then about themselves. Again, it took a while because there are some students with sentence formation problems, which I must act on soon in order to avoid future biggest problems.
Well, that was only part of the lesson I taught that day which I would like to share here. Any ideas will be welcome now. Take the chance to write about one of your lessons.
Wow! That was a huge post! :)
See you soon!
Monday, April 18, 2011
Welcome fellow teachers!
Hello everyone!
Welcome to Better TEFL Practice!
My name is Ricardo and I am an EFL teacher in a town called Uruaçu in Midwestern Brazil. I have recently been reading articles and books related to the Practice of English Language Teaching, especially as a foreign language, as it is the case in Brazil. Those readings motivated me to evaluate my lessons and start this blog to share my thoughts and ideas with other teachers around the world.
I have been an EFL teacher for almost ten years now and I am really aware of the need to continuously develop myself and my teaching practice. The aim of this blog is for teachers to share what works and what does not work in their lessons, so that all of us can contribute and help each other make a better TEFL practice, being our students and, consequently, ourselves, the ones who will benefit from it all.
I am looking forward to your contribution!
Catch up with you soon!
Ricardo
Welcome to Better TEFL Practice!
My name is Ricardo and I am an EFL teacher in a town called Uruaçu in Midwestern Brazil. I have recently been reading articles and books related to the Practice of English Language Teaching, especially as a foreign language, as it is the case in Brazil. Those readings motivated me to evaluate my lessons and start this blog to share my thoughts and ideas with other teachers around the world.
I have been an EFL teacher for almost ten years now and I am really aware of the need to continuously develop myself and my teaching practice. The aim of this blog is for teachers to share what works and what does not work in their lessons, so that all of us can contribute and help each other make a better TEFL practice, being our students and, consequently, ourselves, the ones who will benefit from it all.
I am looking forward to your contribution!
Catch up with you soon!
Ricardo
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