Slides from my talk are available in pdf format here.

From language lessons to life lessons
In this session I will be discussing the non-linguistic dimension of learning in the classroom, and considering the many ways in which the English lesson can be an opportunity for students to develop important life skills, which will help them both in the classroom and also in the real world. Using practical examples, I’ll show how the language-learning activities of the lesson can also be exploited to promote grit, resilience, a growth mindset, collaborative and co-operative skills, and also self-awareness. We will also see how we, too can benefit by paying attention to these qualities in our own approach to our lessons, and our attitudes towards our students.

Slides of my presentation are available in pdf format here.

Slides from my talk in Croatia are available here in pdf format.

From isolation to integration and back: a skills-based recipe for success

A successful lesson not only gets students learning about English, it also gives them a chance to put the language to use in meaningful and confidence-boosting ways. In this talk I am going to look at how we can best practise each of the four skills so that students are motivated to communicate. I will also suggest practical, progressive, and constructive techniques for evaluating activities which have a specific skills focus. Practice – as we know – makes perfect, but students have to do ’deliberate practice’ if they really want to get better – and this involves stepping outside the comfort zone and working on weaknesses, too. One area that many students find difficult is combining all four skills in integrated tasks. For that reason, I will also share some practical ideas for using project methods, which I think can give students exactly the kind of multi-skilled challenge that they need. As we shall see, a successful project not only leaves students feeling proud of what they can do with the language, it also highlights some of the areas that still need further work.

Slides of my talk are available below in pdf format

Looking at Differentiation in a Different Way

When we think about teaching mixed-ability classes, we often think first of all about differentiation. In this session I will be considering some of the advantages and disadvantages of traditional approaches to differentiation. I will also be suggesting a more open-ended approach, which takes into consideration the difficulties that teachers face when faced with big classes and a lot of material to get through in every lesson. There will be plenty of simple and practical ideas to try out in the classroom.

Slides from my talk area available below in pdf format

Bringing variety and value to evaluation and assessment
In this talk I will look at some of the challenges we face when evaluating students on a day-to-day basis. I will share some practical techniques for making formal assessment more manageable with mixed-ability groups. I will also explore some of the options that we have for more informal continuous assessment, including some practical techniques for self-assessment and peer evaluation.

Slides from my writing session and joint session on speaking with Sinéad Laffan are available below in pdf format.
Better speaking: from practice to performance
Motivating writing activities for teenagers

The slides from my Xmas webinar are available here.
Thanks to Ferenc Kelemen for the invitation.

Slides from my talks are available below in pdf format.

Motivating writing activities for teenagers

Engaging learners

Sides from my talks in Estonia are available below in pdf format.

Culture in the English classroom: what are we talking about?
In this talk I will examine some of the assumptions that are made when dealing with culture in the English lesson. I will consider some of the different ways in which a given topic can be presented as an example of culture, and will think about the different perspectives involved. I will suggest potential cultural topics of interest, and will also consider some best practice principles for managing lessons and handling classroom interactions when dealing with culture.

From topic to task: designing activities using culture in the language classroom
In this talk I will provide guidelines, suggestions and practical ideas for teachers who are looking to exploit the cultural content of their coursebook, with special attention paid to how the topics we are going to teach can be introduced and extended. I will also be suggesting ways that we can bring other topics of cutural interest into the classroom and demonstrating some practical ways of creating appropriate and engaging language-learning tasks ourselves.

Thanks to everyone attending the webinar, and to BELTA for inviting me. My slides are available below in pdf format.

Ideas for the teenage classroom using selfies, airplane mode, and memes
Teenage students often tire of the topics in the coursebook. In this webinar I’ll be sharing some practical ideas for designing classroom activities based on topics that have genuine appeal for teenage students. We’ll start by looking at ways we can use selfies to generate language; then we’ll switch to ‘airplane mode’ and look at activities that can be done using the basic functionality of a smartphone – without apps or internet. Finally, I’ll share some ways of using memes as the basis for creative communicative classroom activities.