Planning activities and lessons - mini-event

About the event

This event featured three webinars with ELT experts from around the world. All three webinars will help English teachers think about how they plan activities and lessons. The webinars are for teachers of primary, secondary and young adult English language learners. 

This event was recorded on 20 September 2023.

About the webinars

Session 1: Setting up activities and tasks efficiently in 5 steps

Speaker: 

Ela Moyle

Session information: 

Setting up activities and tasks for students is teachers’ bread and butter, and when you are doing it effectively you are a master of the craft. This workshop will look at five stages of tasks and activities, starting with an instruction and finishing with feedback. We will look at how to give good instructions so students can start working promptly and confidently. We finish off with meaningful feedback for students to notice what they have learned. Finally, we will look at linking activities within the lesson to make students understand better what and why they are doing. This 5-step routine when mastered makes teaching effective. 

Download the handout from this session

Session 2: Gentle Discipline in classroom management

Speaker: 

Zahra Zuhair

Session information:

Gentle parenting is trending! Can the same principles be applied in the classroom? Siegel and Bryson (2016) call it no drama discipline. This workshop-styled session is for the behaviour-conscious teacher. The session will introduce the concept and principles of gentle discipline to participants. In the session, teachers will be led through an exploration of the workings of the young brain to understand the long-term effects of gentle discipline on the character, skill set, emotion regulation abilities, and behaviours of the individual student. They will further investigate various ways in which elements of gentle discipline can be applied in the ELT classroom, while considering challenges teachers might face in using this approach for behaviour management. 

Download the handout from this session

Session 3: Creating your own learning materials - six easy steps

Speaker: 

Desislava Duridanova

Session information:

The webinar will start with looking at various examples of what counts as “learning materials” in ELT. The session will go on to discuss some reasons why we feel the need to escape from the course book from time to time, and will mention some of the differences between adapting and creating own materials. Participants will end up with six important points to consider when creating their own learning materials, and will gain confidence to do so. 

Download the handout from this session

About the speakers

Ela Moyle has been an EFL and ESOL teacher and a CELTA trainer for more than 15 years teaching adults and young adults in the UK. Her background is in linguistics, and she used to work as a lecturer in linguistics and contemporary Polish at the University of Warsaw. As an English teacher and a teacher trainer she is interested in different ways of developing learners’ independence, and in teaching methods that lead to effective learning. Effectiveness and discovery are the main qualities she looks for in teaching, teacher training as well as in learning.

Zahra Zuhair has been an ESL teacher (with a DELTA qualification) with the British Council since 2014, and is a graduate of International Relations (MA) from the University of Leicester. Zahra’s professional development includes research, conference presentations, training and mentoring, material and syllabus design, and online publications on Literacy Teaching and Cultural Diversity in lessons. During her time as a teacher, Zahra has done a lot of action research on various subjects related to teaching. Her current studies are in the use of the principles of Gentle Discipline as a long-term strategy for classroom management. 

Desislava Duridanova is an English teacher, teacher trainer, and author of ELT materials. She has a Mlitt degree in Cultural Studies from Strathclyde University, UK and MA degree in Applied Linguistics from New Bulgarian University, Bulgaria, where she has been working for over 20 years.  Intercultural education, learner autonomy, online learning, learning technologies and materials writing are some of the topics she is currently interested in and actively working on. She is a frequent presenter at conferences and workshops and is constantly trying to develop professionally.

Watch the recordings below.