Understanding my context: theme wrap up 📱

Key Takeaways

Hello there. Welcome everybody. Welcome. Just a second. I'm just trying to bring our Instagram audience in as well. Okay. The Instagram audience are going to be joining us very shortly and we're going to Brilliant. Okay. So, welcome everybody to this um teaching English theme wrap-up for understanding my context. Um, and now we're live on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. And hi, I am here with my lovely colleague Rabia. Rabia, hi. And where are you today? Hi everyone. Uh, I'm in Pakistan today and joining from comparatively less hot uh Pakistan right now. We had like rainfall yesterday and weather is a little good. >> That sounds similar to Thailand as well. I think I think we're cooler here than in Europe as well. Yes. Yes. I've heard there's a heat wave going on, so I hope everybody stays safe. >> Exactly. Yes. Stay cool, everyone in in Europe. Um, so today we're going to be looking at the theme we've been looking at on the teaching English pages for the last three months. Um, summing that up and looking at some of the highlights. So the theme was understanding my context. Um, Rabia, what did that theme mean to you? Okay. So, understanding my context has a lot of layers. It is um basically related to who our learners are. For instance, their age, their motivation, their ability and it also encompasses uh where where you are like uh in which country, what kind of resources you can use over there, what are the class sizes and what are the policies of the region like educational policies. the ones that you need to know before working over there and I think the most important one is why they are learning. So for me understanding their motivation to learn in general and then motivation to learn English as well the reasons to learn. So for me that would encompass understanding my context or understanding the context of the learners I work with. >> Wonderful. Okay. Now, everyone in the audience, um, pop it into the chat where you are and just tell us one little thing about your context. It can be any of those areas, but just share something about your context in the chat and what country you're in. Oh, we have Maria there. Hello, Maria on Facebook. And anyone else? Okay. So, I'm I'm in Thailand. And for me, yeah, the cont um understanding my context is about from the classroom outwards. So you're looking at what's happening in your classroom. You're looking at your students, your level um what their motivation as as um Rabia said. And then you're looking at the school's policies. Has the school got any um um particular rules? And then you're looking at like the wider societal or government structures as well that influence your classroom. So it's really going outwards and outwards and outwards or going inwards. Okay, we've got some a great audience members here. Um, John Dorton here. Um, he's got private classes and tailoring them to the learner's needs, which is lovely. Um, being able to really tailor things to your learners is so great. We've got Maria um in Australia who's teaching online. Um, and Jalia in Usbekistan, Khaled, Oman, Ratcha. Um, hello. Um, brilliant. So many people in the audience today. Okay. So now I think let's talk a little bit about some of the highlights of this theme. Rabia, um I know you've been you've been looking at the groups for courses. So what are some of the highlights of this theme in your in your group? >> Okay. uh when it comes to our community, I think we we covered a lot of um uh content because we had different courses and all of them were linked to uh this practice of understanding the context. for community I think um really stood out and they were consistently talking about what they do in their context, how do they uh face that certain problem because in one of the post we asked about pronunciation problems and they talked about uh what uh sounds are difficult for their learners and together the community supported each other. We also have one post where we share community questions and they were also related to a certain context and all of the community gathered and joined together. So overall I think it was not just about this is the best approach that you should use. Everybody who is coming along this worked for me please see if if it could work for you as well. and a lot of idea sharing and generating. I saw a lot of uh spirit in like of sharing and asking questions as well. It was not like I know everything and I uh I will do everything on my own. People were asking for solutions and they got answers as well. And we also had different live sessions uh which were also uh scheduled according to uh the ideas that our community wanted to listen to. So we shared um this is what we want three topics which one would you like to talk about? So we took deep dives we had community corners. Um we I think the most popular uh live session was about assessing learning and u we we had so many comments and so so much engagement and everybody came with the understanding of would this motivate my learner? Would this work in my context? uh how can I assess them better and a lot of I think um they were more focused on how to make it uh fun for their learners and in instead of stressful experience for their learners. So I could see the engagement all of that focused towards uh this context understanding my context. A lot of times yes the most favorite u posts were or you can say the post that got so much engagement were uh when teachers were giving advice when we asked what advice would you give and then people gave advice from their own context and others were like oh yes this would work in my context as well. Now, can you think of any like the top piece of advice you saw on the on the group this this um theme? Can you can you remember one of the favorite pieces of advice because I'm sure everyone would love to hear that. Yes, I think um in one of the um sessions it was about topics managing real classrooms and then a lot of them were like uh do not in interrupt speaking to correct immediately so give delayed feedback, pause and use silence to regain attention, adjust listening task instead of repeating failure and use eye contact, calm presence and simple instructions. So these were some uh like ideas that teachers shared with others and we kind of summarized them from different posts. So a lot of ideas and then we we had a session live session this Tuesday on u teaching English to refugees and displaced learners. So we got Yes. So it was exactly you need to understand their context where they're coming from and we got so much compassionate feedback from the teachers and they shared their practices what they did and I think a lot of them talked about creating safe environment for them to be able to um u start speaking getting back into the routines. So uh one of them uh said that shift the focus from what learners produce to what learners are experiencing. So >> interesting very interesting. >> Yeah. So empathy, safety, flexibility. They talk about these things. So um I I really liked the way the community has uh grown over the years especially in these three months. the way they have contributed. Um I think one other highlight was about uh practical classroom realities. Um >> they also talked about that do not use uh videos for just listening. They said they can they can be used for speaking practice as well. So you can see >> yes pronunciation you can see how they're speaking and all that. Uh flashcards and board drawings to support meaning. So we had so many ideas revolving around how they would use flashcards. We had one live session about that as well. And >> wonderful. >> Yes. >> Yes. So exciting. >> Yes. Yes. And lot of ideas about um one teacher said that learning is a process full of interaction and depends on creating environments where learners feel comfortable and confident. So I think that was the highlight of the community that you know creating environments where they feel comfortable. >> Actually that makes me think of one of the topics that was popular on the page as well. Um which was around seating plans and how you seat your learners. Um and there was some interesting debate on whether you should organize your learners in their seats or whether you should allow learners to sit where they want to sit. Um, and there are arguments for both because if you're allowing learners to sit where they choose, they feel comfortable, they feel safe, but they might not be getting challenged, or they might be with someone who's disruptive. So again, it's one, it's it's knowing your context, it's knowing your learners, and it's understanding, do I need to use seating plans with my particular class, or do my learners actually work better when they get to choose their own seats? I thought that was such a fascinating debate. I I I agree with you on that. Uh Naomi, >> understanding your learners and the context is really important. Uh for instance, if um in some cultures they do not even like uh genders to mix. So if you have a fixed plan and you ask them to sit like that, maybe they will not be comfortable. But then giving them the opportunity and maybe if they want to they could start sitting together as well if if it is comfortable for them. And also if I um if if I let them sit all the time um according to what I want them to they might take more time to start participating and if they are sitting where they wanted to they're more comfortable. So you have created the safe environment for the learning to happen. So I think it's very important to see. Yes. See and decide and not be too controlling in the classroom. >> Exactly. Audience, um, everyone, what do you do with seating plans in your class? Do you allow learners to sit where they want to sit or do you fix seats or do you do some mix of it depending on the activity or the class? Pop a pop comment in the um in the chat. We'd love to hear from you. And I think we've got lots of lots of new people commenting. Um, we've got um who else have we got here? We've got Raja enjoying all the courses and Dagn welcome. And then over on Instagram, we've got um English with Parishma saying hello there. And who else is saying hi there? Um Norani from Iran, welcome. Um and lots of and lots of people there. Fantastic. Um Ryona from Tajisakistan. What an international audience today. Um, okay. So, if you all pop your details about your how you do seating in the in the chat. Um, I want to move on to another thing kind of related to seating that we discussed an awful lot on the page and that was class sizes. So, we were looking at people who have to teach very large and often multi-level classes. And also then we asked what's your ideal class size? And I'm just going to show the what our audience came up with and then I I know Rabia has an interesting perspective on this. So I'll ask her to share that afterwards. So as you can see this is what our audience um thought when we asked what's your ideal class size. If you answered into this into this um question your response will be here. Um and feel free to pop your comment if you agree or disagree with this in the chat. But most people mentioned around 12 or 24 because they're really good for dividing into um groups. Um I think 12 was mentioned probably the most of all numbers. Um, but people generally preferred class sizes under about 20. Um, we even had a few people out there who really really love one-on-one classes as well. Um, so I thought this was really fascinating. But I I do like a good even number that's easy to divide. I agree with that. The mathematical approach to to um to class sizes. So Rabia, you had a different perspective on this, didn't you? >> Yeah. uh maybe I want to make things challenging for myself. So I I like large classes. I like when there is a lot of uh idea sharing and you know people learning from each other. So if I had just 12 students in my class and I I would feel that you know the the life in the classroom will not be as visible as I would or maybe I'm used to large classes so I like the vibe of that. So everybody because then activities would end so soon and you know they would just share ideas um two groups and three groups and then that that's the end of it but with larger classrooms you get so many perspectives and with multi levels as well so you can have um and like you can start with the basic ideas and then others can develop and people can learn from each other. I would love a at least not a very very large classroom maybe around 25 to 30 or maybe 35 is my ideal classroom. >> It would increase my work. Yes. >> Yes. [laughter] [clears throat] >> Yeah. >> But increases your enjoyment as well. >> Yes. >> Oh, how lovely. >> Now, I'm going to invite our moderator Karen who's been there in the background um answering all your comments and and checking those out. I'm going to invite her to come and give us some highlights from the comments. >> Oh, she disappeared. [laughter] >> I'm back. Hi Karen, welcome. Hello. Hi Naomi. Hi Rabia. And hi teachers watching. It's been very busy in the comments. So um we've had a lot of people from all over the world which is very exciting including someone from Reunion which um I think must be a first. So, welcome everybody wherever you are. Okay, so in the comments, um, lots of people on Instagram from all over, which is great. And, um, someone's asking about classroom management. We'll post some links to our classroom management pages. Um so on the courses front um Raja said that he has really enjoyed the creative courses um the creative courses for primary and didn't realize or hadn't hadn't tried using storytelling with younger learners and also in um a large class. So that's something that he's been trying out in his classes. Khaled from um Oman courses have impact his learning his teaching for the better. maybe learning as well. And Maria has said that the course she enjoyed the most was communication skills, thinking about real communication. And what's happening now is lots of people are writing in about their perfect class size. And like you were saying, Naomi, 12 to 15 seems a really good number um for being able to be divisible by two, four, six, 12, um, three. It's a very number you can multiply a lot. Others talked about nice having an even number to be able to do, you know, divide it all quite well. And in terms of where students sit, Muzil Hussein says, I allow students to sit where they want to sit because they feel free in their choice. That was this comment here. um and sweet shift sometimes wherever they want but if they disturb I change the seating so that changes around a little bit. Um um >> I think my approach is generally similar to that. I Yeah. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> Yes. Flexible with a little bit of structure if necessary. >> That's right. Um and some of teachers are saying it depends on the class, you know, to be a bit adaptable. Um and this one from Ra Rajger is saying that large classes are really interesting although difficult. So large classes has been a sort of common theme throughout as well. So that's where we're up to at the moment. Wonderful. Yeah, that's great. I had actually I just wanted to share this lovely quote from one of our audience members um about teaching large multi-level class um classes. Bjana um said uh any teacher who teaches large multi-level classes and succeeds in engaging their learners and helping most of them learn something is a hero in my books and those who care enough to try and energize such diverse learners have me in awe. Kudos colleagues and I just wanted to share that with everyone because [clears throat] couldn't agree more. >> Yes. >> So much love. >> Yes. >> Okay, I'll pop off and I'll be back later. >> Lovely. Thanks for coming to visit Karen. >> Bye. [laughter] >> Uh so um another another um topic that came up quite a lot this this time was multilingual classrooms. Is that something that you were talking about in the courses as well uh Rabia? >> Um yes we were talking about using the mother tongue in order to um make learning easier. Scaffolding learning using the mother tongue a lot. Um and a lot of times teachers were sharing their own perspectives as well that how uh the first language has helped them. Some of the teachers I think also said that whenever you are teaching it's very good to take a walk into the culture of the learners and understand their mother tongue and and there was one interesting post about um one teacher saying that I want to learn their mother tongue in order to understand and teach them better and I would also not assume that they know their mother tongue very well. They're literate in their mother tongue. they need they can read and write in that. So that I say okay the way you wrote wrote there. So maybe a child has that language but they do not know how to read and write in that. For instance if they are they move from one country to another. So just assuming that they already have that kind of knowledge base which they can transfer into their second language teacher needs to know. So having a walk around in their culture, in their background, having conversation, getting to know them is very important before uh making the decision to use their language. So that was something I really liked. >> That's yeah, that's really fascinating. Yeah, we um we talk quite a lot about um trans languaging and code switching um and how that can be you used in the classroom to to help learners feel more comfortable and more confident. Um I think there were quite a lot of people um stating that it needs to be done as a careful balance. Um that was that was something several people mentioned um because you don't want you want to make sure that English is still being big taught and not the the the home language isn't taking over entirely. But allowing allowing that yeah allowing that code switching allowing that trans languaging to support learning is absolutely incredibly valuable. I I feel and I think a lot of our community agrees with that. What do you think? Pop your pop your thoughts in the in the um comments audience if you if you like um if you like using trans languaging in class. Okay. So, um what other things did we look at this month? Um this theme um school rules were another one we looked at. Did you did you look at school rules and policies at all, Rabia? >> Um not that I remember. Not that I remember but we had teachers sharing certain restrictions that we cannot do this and we cannot do that and then audience came up with certain suggestions but I do not have a direct quote right now in front of me but most of the times yes most of the times it's only um like um I >> I I'm unable to it was usually related to having large classrooms and having to teach in English and not being able to uh use certain activities, but I do not have a code right now. >> That's fine. Yeah, we talked a little bit around school rules. Um things around lateness and school uniforms as well. Those were two of the topics that came up. Um I would say the overwhelming consensus was that school uniforms are a good idea. But there were some teachers who disagreed with that. some some of the community felt that um school should be a place to express yourself and that policing uniforms can actually end up being more work for teachers. I think that's someone speaking from personal experience there. Um and also I think in some countries they can actually be more expensive um which is obviously a challenge for for um parents. Um yeah, we had a yeah we had a a parent um and a teach someone who's a parent and teacher saying that as a teacher she likes it but as a parent she's not so keen which I thought was really interesting. Um >> my perspective of that it it is different in terms of like children then demand to have a new dress to go to school every day as well. So that becomes demanding for the parents also that they have to have a whole wardrobe for them to go and then for them uniform is a better option so that you know there are two sets they can reuse them like um alternate between them. So it's said the different perspectives according to uh what parents can afford or what parents cannot afford. So in our context um in in Pakistan if I could add we a lot of people go for like uniforms and as you grow older in colleges there is no restriction for uniforms you can go in like your home clothes as well. So I think again it depends on uh how like economically stable the parents are to afford. So I think that is one perspective as well. Yeah, that's a great perspective and I'm sure a lot of teachers will agree with that. Yeah, I'm just going to pop back to the um multilingualism um because we've got some great um comments from the audience here. Um Maria saying how learner's home language can be a great scaffold. um and Afaki skill set um and saying how the learners feel um privileged and proud of the fact when the teacher states his or her foreign language learning challenges and asks them or discusses with them in their native language. So I think I think saying how as teachers when we're showing that we're learning another language and we're having challenges too can be really motivating for our learners and make them feel Yeah. make them feel um closer to the closer to the teacher in a way. I think that's yeah a lovely quote. Um and then another one here um learning English as a second language is easier when you celebrate your native tongue as it prevents your first language and cultural heritage from being overshadowed. I thought that's really lovely as well. It's keeping that balance there. So, thank you everyone for those comments. And again, oh, another one from Maria saying, um, yeah, she she might not use all her um her learners home languages because she doesn't know them. I can empathize with that, but encouraging them to support each other in their L1s and to use translation tools if necessary. Absolutely. Use the tools that you have to hand and support each other. That was actually one of the um tips from our audience that I really liked was um you can if you've got peers who speak the same home language. So perhaps you've got quite a multilingual class but there's more than one student that speaks the same language, you can get them to check together if they speak the same home language. I thought that was a really nice tip. And uh I think allowing learners to use their L1 um for discussions is is is a good idea because they will be more comfortable in sharing they'll have like but if it is language that you want them to practice during that discussion then it's good to ask them to use English but if it's generating idea they can do that in their language and somebody can present them to rest of the class in English. So, so that could be one thing as well. >> Yeah, that's a great point. Actually, I remember someone else mentioning that. Yeah, generating ideas in your um home language can allow you to access more creativity and access more ideas because you're not struggling for the words. And then you can actually be introduced to all that new language when you when you um present in English. >> Yeah. Yeah. Such a nice idea. Okay. Wow. Um we're we're zooming through this today. I think let's let's look at one other thing. I think you probably looked at this in the courses group as well. Um and that was adapting adapting our materials. I imagine that was something that was looked at in the in the courses group as well. Is that right? >> Yes, I think that was the highlight and we have a course also how to adapt resources which now is available till the end of the next year because it was so popular. Yes. So uh I think we our audience was always about um talking about activities according to their mixed levels, talking about activities for different learners uh who who are not so good at speaking, how to motivate them, how to adapt tasks to motivate them, uh changing uh different ways of interaction for them. So I think the theme of most of our posts and discussions was also how to adapt activities for different contexts for different students with mixed levels and all that. Um I think in one of the webinars that Nadia and I had on on this topic practical introduction we also talked about uh how we can understand the context and then adapt activities accordingly. So if you would allow I quickly talk about the class framework. >> Oh yes please please. Yes. I I was going to ask you to tell us about that at the beginning and I completely forgot. My apologies. >> Okay. Uh so the class framework helps us to adapt activities uh according to the uh the class that we have. So for C it's culture. So um adapting the activities according to the culture. So uh adding activities from their context, foods from their context, names from their context that adapting it accordingly will help them. And then language. So using home language like we just talked about uh explaining instructions maybe you can do that in their mother tongue. You can check instructions in the mother tongue. And if there is an idea, so instead of spending so much time in asking CCQs, you can simply use their mother tongue as well. And you can also ask other students to translate for you if you do not know their mother tongue. If through an image they can say okay this is this. So using learners as a resource can also help you. And then uh ability designing for ability always have some must should and could tasks like you could do this if you want more challenge. This is the requirement. So everybody is participating and you're not forcing everybody to do a certain thing and then planning for strengths of your learners. What are they good at? So exploiting that. For instance, um think about they're very good at speaking. So maybe have more group discussions, have more uh presentations so that their ability uh is uh strengthened. And the last one is supporting. So adapt activities to support your learners. So add sentence starters into it. Add visuals, add peer support. And I think a lot of times modeling from the teacher can be. So that was the class framework that we we really find useful to not just understand the context but adapt activities accordingly as well. >> Fantastic. Yeah, that's such a great framework. And if anyone wants to learn a bit more about that, you can see the webinar recording um with Rabia and Nadia, right? >> Nadia. >> Yes. >> Yes. Um you can find that um in the webinar section of our um of our website. Um now we're running out of time here. Before we go, um I want to introduce um Karen to um share a little a little tip about or a little request from from all you guys. So, I'll pop Karen up. Oh, she's popped herself up. [laughter] Tada. >> Like magic. >> Just like magic. [laughter] [gasps] Um, so we've had so many wonderful discussions as Naomi has mentioned over the last three months, ideas from courses, ideas from our content on our social media page, webinars, um, lesson plans. So, for teachers watching, we would love to hear your favorite part, um, your favorite tip or something you've tried in class that you've seen from us over the last few months. And you can make a little video. So, get your camera, hold it up, and look at the camera, make a video, and send it to us. Don't worry about editing. We have a fantastic person who can edit the video for you. So just send us your video in the format it is from your phone and I'll put a link in the chat of how you can do that. It's on our website called community call out just to up to a one minute video. It doesn't even have to be a minute. It can be 30 seconds of a top tip or something you've tried in class or something that's made you think. And we've had lots of comments about that already. Okay, I'll pop away again. [laughter] >> Okay, I I think that's at time. So, do you has anyone have any last words or Rabia, do you have any last words for our audience for this theme? Um I would only say that um um Karen has already asked you to share something but I would request you to try try all of the ideas in the classroom because that will not just improve your teaching but it will improve the learning in your classrooms as well. So always keep a journal note down those ideas and do try them and then reflect on them. Did they work? How could you make it even better? So I think that will help you become a reflective teacher. So that that is something I would just say. >> Fantastic. Yeah, I absolutely agree. Yes, do that. And then and then the ones that you like the most, send us a video about them. [laughter] >> Okay, so I'm going to say goodbye for today and in a few days we'll be starting our new theme. Um so we can't wait to see you there and so thank you everyone. Thank you ever so much Rabia for coming on today. It was lovely to have you here. >> Same here. Same here. Thank you everyone. Thank you. >> Thank you and bye bye. >> And thank you Karen. [laughter] >> Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Bye.