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Image Attribution :By Ms. Cagan [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons
More and more I have had students with difficulties in learning English. I teach students whose language level is not the right one for the classes they are attending. Some follow a different course as they need special education. The others are often struggling learners. Some are really good and they would like to work better and to master the language.
Support and differentation are important for me as I need to cope with different language levels.
What should I do?
I have tried to come to terms with individual learning differences and the only thing I can do is to provide more language opportunities and exercises for the less able ones. I can also provide some links for the students who can work on their own and wish to better. It is only a pity that I cannot do much for them as I teach 3 hours per week in their classes and we do not have good technology in class.
Most classes have 28-30 students, this is the worst learning environment as we do not provide them with a lot of engaging activities. It is difficult to work in class as pair work can be very noisy.
I do need to rely on their own devices and on their hopes and interests as they should care about what need to do to become better learners.
How to approach the needs: how I began to work online to provide support to my students
The first thing I had to do was to focus on their difficulties. My planning was full of topics and ideas but I was making mistakes. I tried to focus on what to do and I realized that they should become aware of their difficulties and I should be ready to offer them some help.
I talked to my students and began working online by providing activities or video tasks that had been also shared by other teachers. I had to work on what language competences needed improving and then I created online activities by using web 2.0 tools and my websites. I had to provide links with solutions or feedback . I must confess that I was not ready to do this when I began.
Hopefully I found some interesting platforms and online communities that provided me with ideas.
What followed and what is following now is a different approach to teaching and learning.
Not everybody is working on line, some are not interested but I have seen that others are working on self-development and are trying to better because they care.
It is sometimes difficult to work with the younger students as they are not used to planning in advance what to do. I need to set goals and time. It is my task as I am responsible for what is happening in class and also in the follow-up activities.
Does it work? Is it working for most of my students?
Image Attribution By Intel Free Press [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
It is not easy: some students do not have technology at home or they do not rely on good internet connections.
Tablets are now becoming more popular and they seem to enjoy what they are doing. Most of my students use their smartphones to do some tasks. It is important to trust them and thanks to modern technology they can do some exercises also by using them. New apps have been developed and this means that I will be able to support them. I am trying to learn more and I am doing some self-development online to learn more.
I am starting to use a new platform that I am going to use for some courses I am doing at school and I hope they will use it.
It's called Weschool http://www.weschool.com/.
It is a user-friendly platform and I can work online by creating groups and tasks.
Creating ebooks and activities for my language learners
🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌
I have started to create some ebooks where I provide links, videos and materials which can be found online. Some of them can be done during the summer time. Currently I am thinking of writing an ebook about writing skills as my learners are not used to writing on their own and they need some more exercises and tips to follow. I rely on Google apps for creating them.
More and more I have had students with difficulties in learning English. I teach students whose language level is not the right one for the classes they are attending. Some follow a different course as they need special education. The others are often struggling learners. Some are really good and they would like to work better and to master the language.
Support and differentation are important for me as I need to cope with different language levels.
What should I do?
I have tried to come to terms with individual learning differences and the only thing I can do is to provide more language opportunities and exercises for the less able ones. I can also provide some links for the students who can work on their own and wish to better. It is only a pity that I cannot do much for them as I teach 3 hours per week in their classes and we do not have good technology in class.
Most classes have 28-30 students, this is the worst learning environment as we do not provide them with a lot of engaging activities. It is difficult to work in class as pair work can be very noisy.
I do need to rely on their own devices and on their hopes and interests as they should care about what need to do to become better learners.
How to approach the needs: how I began to work online to provide support to my students
The first thing I had to do was to focus on their difficulties. My planning was full of topics and ideas but I was making mistakes. I tried to focus on what to do and I realized that they should become aware of their difficulties and I should be ready to offer them some help.
I talked to my students and began working online by providing activities or video tasks that had been also shared by other teachers. I had to work on what language competences needed improving and then I created online activities by using web 2.0 tools and my websites. I had to provide links with solutions or feedback . I must confess that I was not ready to do this when I began.
Hopefully I found some interesting platforms and online communities that provided me with ideas.
What followed and what is following now is a different approach to teaching and learning.
Not everybody is working on line, some are not interested but I have seen that others are working on self-development and are trying to better because they care.
It is sometimes difficult to work with the younger students as they are not used to planning in advance what to do. I need to set goals and time. It is my task as I am responsible for what is happening in class and also in the follow-up activities.
Does it work? Is it working for most of my students?
Image Attribution By Intel Free Press [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
It is not easy: some students do not have technology at home or they do not rely on good internet connections.
Tablets are now becoming more popular and they seem to enjoy what they are doing. Most of my students use their smartphones to do some tasks. It is important to trust them and thanks to modern technology they can do some exercises also by using them. New apps have been developed and this means that I will be able to support them. I am trying to learn more and I am doing some self-development online to learn more.
I am starting to use a new platform that I am going to use for some courses I am doing at school and I hope they will use it.
It's called Weschool http://www.weschool.com/.
It is a user-friendly platform and I can work online by creating groups and tasks.
Creating ebooks and activities for my language learners
🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌
I have started to create some ebooks where I provide links, videos and materials which can be found online. Some of them can be done during the summer time. Currently I am thinking of writing an ebook about writing skills as my learners are not used to writing on their own and they need some more exercises and tips to follow. I rely on Google apps for creating them.
You can find here an example of the language support I am providing by using ebook creators online: most of them are not free but you can find some that can be used and you can publish online materials for your learners.
Presenting Verb Tenses In English
Read more publications on Calaméo
Teaching in the XXI century can be very demanding but teachers can rely on tools which can empower them.
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
