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Developing Digital Literacies in English

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A colleague asked me about digital resources for teaching English so she could support one of her exchange groups. They were looking for resources with low impact on workload but positive impact on learners. I thought I’d reformulate my reply into a blog but then decided that sharing my email reply would be just as authentic and play with the traditional lines of a blog post. I hope you find some or all of it useful 😊 ~ Chloë

Hi Punam,

Oh goodness – where to begin 😃. I’ll be as brief but as informative as possible:

PDNorth Youtube
Please recommend our screencasts via our PDNorth Youtube account. There are lots more to be added from an English & Maths PoV over the coming months too, from the OTLA Digital folks. Our screencasts have an element of practical ‘how to’ but most importantly they include pedagogical uses (and limitations) from real life experience in the FE classroom/training room/library!

I would fully recommend the Padlet* screencast which focusses on approaches and strategies as I detail a range of uses from personal experience in ESOL, English, Food Safety and Digital training contexts. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa3XL5tqV6TwbirjbXbRM5Q?view_as=subscriber

One of the latest blogs on PDNorth is about Screencasting* and that again includes my experience of using it for ESOL/English with some practical examples and suggestions. Read it here: https://pdnorth.org.uk/pd-north-blog/

Shaping Success Courses
Perhaps signpost practitioners to the digital approaches / multimedia webinars we have via Shaping Success (£25 per person or free if they fit one of the freebie criterion)? These webinars speak about specific websites / apps and how they can be used to teach English &/or Maths but these require a little play time to explore. We also encourage people to think critically about using digital in the classroom (ie not just for sparkles!). More info:
https://ccpathways.co.uk/shaping-success


Just…websites!
Average bog standard websites can be really useful for English teaching to explore comprehension and navigation whilst using websites they may already use (or need help being able to use). These days job applications are all online / shopping online is more convenient / accessing transport timetables etc so embedding personal digital skills and digital literacies with everyday websites is
paramount.

An example of one ESOL lesson I did (at an FE college in a computer room): Students accessed an Excel spreadsheet (quick one I made) on a Padlet and downloaded it. It had a ‘shopping list’ of 15 items on it for which they had to find and price up at Asda / Tesco / Sainsburys online. Then they worked out the total etc to see which one was the cheapest. At the end they uploaded their document to the Padlet so I had a record of their work (also useful for RARPA). Okay, I’m using Padlet, Excel and 3 websites there but they also wanted to know how to use Excel and upload/download/add an attachment so I incorporated that into the session too. It took me minutes to make the Excel document and add it to a Padlet so it wasn’t a burden on my time (I know this is a real concern with digi stuff) and I reused the document / Padlet with other classes. However, you could just do a paper version of the Excel Sheet and learners could access the supermarkets on their phone (if they have access to one).

Blogs
I highly recommend using a blogging website when teaching English. Particularly reading. The one I used originally a few years ago was Blogger* but issues with that included needing a Google Account/Email address which was a barrier to many of my learners. I ended up turning to Edmodo* as that ticked lots of boxes and has a familiar interface (it looks like Facebook with similar functionality). I’ve gauged from colleagues though that Edmodo hits it off with ESOL learners
better than English.

Phone Apps
Specifically ones that come with the phone and don’t rely on learners downloading things/using their space. For example: voice recorder is great for recording themselves before writing an essay. Or recording a convo and transcribing it. Also good for practicing pronunciation (ESOL).

Pre-made resources
However, I wonder from your email if you mean very specific resources that have already been created…? If so, I recommend: The British Council / British Council
NEXUS (ESOL), One Stop English (ESOL), Film English (ESOL + ELT), English My Way (v low level ESOL), BBC Skillswise and of course: the Excellence Gateway!

I know it’s easier said than done, but I truly believe in the importance of sharing with colleagues who you work with. Many departments/organisations don’t do this (especially if tutors are 0hrs or don’t work together physically etc) but it really does help to lighten everyone’s load if everyone shares something. Infact this reminds me of a quote (by George Bernard Shaw) that Sue shared with us which I think helps to sum up the purpose of PDNorth tbh:

“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples, then you and I will still each have one apple.

But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.”

Hope this helps – let me know 😊

Chloë  

* If you would like to use platforms like these, I’d recommend introducing them at the beginning of the year and using them regularly in order to increase user experience and recognition. Don’t waste time introducing a ‘flavour of the week’ because most of your lessons will be taken up with the initial ‘getting to know you’ stage of a new platform. This will frustrate your learners, increase your workload and decrease the teaching/learning time significantly. With any digital elements of your TLA ask: Could I get the same result easier without the tech aspect? What (if anything) does the tech aspect add to the learning?

Dipping into Digital

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A story of two digital “dinosaurs” foray into blogging and other digital unknowns!

 

A couple of members of the PDNorth team (Sue Lownsbrough & Petrina Lynn) have begun a journal detailing their journey navigating digital literacies from personal to organisational/work to classroom/training use. They cordially invite PDNorth members to follow them on their journey…

To read more, click the link above!

 

Unlocking the ESOL Mindset

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Delivering a workshop at a national conference

by Colette Butterworth & Sue Primrose

This year the NATECLA (National Association for Teaching English and Other Community Languages to Adults) conference was held in Birmingham.  This national, annual conference is a huge event that is held specifically for ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) practitioners.  This year there was a variety of workshops, a resources exhibition and an Ascentis Teachmeet.

Sue Primrose and I delivered a workshop called “Unlocking the ESOL mindset”.  This workshop looked at how to develop a learner’s mindset so that they can learn more effectively as they gain a better understanding of their own thinking and develop strategies to tackle internal and external barriers. Practical and interactive exercises were demonstrated to show how structured and deeper questioning in the ESOL classroom can guide learners to become more reflective and autonomous thus taking ownership of their progress.

 

Having never presented at or even attended a national CPD conference, we were unsure what to expect.  Would we buckle at the knees and freeze?  All these thoughts were flying through my mind so in a state of nervous excitement I began the seminar.  Fortuitously, we had provided 30 packs because instead of the 18 delegates we were expecting, there were instead, 29 attendees.

 

We came up with some ideas for our students to think in a more creative way to enable them to become more independent in their learning.  For a warmer exercise, we started with a competition.  The prize was a big bag of fruit to keep the winning delegate energised for the weekend.  The warmer allows the teachers to work out the students’ starting points and the barriers to their learning.  This then allows the teachers to encourage the students with barriers to become responsible for their own learning and think about how they can manage their time. We then moved on to a Padlet which included creative thinking exercises and reading images using ‘wh’ questions and ‘What if…’ questions.  The main part of the seminar was to deconstruct the goals of each student to allow them to think about what they want to achieve and how and when they are going to go about achieving it.  It allows the students to take personal responsibility for the work they do throughout the year to achieve their goals.  Some teachers were unsure how to apply the techniques. This was particularly at lower levels, where the students’ command of English is weaker. However, we were able to offer advice about questioning techniques and showing the value of students taking responsibility for their own learning. The sooner this is done the better!

The seminar was thought-provoking and it gave the delegates some ideas of how to encourage more independent study skills with their students. The feedback we received from NATECLA was tremendous.  Delivering at a conference and sharing ideas was a great experience.  We can all learn by sharing resources and ideas through conferences, teachmeets, blogging and Twitter.  I think these are all worthy ways to bring good practice together. We hope to present again next year and look forward to seeing more innovative teachers delivering at future conferences.

Writing a Great Blog for PDNorth

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If you’re even reading this, somewhere in your head is the thought that you might write a blog here, for PDNorth. Kudos to you!

 

The very best blogs are those you write in your own voice – and that’s the point of the PDNorth blog, to hear voices from across the North of England. We know that the diversity of what you know, think and write is going to blow us away.

 

What you will get out of blog-writing is the chance to find your own voice as a writer educator, in a supportive and supported environment – and of course to share your practice with fellow travellers. Public writing is a very different kind of reflexion to that which you probably do all the time. In a way, it’s a form of teaching…you are wanting to communicate your ideas to others, hopefully to benefit in turn from their freshest thinking too.

 

What’s the story?

All the best writing has a story to tell, even if it’s professional/technical writing like the PDNorth blog. So – what’s your story? Who are the human and non-human actors? What do they get up to and why might we be interested to read about it? Stories could be fictional or factual and maybe the most compelling of them are FicFactual (not totally a thing, I admit) – a true story fictionalised to show the golden narrative thread at its best.

 

How do I get started?

Firstly, think about where you want to write. You may have a nice corner of your kitchen, or an allotment shed, or a local café. Maybe you fancy exploring co-working spaces such as my favourite Ziferblat in Manchester (also in Liverpool and Salford at Media City) and, closer to home for me, Doncaster’s lovely Helm. There’s usually a charge which includes drinks and snacks or there may be free offer sessions…overall it’s cheaper than sitting in Costa for a day, unless you can make an Americano last a really long time.

 

Where you write doesn’t matter, as long as you feel comfortable in the space. Some people like silence, others a little background noise – or high-volume techno – it’s completely up to you. Try to give yourself a clear space and plenty of breaks, walk round the block if you can. Sometimes the thinking needs to catch up with the typing…

 

The blank page can be scary, so before you do anything else open up a word document (or a clean page in a gorgeous notebook), name it to save it, and throw some words down. You can write FISH twenty times if that will get you started; the words don’t need to survive the editing process so it doesn’t matter if they are clumsy. All that matters is making a start.

 

Keep on Keeping On

I’m probably not the only person to have a desktop littered with pieces I’ve begun and not completed. Keeping on keeping on is definitely a problem for me. I try to address it with ‘tomato writing’ (strictly speaking, the Pomodoro Technique). I use an app on my phone to break down the time I’ve got into work chunks and breaks, which I’ll usually use to have a brisk walk down the block. Tomato Writing helps you switch off that internal editor, the one who tells you that you’re an impostor. You’re not!

 

We’ve got a few, hopefully helpful, guidelines to support you:

WORD: 300 – 1,000 words. Keep it short and engaging. Something folks can read in their break, on the bus or in the staffroom when they have a spare moment.

STYLE: Flexible. We’re interested in: Voices from the classroom/staffroom. Resource explorations. Reviews of books, blogs and events. Think pieces. Descriptions of PDNorth exchange activity. Critical thoughts.

REFERENCES: If you choose to reference other people’s work, events, videos, resources etc please reference them and give them the kudos they deserve.

 

 

What to write?

Cardinal rule – it’s got to be something you’re bothered about, otherwise your words won’t sound sincere…in fact, they probably won’t flow. So think of an area of work that makes you buzz, even if it’s not without its complications. We’d love you to write about your successes, but sometimes stuff you haven’t quite pulled off is even more interesting – if you explore why.

 

As you’re writing, keep accessibility in mind. Chloë takes care of all that stuff on the web design side of things but it’s worth having a look at the Plain English Campaign guides, to try and avoid the gobbledygook and jargonese (technical terms) we all fall prey to in education!

 

You might want Chloë to include images, to break up the text and make it more readable. Just be mindful of copyright; images you’ve taken are fine (if you have obtained the active consent of anyone photographed), or you might like to search a Creative Commons database for freely available images.

 

How can we help?

We’d love to help you get started as a blogger/writer. Both me and Chloë would be happy to have an initial conversation about what you might write and then I’d be privileged to help you edit your early drafts. There’s something lovely about seeing the shape of a piece emerge, it’s like sculpture.

 

OK, what next?

The next step is to let Chloë know you’re up for it. You can either email her or, complete the contact form to the left <—

 

So, don’t be shy! We really hope you’ll go for it 🙂

 

 

Lou Mycroft

InTuition columnist Pedagogue