Creating and Sustaining Optimal Learning Environments: Finding Your True “Teacher Self”
What makes a learning environment optimal? Is it the lesson plan, the materials, or is it your “teacher self?” In this workshop, you will explore components that affect classroom atmosphere and learner engagement. These components include: teacher language, transitions, instructions, feedback, questioning strategies, and teacher presence. You’ll also explore how drawing on and affirming learners’ assets positively impacts learning. Through demonstrations, video observation, and hands-on practice, you’ll discover your true teacher-self that leads to an optimal learning environment. This workshop is suitable for teachers in any English language teaching context.
By the end of this workshop, you will be able to: 1) observe for and evaluate the effects that teacher language, teacher-learner interactions, teacher presence, and classroom environment have on learning. 2) reflect on your strengths and areas for growth. 3) discover your true teacher self that leads to the most optimal environment for all learners.
The best way to unmask learners’ command of grammar is to engage them in discovering for themselves how, when, and why particular grammar points are used in English. To do this, language forms can be introduced through content-rich, rigorous instructional tasks that mirror learners’ communicative needs. Learner output that naturally emerges while completing a task can become the basis for grammar instruction. This means that the content and tasks drive the choice of grammar to teach, rather than the other way around. See how this contextualized, interactive approach to teaching grammar engages learners with the language they need to meet the communicative demands of today’s world.
The best way to unmask learners’ command of grammar is to engage them in discovering for themselves how, when, and why particular grammar points are used in English. To do this, language forms can be introduced through content-rich, rigorous instructional tasks that mirror learners’ communicative needs. Learner output that naturally emerges while completing a task can become the basis for grammar instruction. This means that the content and tasks drive the choice of grammar to teach, rather than the other way around. See how this contextualized, interactive approach to teaching grammar engages learners with the language they need to meet the communicative demands of today’s world.
