Today is the last Friday in August 2013. This is our second session. Excited about being in the classroom as a learner. Our session leader Jackson received us with some Jazz, wonderful to be received in a room which has been prepared for you! Once again we visited some underlying principles for teaching advanced levels and I have decided to work on Critical Thinking Strategies. I have also chosen an Advanced group which I teach on Saturday morning. 21 adults and teens. We spoke about keeping a journal and a blog. Lots of food-for-thought therefore let´s go for a coffee-break....
After the break: Jig-saw-reading, each participant reads part of the text and shares his/her findings afterwards. Action Research is the topic/ methodology we are going to use throughout this course. We work on an issue of interest and we reflect on it by using journals, classroom observations, narrative analysis and group discussions in order to foster for learning in the advanced classroom.
I absolutely love the idea of changing to better-oneself in all the aspects of it, that is, both learner AND teacher.
Throughout the session there were some practical ideas in order to improve my classes, which is what it is all about. Personally I will work on real-life outcomes for my lessons and have learners see and understand how target lexis can be used in real-life. I should definitely provide learners with more opportunities to do so.
Thanks for reading and any comments or/ and ideas are more than welcome.
Juliette Gaasenbeek
São José dos Campos - SP - Brazil
