Grade Teacher Training

2022-04-15 15:00:11 ​ Jigsaw activities are communicative activities in which real communication occurs. Why do we use them?

they are purposeful: students are motivated by a communicative goal - getting information

they are reciprocal: to achieve a purpose students need to interact - they listen as much as they speak

there is negotiation in them: students may need to check and repair the communication in order to be understood by each other

they are unpredictable: neither the process, nor the outcome, nor the language used in the exchanges

they are heterogeneous: students are not restricted to the use of pre-specified grammar item

they are contingent: the utterances are connected to one another and to the context

they are synchronous: students interact in real time.

How do we use them?

READING
Divide the class into groups (or individuals) and give each their piece of text to read. You can optionally allow dictionaries here. After a few minutes reassemble the class and have them reconstruct the text as a whole and then answer the questions you prepared earlier.

With less advanced classes, you can have the students work on individual sentences rather than stories. For example, you can break a text into individual sentences which must be read and understood by individual students who can then come together and try and recreate the whole.

SPEAKING
Divide students in groups. Each member of a group has different information. One might have a bus timetable, another a map, and another a list of hotels. They have to share this information in order to plan a weekend break together.

LISTENING
Each learner listens to a different recording or part of a recording. Then, they work in pairs/groups to exchange information in order to complete a task.

Task 1: Send learners different recordings. It could be different news stories, full songs or just the chorus, different perspectives on the same topic. Then, they work together to compare the content of these recordings. How are they similar/different?

Task 2:
Send learners different recordings about different options, e.g. top travel destinations, film/book reviews, top Universities, etc. After listening, they compare all the options, rank them in order of preference and justify their choice.

As you can see, there are many possible options, and you can even create your own jigsaw activities. Do you use them in your classrooms? Share your ideas with us!

Learn more about teaching English at our Online TKT Module 1 Preparation Course which starts on 20 April. Open / Comment

2022-04-15 13:06:15 Open / Comment

2022-04-13 12:35:07 ​ English is one of the most difficult subjects to learn. It requires a significant level of neural activity from students.
Brain breaks help to:
reduce fatigue and the negative impact of a monotonous working
activate students' attention and increase opportunities for the perception of educational material
relieve students from brain strain for a while.

We are happy to share with you a selection of our favourite brain breaks for young learners.

ACTION SONGS:
Pinocchio
Over the deep blue sea
We all fall down
Action song
Shake it out

DANCING:

A pirate
Jump up
I’m blue
Can’t stop the feeling
I gotta feeling
Get ready to wiggle

Teaching YL? Join our online TKT:YL preparation course with Lidiya Simak, and learn how to work with children aged 6 to 12. Open / Comment

2022-04-12 12:33:10 ​ Breaking news!

We are launching our brand new course 'Get-to-know CELTA' designed to help you learn about the CELTA format and prepare for the training
And it's absolutely FREE of charge

Get-to-know CELTA is:

6 useful emails about CELTA
Effective advice from CELTA trainers
Analysis of the format, tasks and criteria of CELTA assessment
A selection of resources to prepare for CELTA

Our course will help you:

Familiarize yourself with the CELTA format in more detail
Prepare for an interview with the course tutors
Get resources to prepare for the CELTA course
Learn the secrets of successful completion of the CELTA course first hand
Understand important organizational issues.

Don't know where to start your CELTA journey? Start it with us! Open / Comment

2022-04-11 13:57:37 Grade Teacher Training pinned «​Teachers, join our new online workshop - 'Assessment for Learning' - by Olena Bochkarova on 19 April! How do we, teachers, know what our students know and can do after finishing our course? How will the students know what they know? It is an assessment…» Open / Comment

2022-04-11 13:57:10 ​Teachers, join our new online workshop - 'Assessment for Learning' - by Olena Bochkarova on 19 April!

How do we, teachers, know what our students know and can do after finishing our course? How will the students know what they know? It is an assessment that can give us the answers to these questions and provide valuable feedback on our students’ performance and overall progress.

In this session, we will look at what basically assessment is and its main principles. We will touch upon the major types of assessment - formative and summative and discuss how to make them effective tools in the learning process. What is more, we will cover the essential characteristics of tests that make them effective tools for measuring your students’ progress.

Key takeaways:

Discuss principles of assessment

Identify types of assessment

Outline the main characteristics of a good test

Speaker: Olena Bochkarova - Academic Director, Teacher: General & Business English, IELTS Prep / International Speaking Examiner, CELT-S trainer

Tuesday, 19 April 2022
16.00 - 17.00 (Kyiv time)

Registratration required

Fee: 299 UAH
We will donate 50% of costs from this workshop to the Armed Forces of Ukraine

See you among the participants! Open / Comment

2022-04-08 13:00:01 Happy Friday, everyone!

Here's the recording of the event we ran last week. 'Grade Teacher Talks: Teach for Peace' - two workshops where we are sharing our experiences and expertise as well as exchanging our ideas with other teachers and professional teacher trainers.

Session 1. "Building Engagement in the Classroom" by Christopher Reese.

Session 2. "How to switch to English in your class and not use L1" by Lidiya Simak.

May there be a peaceful sky above your head Open / Comment

2022-04-06 12:01:57 ​ Teachers, if you prepare students for the IELTS exam or would like to take it yourself, our selection of sources will come in handy.

Take IELTS offers tips and hints, free tests, tasks and resources for practical preparation for IELTS.

IELTS.org - sample tasks with answers and audio recordings in MP3 format with scripts.

IELTS Liz is a great resource created by an experienced IELTS preparation instructor. Here you can find interesting videos and study materials that will help teach the language of this exam and strategies for its successful completion.

IELTS Grade is a trilingual blog by our educational center. Here you will find explained tasks, articles on specific strategies for completing them, sample answers, lists of useful words, and more. Our tips and clues from experienced IELTS instructors will help you better prepare for the IELTS Academic exam.

READING
National Geographic is an illustrated magazine with a huge number of unsurpassed photos, which covers issues of the environment, nature and animals.
BBC News - useful for developing academic English, but at the same time helps keep your hand on the pulse of world events.
The Economist covers world politics, economics, science and technology, and offers 3 free articles a week if you subscribe.
Business magazine offers free texts and exercises related to business and work.
History News Network is an American website that specializes in both American and global history, where you can also find a large number of articles on current events.
BBC - news, opinions and much more from the UK's most famous media outlet that covers all topics. And it's a great website for listening practice.

LISTENING
If you don't want to turn your lessons into boring listening to practice tests or old uninteresting scenarios, there are more radios and podcasts for each category and topic.
The Guardian
Buzzfeed

Speaking exam question - a collection of hundreds of recent tasks and questions for IELTS from the Internet, as well as the contributions of website visitors who have recently passed the exam. The website contains questions for speaking from parts 1, 2 and 3, and all this is organized by exam dates. Teachers can use this resource to familiarize their students with questions and topics while preparing for the oral part of IELTS.

We hope you find these resources useful and they will inspire you to prepare IELTS candidates. Or you will even want to try your hand at the exam

April is a perfect time to start your IELTS journey
New groups start on 18-19 April. Hurry up! Open / Comment

2022-04-05 10:41:36 Grade Teacher Training pinned «​ Teachers, do you teach English to young learners ? Our next TKT Module YL Online Preparation Course that starts on 12th April is for you! TKT: YL preparation course is designed for teachers who work with children aged 6 to 12. We will discuss the…» Open / Comment

2022-04-04 16:23:04 ​ Teachers, do you teach English to young learners ?

Our next TKT Module YL Online Preparation Course that starts on 12th April is for you!

TKT: YL preparation course is designed for teachers who work with children aged 6 to 12. We will discuss the concepts related to children’s learning and development, and look at learners from a teaching perspective: how to plan and deliver lessons, how to assess young learners’ work, etc.

TKT: YL course components:

The key concepts about young learners and how they learn English

Planning and preparing young learner lessons

Teaching young learners

Assessing young learners in the classroom

Study with an amazing course tutor - Lidiya Simak who is also an Academic Director, CELTA Trainer, CELT P/S Trainer.

10 lessons x 90 minutes

Tuesday and Thursday

18:30 - 20:00

Course fee: 2199 UAH

After completing a preparation course, our graduates get a certificate from Grade Education Centre, issued according to all the requirements of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine . Open / Comment