Fellow and Specialist
Chad LaRoche 2
Activity Description - Supporting U.S. Department of State Reporting and Outreach:
Continuing the English club/teaching methodology workshop series at Nampula Secondary School in Nampula, Mozambique, ELF Chad LaRoche conducted a half-day workshop for local secondary school teachers focused on preparing and scaffolding students' learning processes in order to be successful in communicative activities. After discussing the teachers' own knowledge and experiences of what makes an activity communicative, the group was immersed in a sample vocabulary lesson using the ECRIF (Encounter/Clarify/Remember/Internalize/Fluency) framework. Activities built in complexity before culminating in a real-life, communicative speaking activity, after which the group processed the whole experience. The second half of the workshop was dedicated to experiencing four dynamic vocab activities that could be adapted to any target language and level, and plugged into the ECRIF framework.
In Your Own Words - Describe Your Experience:
One interesting moment of this workshop came during the processing of the ECRIF sample lesson, when one participant was concerned about the timing/staging of the lesson and how he could feasibly squeeze a lesson involving many activities within a 45 minute lesson. A light seemed to go off with the participant as I suggested this method of preparing students for communicative activities is ideal for an English club setting, where you have more time, flexibility, and room to experiment in working with beginner language learners. A common thread for this workshop series is to encourage the development of English clubs that cater to lower-level students, so my hope is this was an encouraging and useful tool, in addition to a fresh way to look at the learning/teaching process! Also, the dynamic vocabulary activities were a hit: 1) Backs to the Board 2) What's Missing?: Hiding vocab items behind a blanket while one participant takes one and others have to guess what's missing 3) Who Can Say it First?: Dropping a blanket to reveal a hidden object and participants have to shout to say it first 4) Hop Game: check it out here www.youtube.com/watch?v=H71CWvWa_oM
Chad LaRoche 2
Activity Description - Supporting U.S. Department of State Reporting and Outreach:
Continuing the English club/teaching methodology workshop series at Nampula Secondary School in Nampula, Mozambique, ELF Chad LaRoche conducted a half-day workshop for local secondary school teachers focused on preparing and scaffolding students' learning processes in order to be successful in communicative activities. After discussing the teachers' own knowledge and experiences of what makes an activity communicative, the group was immersed in a sample vocabulary lesson using the ECRIF (Encounter/Clarify/Remember/Internalize/Fluency) framework. Activities built in complexity before culminating in a real-life, communicative speaking activity, after which the group processed the whole experience. The second half of the workshop was dedicated to experiencing four dynamic vocab activities that could be adapted to any target language and level, and plugged into the ECRIF framework.
In Your Own Words - Describe Your Experience:
One interesting moment of this workshop came during the processing of the ECRIF sample lesson, when one participant was concerned about the timing/staging of the lesson and how he could feasibly squeeze a lesson involving many activities within a 45 minute lesson. A light seemed to go off with the participant as I suggested this method of preparing students for communicative activities is ideal for an English club setting, where you have more time, flexibility, and room to experiment in working with beginner language learners. A common thread for this workshop series is to encourage the development of English clubs that cater to lower-level students, so my hope is this was an encouraging and useful tool, in addition to a fresh way to look at the learning/teaching process! Also, the dynamic vocabulary activities were a hit: 1) Backs to the Board 2) What's Missing?: Hiding vocab items behind a blanket while one participant takes one and others have to guess what's missing 3) Who Can Say it First?: Dropping a blanket to reveal a hidden object and participants have to shout to say it first 4) Hop Game: check it out here www.youtube.com/watch?v=H71CWvWa_oM