making exam prep child's play
DESCRIPTION
Apresentation I put together for a workshop I gave at the 5th TED ELT Conference in March 2012. The workshop focused on preparing children for the Cambridge YLE tests without resorting to an endless stream of past papers and sample tests. Instead, we explored some dogme-inspired 'materials light' ideas.TRANSCRIPT
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Making Exam
Prep Child’s Play
Dogme-Inspired Ideas for
Children Taking Tests
David Dodgson
TED Ankara College
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Image b
y @
aC
lilTo
Clim
b v
ia e
ltpic
s
A picture is worth a thousand lessons...
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Why ask students to draw?• Inclusive activity.• Low-key but rich in detail.
• Allows individual expression and
personalisation.• Encourages creativity.
• Taps into their imaginations.
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Getting round the drawbacks...
Time-consuming
Reluctance to
draw
Where’s the
language
learning?
Set time limits;
think beyond
one lesson
Join in!
Circulate,
monitor, ask
questions,
make
suggestions
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What can we do with these drawings?• Listen and colour.
• Describe the differences.
• Listen and match the
names.• Yes/No sentences.• Gap-fill summary sentences.• ...and?
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Image by Trevor Huxman
What
do y
ou
see?
Don’t just fill the gaps....
....explore the space....
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A q
uick w
ord
about
Dogm
e E
LT...The ‘testing economy’
includes coursebooks and
published materials (on
shelves and online) that
reflect and promote a
reductive, one-piece-at-a-
time approach to teaching
and learning
Meddings and Thornbury (2009)
Teaching Unplugged
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A q
uick w
ord
about
Dogm
e E
LT...
‘Unplugging’ means
challenging that
economy, and restoring to
the classroom the human
curiousity that lies at the
heart of learning.
Meddings and Thornbury (2009)
Teaching Unplugged
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The bigger picture...
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Working with texts...
Image b
y sh
aw
nca
mpbell
• Look at the reading texts in
the exam paper.• How could students be
prepared for these sections
without ‘cut flowers’?
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Back to the bigger picture...
One snowy day, four friends (Mark, Fredrick,
Kurt and Tim) went to the park because there
was snow everywhere. While they were in the
park, Mark and Fredrick had a snowball fight
and Kurt was sledging. Later, they made a
snowman together. They had a lot of fun.
Then, they went home and drank hot
chocolate.
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Back to the bigger picture...
What’s the best name for this story?
A.Mark makes a snowman
B.A fun day in the snow
C.Four friends fighting
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Lessons on the Fly...