Topics covered this week:
- S1 (Beginners) Course.
- Add more vocabulary? (not in the Target Language)
- Oxbridge Students.
- A new project called 'learning capsules'.
Building blocks: We finally have class 1 ready to test out(consisting of 4 activities and a wrap up). The S1 course has been completely modified in order to make it more teacher friendly and thanks to our dedicated teachers we already have class 1 underway and ready to teach.
An interesting topic of debate arose on Friday as to whether or not we should teach additional vocabulary if it is not on the Activity sheet. If a student can grasp the concept of the activity and has a relatively high level of English I don't see why you shouldn't teach extra vocabulary. However, if the student is a level p2 or p3 (beginner or pre-intermediate) then we might confuse them and at this stage it is imperative that they focus on the Target Language (TL).
Our Oxbridge students are often asking for more material or to further read about a topic taught in class. In this case, we have decided that it would be a great idea when creating an activity to post videos in order to develop their listening skills and if they are interested in a topic then they can go directly to our blog and watch videos or read more about the topics taught in class.
This week a new concept of learning was added to the Oxbridge teaching system called ‘learning capsules’. The idea came from a gym where people can go not only to exercise but also to learn. The classes will consist of 30 minute learning capsules, the first 30 mins focused on structure activities and the other 30 mins focused on topic activities and visa versa. As this is a new project we need to find out how we can teach at a gym. What areas should be covered, can we teach only structure activities or should we include vocab and topic activities?
The new ‘learning capsule’ classes will begin this week and the new S1 class 1 is also being tested out this week so next Friday I will keep you posted about all our developments.
