Hi everyone. I just joined this group after it started, but do look forward to learning throughout this month and getting to know you through this group and and the ideas.
I am a danish teacher, having taught english for the last 30 years almost, mostly to teenagers, right now I work at a danish boarding school, a sports school for teens from 15-17 years old with two grade nine classes and about ten grade 10 classes - the last years of the secondary school system. It's a schoolform special for Denmark - the "Efterskole" - directly translated afterschool - but it's a private alternative to the 9th and 10th grade public school, but still state-supported, and very popular since kids can spend one or two years away from home at such a school.
I teach English, German as foreign languages and Danish as first language. Since our curriculum in Denmark is content based and not coursebook based in any way, we often find ourselves faced with the challenge of creating our own material based on authentic texts from various sources on the internet. I'd like to work more goal-oriented to be sure I cover both the vocabulary and the grammar challenges, while still working content based, so I do look forward to a lot of learning and inspiration.
I joined the IATEFL conference in Brighton this year - for the first time - and loved it. Have been allowed by my school to go next year too, so the idea of working more internationally really applies to me. I do look forward to reading all your introductions
Lisbeth from Denmark
Nice to meet you! It's interesting to learn about the Danish education system.
ReplyDeleteAnne Hendler Nice to meet you too, Anne, so interesting to learn from people around the world
ReplyDeleteI like course books because they follow a 'plan'. I hate textbooks because i don't always buy into their 'plan'. I try to follow course book materials for progression of language but I try do so using my own content. Note: I don't use authentic text-based materials but I use a variety of authentic interaction via a variety of materials.
ReplyDeleteDear Lisbeth, your educational system is similar to ours in Ukraine. We also have content based curculum for every subject. But we are allowed to use courseb ooks as the sources for creating wrapround materials. Not every class has direct access to the internet so using coursebooks and pendrives with downloaded materials are very handy. The longer you work the bigger collection of course books you have, and you can use them for different purposes.
ReplyDeleteNice to meet you here on the course, dear Lisbeth.
Mariia Ruban Hi Mariia, Nice to getting to know you. Of course we're also allowed to use course books here, but we almost always have the need to find something ourselves as well, as coursebooks get old very quickly now. Usually they are topic based, and you might only want to study one or two topics within the book. I do have lots and lots of good texts - but the problem is to create this wrap-around material that creates the feeling of progression in a school-form, where the students only stay there for one year. They're already quite good, when they start, so some of them don't see the need for improving their language, and you really have to think a lot about how to motivate them to progress. We're also using at least two web-portals in general in Denmark, but they're quite expensive for the schools, so usually a smaller school can only afford acces to one of them, and often the least useful. Great to be sharing and learning here.
ReplyDeleteLisbeth Birkmose You are right that course books go out of date quickly and their topics are not always interesting for discussions. But you still can use their images and create image lessons.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it's true the course is a great place to share and learn.
I like your informative comments,
Thank you Lisbeth.
Hi Lisbeth, great to meet you. I'm fascinated by the Danish school system. Having no course books must mean a lot of work. Let's hope you are able to learn a few things on this course and then pass them on to your colleagues!
ReplyDeleteKatherine Bilsborough Thank you Katherine, - yes, it is a lot of work, but throughout the years we try to build up a "library" of materials. There are of course systems available, but since the market is changing to digital portals, most school wait and see - and so far we've two portals to choose from - only one at my school, and when you have to pick and choose the work included in planning is not always very systematic.
ReplyDeleteSo we keep on inventing and inventing - on the other hand we have (almost) nothing, that we can't discuss since there are no taboos around choice of texts except containing good and proper language.
Lisbeth Birkmose Very interesting information! I've been reading a lot about the Danish Educational system but it wasn't clear to me how it really worked. Glad to know you and thank you for sharing your experience!
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