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Primary Essentials is a development course for teachers of English working with young learners aged 7 to 11. The course contains audio, classroom video and community elements. It encourages participants to take a constructivist approach to their learning.
The course aims to help participants:
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identify some of the key issues associated with teaching English to children |
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identify different techniques for using songs and games to enhance children's learning |
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understand how different learning styles affect the way we learn and identify different techniques for exploiting different learning styles |
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define how lesson planning is linked to syllabus and curriculum and explain how the curriculum can define what you teach and how you teach |
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identify a variety of classroom management factors which affect the learning conditions of your classroom. |
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An introduction to online learning |
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First steps in teaching children |
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Songs and games |
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Learning styles |
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Syllabus and lesson planning |
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Classroom management. |
Each of the content modules can be covered online in around eight hours. The introduction modules take about three hours to complete. The length of the whole course is around 12 weeks. Participants are assessed at the end of each module. These assignments form a portfolio on which the participants are given a final assessment of distinction/pass/fail.
TeachingEnglish – Primary Essentials has been created as a moderated lock-step course where a designated group of participants work though the materials according to a schedule. The participants interact with each other and are led by an online tutor who moderates discussions and develops learning points, etc.
Each participant is provided with a user name and password in order to access the Moodle site. Moodle can normally be accessed from a computer with little difficulty, even computers with limited bandwidth, though this should be checked before a course opens.
Interaction is intended to be asynchronous, i.e. conducted over a period of time via email and discussion forums rather than synchronous discussion using ‘chat’ or VoIP software (such as Skype). This means that typically a unit which requires eight hours of work from a participant might be scheduled to last for two weeks or more so that all participants have time to work through the materials.
Applicants interested in the course must fill in the application form  (MS Word 109 KB) and send it by email to Lilit Bekaryan by 21 September.
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