Composition 3

Which training courses would you like to have access to as a teacher? Why? Which is, in your opinion, the best way to share good practice amongst teaching professionals? Why?

It is said that teachers are in a lifelong learning and it is true. Teacher training does not end by obtaining the university career but throughout their career receives formation in order to improve the teaching learning process.

There are professional learning communities and communities of practice whose main purpose is to enhance the success of all students by focusing attention on the impact that decisions relating to school organisation, teaching, assessment and curriculum have on student learning.

Many carried studies report on that when teachers are part of a professional learning community and they feel that it is safe to take risks and share information, they can review and alter their teaching practice so that it makes a real difference to their students' learning.

For this reason, I think that teachers should participate in training courses, seminars and working groups.

Observing the classrooms and making a diagnosis about the characteristics, possibilities and limitations of the students, I would like to have access to courses which teach me how to create educational material addressed to children with learning problems such as autism or speech problems. I think that in many times, teachers are exceeded due to the heterogeneity of the pupils and the difficulty to offer to each student an individual attention attending to their needs. In this sense, it is comforting to know other educational practices which can be implemented in our teaching practice.

The best way to share these good practice amongst teaching professionals is participating in seminars and working groups because this kind of learning offers the opportunity of getting together teachers that have the same interests in order to develop different activities, for instance: problem solving, request for information, seeking experience, reusing assets or discussing.

Composition 2

If you were not limited by the demands of the national/regional curriculum, what would you say is the most important thing you would teach your students about your subject (in a CLIL context)? How would you assess their learning?

Teachers often comment about the demands of the national or regional curriculum and the limit it supposes to plan another interesting issues for the students. Besides these requirements, the time that the teacher has to develop the language subjects and the non-language subjects is very tight.

Due to these aspects, some schools are adopting a CLIL context in order to foster the language skills by studying specific contents of a non-language subject.

In kindergarten level, the contents that the teachers must teach are not divided into subjects but also this education pretends to develop the learning-teaching process globally. For this reason, the problem of the limitations by the demands of the curriculum, which is explained above, it is not so serious.

The kindergarten teachers should ensure that children have their basic needs met. Also, children must acquire habits in order to perform with autonomy: eating, working, problem solving.

If I think about the most important thing to teach my pupils, I would like to foster speaking language skills. To put this into practice, I could organize workshops dedicated to promoting the language, such as making stories through a cube game, that is, throwing cubes to include the elements of the story; recitation of poems; guessing games; role-playing of different situations.

Regarding to the assessment of these aspects, it must include knowledge, competences, skills, attitudes and discourse practices for language and content. I believe that the best technique to do the assessment is by a rubric. It is a great resource for children because, previously the development of each activity, they can know the aspects that we are going to assess. Also, this way to evaluate fosters autonomy offering to children an active role through self and peers assessment.

Composition 1

Taking into account my personal teaching context, what would be the advantages and disadvantages of using the ELP with my groups?

Firstly, I would like to explain what the ELP is. According to Sinem Yilmaz and Sumru Akcan, the European Language Portfolio is a material used for teaching English as a foreign language with the aim of children improve their involvement in the language learning process. It has got three components: a language passport, a language biography and a dossier which includes documentation of personal experiences of language learning and experiences with other cultures.

I think that implement the ELP in the personal teaching process is benefit for children because it develop a capacity for self-assessment and reflection and children take control of their own learning. In fact, there are studies that investigate it and show the way to implement it.

Among the advantages or benefits in using the ELP emphasize the following. The ELP brings the opportunity to know the real capacity. Also, it involves the students in planning strategies that will help them to achieve the objectives. Using the ELP provides to children develop reflection and self assessment about the own learning process, and the autonomy it supposes. Moreover, it is a motivational tool for children because of the active participation in learning.

On the other hand, the ELP also has some disadvantages or constraints such as the lack of personal resources for implementation, at least in the first educational courses; the teacher training in knowledge of the ELP; or the time it supposes to work with the children.

To conclude, it is interesting to introduce kindergarten children or the first levels of primary education in the use and management of the ELP in order to be an effective tool to develop language learning, self assessment and learner autonomy.