{"id":807,"date":"2011-01-06T01:55:40","date_gmt":"2011-01-06T00:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eltchat.com\/?p=807"},"modified":"2011-01-06T01:55:40","modified_gmt":"2011-01-06T00:55:40","slug":"eltchat-summaries-for-january-5-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/2011\/01\/06\/eltchat-summaries-for-january-5-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"Principles when preparing your own teaching materials &#8211; a summary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For today&#8217;s chats, we were fortunate to have had one of our fellow #ELTchatters offer to write a summary of the main points from the transcripts. I suggested this as there were quite a few new followers who mentioned that it is sometimes difficult to follow the transcript &#8211; there are so many retweets, it&#8217;s true!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Principles when preparing your own teaching materials &#8211; Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The learner should be central.<\/li>\n<li>Materials should be professionally presented. Play with layouts, fonts, etc.<\/li>\n<li>Materials don\u2019t have to mean paper worksheets: they could also be online, videos, presentations, art, mindmaps, realia\u2026<\/li>\n<li>Materials can and should generate activities.<\/li>\n<li>Never do something yourself when your SS can do it for \/ with you.<\/li>\n<li>They should be fun, meaningful, practical and motivate SS.<\/li>\n<li>Try to include visuals, rather than just words.<\/li>\n<li>They should suit the skill \/ language point of the lesson, rather than just looking interesting to the teacher.<\/li>\n<li>They should empower SS to use the language and make connections.<\/li>\n<li>Materials should be sensitive to the nationalities \/ cultures you teach.<\/li>\n<li>Materials should be as relevant to the SS as possible. You can ask SS which topics motivate them.<\/li>\n<li>Space should be available for learners to take notes, perhaps with the back of the sheet completely blank. Avoid the temptation to do all thinking on paper.<\/li>\n<li>Open-ended materials can fuel whole lessons.<\/li>\n<li>Materials should be applicable to a real-life context.<\/li>\n<li>Inspiration can come from anywhere.<\/li>\n<li>They should be flexible.<\/li>\n<li>You can use your own materials to escape the confines of a coursebook, while still covering the syllabus. Or approach it differently, maybe by teaching a unit backwards.<\/li>\n<li>Use your materials to remind SS that they don\u2019t have to be doing the same thing at the same time.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t forget about interaction!<\/li>\n<li>Design materials which make SS think, not just repeat.<\/li>\n<li>Think about trying the same materials out with different students.<\/li>\n<li>How much time do you spend planning v. using materials?<\/li>\n<li>Keep your materials: organise them on your computer, blog them, share them with your students \/ colleagues\u2026<\/li>\n<li>Remember the level of your students: important for the tasks and the instructions.<\/li>\n<li>Trigger laughter and \/ or curiosity whenever possible.<\/li>\n<li>Consider SS who may have difficulty with your materials e.g. dyslexia, dyspraxia. For example, use coloured paper for those with reading difficulties.<\/li>\n<li>When using authentic materials, fit the task to the students, rather than worrying too much about fitting the text to them.<\/li>\n<li>Reflect, edit, adapt, recycle \u2013 don\u2019t give up!<\/li>\n<li>Play!<\/li>\n<li>Take a risk!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Disclaimer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I would like to reiterate that this is my\u00a0<em>summary<\/em> of the discussions which took place today. I have used the words of some of the participants directly, but in no way claim them as my own \u2013 I wanted to make it a little simpler to find out what was going on, so have avoided crediting everyone. To find out exactly who said what, and to experience the full joy of an #eltchat, read the transcripts\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/sandymillin.wordpress.com\/page\/2\/www.eltchat.com\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Sandy Millin<\/p>\n<p>Please visit\u00a0<a>Sandy Millin&#8217;s blog (click on the title of her post below) or read her summary on this page. <\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/sandymillin.wordpress.com\/2011\/01\/06\/what-i-learnt-on-eltchat-today\/#comment-21\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">What I learnt on #eltchat today<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For today&#8217;s chats, we were fortunate to have had one of our fellow #ELTchatters offer to write a summary of the main points from the transcripts. I suggested this as there were quite a few new followers who mentioned that it is sometimes difficult to follow the transcript &#8211; there are so many retweets, it&#8217;s&hellip; <br \/> <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/2011\/01\/06\/eltchat-summaries-for-january-5-2011\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-summary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eltchat.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}