Volunteer ESL Training Workshop

Planning a Tutorial SessionOctober 1st, 2014

Workshop Outline• Introductions and Warm Up• Workshop Objectives• Important Considerations for Planning

Tutorials• Parts of a Tutorial Session• Ideas for Working with Different Levels• Planning a Tutorial Session

Warm Up

Workshop Objectives

• You will review considerations for planning a tutorial session.

• You will identify the parts of a tutorial session• You will identify activities for different stages

of learning.• You will identify activities suitable for

beginners, intermediate and advanced learners.

• You will plan a tutorial session

Important Considerations: Working with Adult Learners• Adults are internally motivated and self-directed.

• Adults bring life experiences and knowledge to learning experiences.

• Adults are goal oriented.

• Adults are relevancy oriented.

• Adults are practical.

• Adult learners need to feel respected.

*based on Malcolm Knowles’ Adult Learning Theory

Important Considerations: Building CommunityA key factor to learning is feeling comfortable.

• Set the tone on the first day.

• Make the physical setting comfortable.

• Encourage sharing and celebrate diversity.

• Encourage teamwork and celebrate success.

• Minimize embarrassment.

• Set goals together.

Important Considerations:Be Kind to Yourself• Use resources available to you - you don’t

have to make everything from scratch.• Set realistic goals.• Some lessons will feel more successful than

others.• You don’t have to know all of the answers.• You might not get through all of the materials.• Sometimes the lesson will go off on a tangent.

Important Considerations:The First ClassWhat to include:• Welcome• Introductions• Ice breakers • Reasons for learning• Class schedules• Set ground rules with learners• Do an assessment (optional)• Introduce the first theme

Important Considerations:Determining Needs

Parts of a Tutorial Session• Objective• Warm Up• Introduction • Activities

– Move from highly supported to more independent activities.

• Wrap Up • Reflection

Planning a Tutorial Session1. Consider what you want your learners to learn.2. Brainstorm your topic.

– Consider related vocabulary– Consider related grammar– Consider how this relates to learners’ daily lives– Find related visuals

3. Think of activities that will be help your learners learn and that they will engage in.

4. Find resources.5. Plan your lesson.

Parts of a Tutorial Session: Objective• The goal for the tutorial session.• What do you want learners to be able to do by

the end of the tutorial session?• It should be SMART

– Specific– Measurable– Achieveable– Reasonable– Time-Oriented

Workshop Objectives• You will review considerations for planning a

tutorial session.• You will identify the parts of a tutorial session• You will identify activities for different stages

of learning.• You will identify activities suitable for

beginner, intermediate and advanced learners.• You will plan a tutorial session

Objective

Parts of a Tutorial Session: Warm Up

• Get your learners thinking and talking in English again.– Short discussion– Find someone who…– Short icebreaker or game– Pair work – review from last lesson– Question and answer session

Warm Up

Parts of a Tutorial Session: IntroductionThis is where you capture the learners’ interest

related to new ideas, vocabulary or theme –the “hook”– Use visuals– Ask questions– Model the language– Show a video clip– Give them a reading

Introduction

Parts of a Tutorial Session: Activities

Activities: Presentation

Highly supported activities This is where you present and explain the new language point, giving learners a chance to practice it in a highly supported environment.

• Model the language• Use visuals• Provide explanations• Provide examples

Activities: Presentation

Activities: Practice

Guided activities with support from you • Reading comprehension activities• Guided role play activities• Dialogues with a model text• Cloze exercises• Matching exercises• Information gap exercises

Activities: Practice

Activities: ProductionMore authentic, less guided activities • Learner-created stories, letters or paragraphs• Reading/responding to a newspaper article• Student generated discussions• Interviews• Presentations• Assignments outside of class

Activities: Production

Parts of a Tutorial Session: Wrap up

• This is where you summarize what the learners have focused in the tutorial session.– Have learners tell you and write it on the board.– Tell the learners what the focus was and ask them

how they can use it outside of the class.– Ask learners to write down one thing they learned

in the lesson today.– Have a short informal oral quiz focused on the

main point.

Wrap up

Parts of a Tutorial Session: Reflection• How did the lesson go?• What worked well?• What didn’t?• What do you need to review in the next class?• If you teach this lesson again, what would you

change?

Reflection

Planning a Tutorial Session1. Consider what you want your learners to learn.2. Brainstorm your topic, considering your objective.

– Consider related vocabulary– Consider related grammar– Consider how this relates to learners’ daily lives– Find related visuals

3. Think of activities that would be help your learners learn and that they would engage in.

4. Find resources.5. Plan your lesson.

Ideas for Teaching Beginners• Visuals• Total Physical Response (TPR)• Language Experience Stories (LES)• BINGO for vocabulary practice• Picture/word card matching• Word card sentence ordering• Fill in the blanks• Guided role plays• Repetition, repetition, repetition

Ideas for Teaching Intermediate Learners• Interviews• Reading comprehension• Games• Class brainstorming• Comparison writing• Journals• Listening dialogues• Role plays

Ideas for Teaching Advanced Learners

• Class brainstorming and discussions• Paragraph writing• Research• Projects, projects, projects• Presentations• Role play• Descriptive writing• Interviews with native speakers

Some Online Activity Websites

Let’s do it!In groups, plan a tutorial session for an intermediate group of learners who are– learning about food and giving instructions or– learning about clothing and descriptive adjectivesor– learning about transportation and giving

directions