Online kurz o psaní esejí pro středoškolské učitele

Během března a dubna pořádáme pro středoškolské učitele kurz o psaní esejí. Lekce proběhnou vždy v pondělí od 15. března do 19. dubna od 16. hodiny odpoledne. Kurz povede naše americká kolegyně Mariel Tavakoli, studijní poradkyně EducationUSA, která kromě práce ve Fulbrightově komisi také vede kurz anglického psaní na Karlově Univerzitě v Praze.

Course Synopsis

This 6-week Zoom online workshop offered by the Czech Fulbright Commission aims to build the confidence of current English teachers when it comes to assigning, evaluating, and assessing writing, specifically essays, in the EFL classroom. The workshop will review the functions of writing for language learning and for writing as a skill, and highlight the important role that teachers play in the development of their students’ English writing abilities. Each module, outlined below, will be composed of theoretical knowledge and practical applications that can be directly used in the classroom. The course will conclude with one-on-one consultations to discuss how the different modules can be best incorporated into participants‘ unique teaching methods and classroom settings.

Workshop Instructor

Mariel Tavakoli is the current EducationUSA Student Adviser at the Czech Fulbright Commission where she works with dozens of Czech students each year on their essays for US university applications. Her first experience with teaching writing occurred as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Znojmo in 2013. Since then, and after numerous other teaching experiences with EFL learners, she graduated with a Master of Science in Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition degree from the University of Oxford, Department of Education where her research focused on Czech student and teacher challenges when writing and giving feedback on application essays for US and UK university applications. Mariel has most recently applied her findings and knowledge from this research in presentations at the Bridge Publishing Group Let’s Motivate Conference and in the development of a seminar, Writing in ELT, for master’s level students within the Charles University, Faculty of Arts, Department of English Language and ELT Methodology. Find more about Mariel’s passion for writing o our blog. 

Modules and Objectives

Week 1: Why Write in the English Classroom? 

• Introduce individual backgrounds, practices, and challenges in both L1 and L2 writing instruction from both the teacher and student perspectives.
• Discuss the role of writing in the English classroom in language learning and pedagogical theories. 

Week 2: Structure and Audience

• Clarify the important structural elements of English writing that call for attention in both pedagogy and feedback.
• Highlight the importance of audience and reader-focused orientation in English writing. 

Week 3: The Writing Process

• Explain the underlying theory of writing process pedagogy and review its components.
• Engage in activities that can be used to guide students through the writing process.

Week 4: Giving Effective Feedback 

• Summarize key debates in research and real-life student preferences related to receiving feedback on writing. 
• Review best practices for effective feedback on both structural and linguistic components of student writing.

Week 5: Writing Assignments and Assessment

• Develop clear and effective methods of assigning writing that set transparent and targeted expectations. 
• Compose clear plans for assessment that balance support and challenge for student learning. 

Week 6: Wrap-up Consultations

• Review key takeaways from this Essay Workshop.
• Provide feedback to the Fulbright Commission.