This post continues on our topic of Demand High ELT. Don’t forget to join us on March 7th for our chat session with Jim Scrivener on this topic.
A teacher sits in a noisy staff room. An untouched tuna sandwich and a half-finished cup of coffee sit in front the teacher. A photocopier whirs away monotonously in the background. The teacher massages her own temples. Co-workers keep their distance. Migraine setting in? Deep in thought? A monologue rages within.
My students can do more. I know it!
What am I doing wrong?
The students had fun.
The lesson materials were very good.
I had a well-planned lesson.
The students were engaged.
I gave corrections and feedback at the end of tasks.
The lesson aims were achieved.
But I still feel they can do more.
What do I need to do differently?
Hmmm…I’m going to need another cup of coffee for this.
We introduced you to the notion of Demand High ELT last week. Let’s delve a little deeper this time into the details of this topic.
Demand High ELT poses a few basic questions that most teachers can ask themselves (we quote these from the Demand High ELT Blog) :
- Are our learners capable of more, much more?
- Have the tasks and techniques we use in class become rituals and ends in themselves?
- How can we stop “covering material” and start focusing on the potential for deep learning?
- What small tweaks and adjustments can we make to shift the whole focus of our teaching towards getting that engine of learning going?
These are placed alongside two caveats:
- Demand High is not a method and it is not anti any method.
- (N.B. We have paraphrased here.) Doable demand – helping the learner at the point they are being challenged in manner that lets them move forward
Please take the time to click through to introduction page at the Demand High ELT Blog as it goes through some of these points, and others, in more detail.
At this stage, it would be helpful to understand a bit more again about where Adrian Underhill and Jim Scrivener are coming from. Below you can see the slides from their 2012 IATEFL Conference presentation on Demand High ELT. Even without being there to hear them present, their slides allow us to understand how Demand High ELT might look in practice.
Where does this leave our teacher from before? What changes would a CLT teacher make if they were to take on some the notions of Demand High ELT?
Please join us on March 7th to discuss this topic further and feel free to leave a comment with the #AusELT community below.
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