The Motivated Classroom

Sadly, more and more language students around the world are dropping their world language courses as soon as they get the chance. Retaining students in our language programmes is proving more and more challenging. So what can we do about it? How can we increase uptake in our language classes. Many aspects are out of the control of the language teacher. However, what is in our control is our classroom and what strategies, approaches and practices we choose to employ. 

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Another question and answer episode, and another set of brilliant questions from the listeners. Should we assess writing or just do formative tasks with no corrections? When should grammatical accuracy take a role in assessment? How much English should we use when students don’t understand the target language? How do we ensure we don't overwhelm beginners? A huge thank you to all the listeners for the wonderful questions! 

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Following up on the social justice focus in episodes 73 and 74, in this episode the wonderful Ben Tinsley joins The Motivated Classroom podcast to discuss how he centres his entire languages curriculum and classroom around Black, Brown and other marginalised identities and voices. A brilliant episode where Ben explains how he uses a technique called 'Map-Talk' to amplify and uphold diverse regions and peoples from around the world in his classroom. An absolute must-listen for all world languages teachers!

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This episode follows up on the previous episode with Françoise Thenoux about bringing a diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice lens to our languages curriculum and classroom. We begin to unpack the big questions like "What is education for?" and "What is your languages class for?" in this episode and I provide a few practical ideas for how you can bring a more anti-bias and anti-stereotype lens to your languages classroom.

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In this episode, the brilliant Françoise Thenoux speaks to us about the inextricable links between language, identity and inclusion. Françoise shares how we can make everyone in our language classroom feel included by ensuring everyone's identity and history is represented. She shares tips and advice about how language teachers can get started on the route to a more diverse and inclusive classroom. A must listen!

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The target language: How much should we use as teachers? When should we use it? How should we use it? The debate around target language use, translation and use of the common language is one that many language acquisition teachers continue to grapple with. In this episode we unpack how and when to use the target language in class!

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In this question and answer episode, we discuss the most motivational and effective ways to start class, how often students should take notes in the language classroom and finally what we can do to build upon co-created class stories. A huge thank you to all the listeners for the wonderful questions!

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Parent-teacher meetings: A part of every teacher's year but often one that causes anxiety, stress and worry. In this episode I present six, easy, date-focused, steps to apply to your parent-teacher meetings to ensure they are effective and focus on student learning. While this episode highlights strategies that will be of particular use for language acquisition teachers, the steps can easily be applied across all subject areas. 

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The last in the three part mini series on professional development and the importance of being an evidence-informed teacher. In this episode I am joined by the inspirational, Jade Pearce. Jade shares the journey her school has been on towards becoming an evidence-informed school and gives us all tips to get started on this path in our own contexts. Jade is a fountain of educational and pedagogical knowledge. You don't want to miss this one!

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This episodes builds upon and follows on from Ep. 67 with Darren Leslie of Becoming Educated podcast focusing on our roles as 'teaching and learning research leads'. In this episode I discuss the internal, research based, professional development we have started here at The International School of Lausanne in our drive to becoming an evidence-informed school using evidence-informed pedagogy. I explain the rational and research behind how our internal PD structure works at our school and how we actively encourage everyone to be part of our reading research groups.

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