15b: PETs becoming monsters

Having seen a bit of my students' work in the reading and writing PET exam today, I'm not hopeful. I have no doubt that the exam is valid, and that students should be capable of passing. Lack of level and autonomy is certainly a factor, but how much better would ss do if the exam had been presented at the start of the semester, and worked on throughout? Don't want to end up teaching to the test either...

15a: the description of analysis

While some students got to grips well with today's presentations, too many lost the point. Need to drill in earlier the need to analyse and give a fact-based opinion. The evaluation format also needs some work...

14c: present perfect

Very happy with today's work on presentations - I think I did a good job of explaining how they work, and showing the idea of opinions based on facts... might be good to bring this in as a theme earlier in the semester, to make ss think about how we use technology?

14b: pre-PET

Always good to get in some extra exam practice, but need to look into more dynamic ways of checking answers / getting ss to take an interest in the proceedings. Could go either of two ways: made it more casual and game-like, or make it more like a mock exam...

14a: so much good

Again, nice to be on familiar ground today with qualifiers. Still need to make this exercise more accessible for all teachers, and make it more my own, but definitely something to keep in.

13c: it's all relative

Was good to be back on familiar ground today with relative clauses. I think that ss saw the relevance of it, particularly in the context of previous input about avoiding comma splices. Now to see what I can do about making it more my own for future syllabus inclusion.

13b: the video / presentation handoff

Students' videos were really not up to much generally. Whether having English flaws or technical ones, almost all were hardly worth the effort. Have therefore given them a mulligan, and will have to see what they do with the final version. Still not sure whether the video project should be ditched, or whether doing two versions should be part of the project from the beginning. Have to have a good look at evaluation possibilities...