Tag: workshop

30th Lingva Inhouse Worskhop: Lingva Teaching Sparkles 5

30th Lingva Inhouse Workshop-Teaching Sparkles 5

On 18 March 2023, the thirtieth Lingva inhouse workshop was held, under the title Lingva Teaching Sparkles 5.  Teachers from Lingva Valjevo: Danijela Beljić, Ognjen Petković, Lora Petronić Petrović, Katarina Ristić and Mirjana Ljiljak-Vukajlović, together with the participants from Lingva Belgrade: Ana Petrović, Željko Ljiljak-Vukajlović and Sofija Ljiljak Vukajlović held a series of workshops where they presented a selection of most successful activities in teaching English for all age groups and levels of knowledge. This first live workshop after years of online gatherings due to the coronavirus epidemic passed in a relaxed and cordial atmosphere.

Lyrics Training and Guess Who I Am by Katarina Ristic
A Love Story with a Twist by Sofija Ljiljak Vukajlovic
Global Issues in Pictures by Zeljko Ljiljak-Vukajlovic
Project work with Young Learners by Ana Petrovic

29th Lingva In-house Workshop: Writing Assessment Standardisation

As a sequel to previous workshops dealing with the same teaching area, which were held on 16 March 2016 and 18 February 2011 and responding to the specific needs of Lingva English language teachers, the 29th in-house workshop was dedicated to writing assessment standardisation. The workshop was attended by both more experienced and new teachers. The main purpose of the workshop was to improve quality and consistency of writing assessment in order to ensure unified and fair school assessment procedures for young adult and adult groups.

In the first session, teachers refreshed their knowledge of overall CEFR written assessment criteria – this time including the sublevel or “+“ level descriptions, and then revised the criteria of Cambridge Writing Assessment (sub)scales referenced to CEFR level descriptors: Content, Communicative Achievement, Organisation and Language. In the second session, teachers were given Cambridge ESOL test samples from A2 to C2 levels to rate them individually and in pairs, which was followed by the whole group discussion. In the final stage, teachers applied the same procedure in assessing Lingva test samples of written students‘ work.

The next workshop, will be held in June, this time as a sequel to the series of speaking assessment standardisation workshops.

Lingva Inhouse Workshop No. 27: Lingva’s Teaching Sparklets 3

On 24 March 2018, Lingva teachers attended the 27th Inhouse Worskhop “Lingva’s Teaching Sparklets 3“. The presenters were Katarina Mirković, German language teacher and Ivana Lazić, English language teacher, who held the following workshops:

· Deutch mal anders (German in Another Way) by Katarina Mirković
· We Love LEGO® by Ivana Lazić
· Compare, Compare by Ivana Lazić

Both teachers meticulously prepared their workshops and demonstrated a large number of activities for young learners at A1 and A2 levels, including integration of multimedia and educational LEGO® activities. They also stressed the importance of diversity and TPR in work with children as motivationa boosters leading to better language learning results.

Their presentations were received with exceptional interest and enthusiasm. Here are some of participants’ comments for Katarina’s work:

“It was super, you are very energetic. The activities are interesting and I will be pleased to use them in our lessons. Thank you J“
“Exceptionally good ideas, especially those demanding movement and breaking the lesson monotony. Bravo, Katarina!“

and some feedback for Ivana:

“A lot of useful multimedia material, great online resources, thanks!”
“All activities are excellently integrated, both lesson perfectly planned, a good blend of multimedia and the textbook.”

Deutch mal anders plan by Katarina Mirkovic
Lingva Workshop 27 Plan by Ivana Lazic

Lingva In-house Workshop No. 26: Our Perky Lessons 2

Marija Matić presenting at 26th Lingva In-house Workshop, 23/06/17

On 23 June, Lingva English teachers gathered for the 26th Lingva In-house seminar. The presenter this time was Marija Matić Grujić, who demonstrated some of her best teaching pieces done so far in her work with students of different age groups at Lingva Language School in Valjevo. All of the activities included a lot of multimedia resources, such as YouTube chants, Lego Education StoryStarter Set with software support, and Scattergories Card Sets. Marija’s skillful integration of varied and attractive activities, as well as the films she made to illustrate her students’ performance made an exceptionally favourable impression on her colleagues from Lingva, who will definitely include some of her ideas into their own teaching.

Lingva In-house Workshop No. 25: Our Perky Lessons 1

Writing in CLass Lesson Plan by Marija Milovanović

On Saturday 18 of March 2017, English teachers gathered at Lingva for the 25th round of in-house workshops. The presenters this time were Danijela Bojanić and Marija Milovanović. While Danijela’s workshop, titled Humour Is No Laughing Matter, explored ways of practising different language skills through different forms of humour and using diverse multimedia resources at A2-B1 levels , Marija’s session called “Writing in Class” was dedicated to finding attractive ways of encouraging students of all ages practise this skill, which we more often than not tend to leave aside and assign for homework in order to save precious class time for speaking although we are aware that most of our students do no homework at all. It has been a long time since we last had our in-house workshop and we were all eager to learn and share some new teaching and learning ideas and ready-made activities. Our impressions of the activities presented in both workshops were extremely positive:

Feedback for Writing in Class by Marija Milovanović
“Great, interesting, useful ideas for classes!”
“Great!”
“You’re ready to present at higher levels – at YALS or ELTA seminars and conferences.”
“On the second thought, I’ll use all of your activities. Well done!!!”
“Keep up with the good work!”

Feedback for Humour Is No Laughing Matter by Danijela Bojanić
“I loved it. We haven’t had any workshops so far related to this, what is great is that you could use everything in the classroom (I know I will). Thanks for the ideas!”
“It was very exciting, I liked it pretty much, a lot of interesting ideas and activities. Great job!”
“Great ideas!”
“The song is great! Students could write their own version and practice vocabulary (fruit/vegetables).Tnx”
“I enjoyed it and you encouraged me to get out of my comfort zone! Thanks!”
“A lot of fun! I would actually use the teacher prank list with the worst students and ask them to add their own.”

24th Lingva In-house Workshop: Speaking Assessment Standardisation

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Immediately before summer holiday, as planned in the Lingva’s Annual Teacher Training and Development plan, the topic of our 24th in-house workshop, held by Director-of-Studies Mirjana Ljiljak-Vukajlović on 24th June, was Speaking Assessment Standardisation, as a sequel to earlier workshops on the same topic held on 15 October and 14 december 2010.

As in the previous workshops, the first part of our session was dedicated to familiarizing with CEFR speaking overviews and descriptors. In contrast to the event in 2010, when the second part included watching and discussing filmed samples of CEFR-calibrated oral production as part of a CoE-EAQUALS project, this time video clips of Cambridge English Examples of Speaking Tests were used first to identify the CEFR levels on the basis of the given speaking criteria and then to analyse which particular features of students performance indicate each specified level. The third stage involved studying the examiners’ commentaries on students performances and comparing them with our own.

The workshop proved to be very useful, especially in providing a much clearer picture of the performance required of students at each particular level and clarifying what each of five speaking assessment criteria – Range, Accuracy, Fluency, Interaction, Coherence – actually implies. Once again it was concluded that we have to be very careful not to be overly demanding when assessing lower level students and that students should not be penalized too much for mistakes as long as they do not impede understanding.

23rd Lingva In-house Workshop: Writing Assessment Standardisation

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In accordance with the needs analysis of Lingva English language teachers, the 23rd in-house workshop was dedicated to writing assessment. A similar workshop was held On 18t February 2011 with some of the teachers attending both of these events.

Being one of the two most elusive and difficult areas for assessment, besides the speaking skills, since no black-and-white criteria can be set as in the case of listening, grammar and vocabulary, language teachers always appreciate efforts to practice assessment and marking. It is also beneficial for our language school to improve quality and consistency of writing assessment in order to ensure unifed and fair school assessment procedures for young adult and adult groups.

In the first session, teachers brushed up their knowledge of overall CEFR written assessment criteria and then familiarized themselves with the relatively new Cambridge Writing Assessment (sub)scales, first of all four subscales referenced to CEFR level descriptors: Content, Communicative Achievement, Organisation and Language. Special attention was given to clarifying the meaning of specific criteria in each of the subscales. In the second session, teachers were given samples of written students work at B1 and A2 levels to rate them individually and in pairs, which was followed by the whole group discussion. On this occasion, too, agreement was the highest in rating the language, while communicative achievement marks required more harmonizing.The session was ended by agreeing on the exact sets of criteria that will be used uniformly by all teachers for progress test and final exam assessment at each of language proficiency levels.

The workshop was prepared and facilitated by Mirjana Ljiljak-Vukajlović. The next workshop, which will focus on speaking assessment standardisation, will be held in June.

Experience Sharing between YALS Member Schools

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Three teachers from Tom & Emma School, Belgrade – Milana Papić, Jelena Mitrović, and Sofija Ljiljak-Vukajlovića visited Lingva last Thursday, 10 March, to see how LEGO® bricks and StoryStarter educational programme are used for foreign language learning in our school. They enjoyed working with our young learners on the activities designed by teacher Katarina Andrić at A2.c and B1.b levels, and they also had opportunity to familiarize themselves with the use of StoryVisualizer software, where they were joined by teacher Mirjana Ljiljak-Vukajlović.

The exchange was two-way – Lingva teachers learned which activities the guests had applied at Tom & Emma, and that they also had positive experience in the use of LEGO® elements with older students. The joint conclusion was that these activities exceptionally boost students’ creativity, which has a direct impact on the effectivenes of language acquisition.

It was confirmed once again that short exchange visits bring a lot of benefits to both sides and that we should continue with this good practice.

Lingva Teacher Completed Trainer Development Course

Lingva teacher Katarina Andrić presenting at Trainer Development Course at British Council Belgrade, June 2015
Lingva teacher Katarina Andrić presenting at Trainer Development Course at British Council Belgrade, June 2015

From February to June, Lingva teacher Katarina Andrić attended The Trainer Development Course organised by the British Council and financed jointly by the participant herself and Lingva School. The course is designed for teachers who want to make transition from teacher to trainer and it comprised of seven workshops during which the participants learnt how to create and deliver effective and succesful workshops.

At the end of the course, each participant prepared a presentation followed by feedback and discussion. Katarina held a workshop titled Using Songs in ELT ( Using Songs with Teenagers). The goals of Katarina’s workshop were to identify important criteria in choosing songs and experiment with different activities connected with using songs. At the end participants gave their opinion of the workshop. They gave very positive comments stating that “it was very practical”, “versatile and useful” and that they were “looking forward to using those ideas in their classroom”. Some participants said they felt “ inspired “ and they all wished Katarina “ to keep up with the good work”.

This has been a natural step for Katarina to take in her continuing professional development. It is the policy of Lingva school within its high quality assurance plan to constantly support its teachers in their professional career development through a systematic implementation of YALS Teacher Training and Development Scheme, which includes regular mentoring, peer observation, Lingva in-house workshops, and international seminars and conferences organised by YALS, ELTA and the British Council.

22nd LINGVA Workshop on LEGO Language Teaching

22nd Lingva Workshop on LEGO Language Teaching
22nd Lingva Workshop on LEGO Language Teaching

After finishing teaching for this school year, Lingva teachers had an opportunity to run an inhouse workshop on integrating LEGO constructions into language teaching. It was our 22nd inhouse workshop titled Help Me Build My Story! Creating Picture Books, Comics and News Stories with LEGO Elements. Continuing its policy of continuing investment into the cutting edge teaching equipment and aids, Lingva has recently purchased an innovative educational Lego pack with expansion sets, together with respective software, aimed at boosting motivation of our young students for language learning and improving speaking and writing skills. The worskhop was set up and run by Marija Milovanović, Marija Matić and Mirjana Ljiljak-Vukajlović, and other teachers contributed to the activities with plenty of creative details for story “building”.