Achieving clarity is one aspect of effective classroom teaching, and to do that, students’ thinking have to be guided in a deliberate and structured manner. Using strategies that are grounded in the pedagogical approach of ‘Making Thinking Visible’, participants could get an insight into what their students understand in their lessons, and more importantly, how they understand it. It will encourage their students to ask the right questions in response to the multimodal texts. Students will also be tasked to reflect on their interpretations collaboratively based on a set of thinking routines. Participants should be able to take away some new ideas on effective lesson design and the use of Assessment-for-Learning strategies which promote deep learning.

Date: 3 March 2023 (Fri)

Mode of Delivery: Online via videoconferencing 

Registration: Search for the course code EL-000191 in OPAL2.0, or by clicking on the link here.

Discussions are central to knowledge construction and idea-generation, but they are frequently unproductive or dominated by the more vocal students. In addition, with the recent emphasis on e-pedagogy, the increased use of collaborative online tools – with their emphasis on written communication – may reduce the opportunities for genuine discussions. By using Exploratory Talk and then evaluating their discussions, students are empowered to engage in collaborative learning and identify the areas for improvement. In this workshop, participants will learn techniques for facilitating exploratory talk and discuss ways on how they can adapt the lesson ideas for different learner profiles.

Date: 7 March 2023 (Tue)

Mode of Delivery: Online via videoconferencing 

Registration: Search for the course code EL-000183 in OPAL2.0, or by clicking on the link here.

Following the advice of the Ministry of Education to consider having more Alternative Assessments (AA), Manjusri Secondary School's English department embarked on a journey of developing the AA that spans three levels while embodying the spirit of the 2020 EL Syllabus, in order to help students become Empathetic Communicators and Creative Inquirers through the skills of Speaking and Representing.

Participants will be exposed to the SSABs that helped guide the creation of the AA, and how they are related to ELS 2020, with a particular focus on the spiral progression from creating a vlog (in Secondary One) to a podcast (in Secondary Two), then culminating in a speech presentation (in Secondary Three).

Date: 31 March 2023 (Fri)

Mode of Delivery: Online via videoconferencing 

Registration: Search for the course code EL-000187 in OPAL2.0, or by clicking on the link here.

The 'O-Level' oral examination formats for the Express and Normal Academic streams will include a Planned Response component from the examination year 2023. The series of lessons shared at this workshop seek to familiarise students with the revised format, understand the assessment criteria and provide them with the resources and scaffolds which will help them prepare their planned response. By using video technology and interactive platforms, students are exposed to the new format and can model after a sample response, while developing and structuring the content that is appropriate for a given theme.  

Date: *Postponed* 28 April 2023 (Fri)

Mode of Delivery: Online via videoconferencing 

Registration: Search for the course code EL-000185 in OPAL2.0, or by clicking on the link here.

Digital Storytelling is a student-centric and versatile pedagogy which promotes the development of both soft skills such as autonomy, empathic engagement, and social awareness, and hard skills such as content knowledge, writing skills, and visual literacy. It does so in a manner uniquely suited to Blended Learning and the integration of classroom facilitation and HBL components and may be adapted for a wide variety of subjects and contexts. This seminar gives an evidence-based introduction to the nature and benefits of this pedagogy and explains how it was used for the teaching and learning of Language and Literature at the Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) in collaboration with a local expert, Dr. Philip Towndrow of the National Institute of Education. It gives participants the opportunity to view and discuss a wide range of inspiring student products and to work together with colleagues to think of new applications for this pedagogy in their own domains. 

Date: 20 April 2023 (Thu)

Mode of Delivery: Online via videoconferencing 

Registration: Search for the course code GP-000004 in OPAL2.0, or by clicking on the link here.

Our young students, who are avid consumers of social media and online news, are easily exposed to misinformation and disinformation; so it is imperative that they learn to be critical thinkers.  However, the transferability of critical thinking in the classroom to the reality world beyond the classroom is not always a given.  Through the development of perspective-taking, students should be able to learn to question what they read, which can lead to a greater propensity to be critical in their consumption of information in and out of the classroom. Participants will gain an understanding of the considerations in the lesson design that aim to promote perspective-taking, and take away ideas on how they could adapt these lesson resources for use in their classrooms.

Date: 28 March 2023 (Tue)

Mode of Delivery: Online via videoconferencing 

Registration: Search for the course code HI-000098 in OPAL2.0, or by clicking on the link here.