Teaching Toolkit Dianne Robinson May 2013

Session aims To provide an opportunity for vocational teachers to develop the maths, English and problem solving skills of their learners.

Session objectives To gain an understanding of a range of practical teaching and learning strategies to help learners with: Communication skills Reading and writing Spelling Proof reading The language of maths Error analysis Fractions Decimals

Catering scenario In the opinion of the catering tutor, the learners do not seem to concentrate sufficiently even when s/he is demonstrating the procedure for preparing a series of dishes, even though she gives a commentary on what s/he is doing. The learners do not retain the information they need for the session later in the week when they have to make the dishes for themselves WHY?

Communication Produce 2 lists – one of what someone who is good at speaking does and One of what someone who is good at listening does

Questions only In your group appoint a “teacher” The teacher chooses a topic of which the group may be unfamiliar The teacher tells his group the topic which s/he is going to talk about the group can only learn about the topic by asking questions. The teacher will not give input other than to answer questions

Developing effective readers Reading is not a passive process but an active one. It involves bringing past knowledge and experience to a text and predicting and checking meaning. Experienced readers choose different strategies according to the purpose for reading. In pairs, using the handout, decide which strategy should be used.

Petrol station List the different types of text around you at a petrol station Group the text types which are similar Consider the choice of wording, design and positioning of the text. How does the writer hope the customer will respond? Petrol station

Reading for meaning The house Group activity List the words which relate to the purpose of your role You have 5 minutes for this task Do not share the words or handout with the other group

DARTS Directed activities related to text – is an approach which can be helpful in enabling learners to become effective readers. The teacher builds activities which ensure that the learner does not just "read” the text but actively engages or analyses it. Suggest what activities you could ask your learners to do when complex information

Definition of grammar Grammar is the set of rules that describe how a language works It describes the connections and relationship between different types of words, the way they are used and grouped together

Spelling test!

Multisensory approach to spelling CPD Clip from Stoke on Trent College Contact Nicky Birch for more information

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Count the phonemes Width Cat Caught Winter I’ve Plague Pleasant Fragile Sausage

Spelling Everything that is said or written in English is encoded in 44 sounds/units of sounds known as phonemes About 140 letter combinations are used to spell these phonemes Phonics consists of the skills of segmenting and blending We need to teach learners to: i.Hear and identify sounds in spoken words (phonological awareness) ii.Recognise the common spellings for each phoneme (phoneme- grapheme correspondence) iii.Blend phonemes into words for reading iv.Segment words into phonemes for spelling

Adult literacy Core Curriculum e/1515