Cambridge Early Years Conference. Day 2

 

Oxford webinars. March 2024

 Registered to participate in ELTOC Chapter 12.

Cambridge webinar "Delivering feedback that moves learning forward for secondary learners"

 

Creating lesson aims that support progress for young learners. Cambridge webinar.

 My insights

• The logic of presented textbook pages: 1. set the context  2. activate the vocabulary  3. contextualize the target grammar (through listening/reading)  4. clarify and practice the target grammar.
• Activate students’ schemata (activate students’ schema) — is a pedagogical term. This means helping students remember what they already know about a topic before learning something new. A schema is a mental framework — like a “folder” in the brain where experiences, vocabulary, and knowledge are stored. So when teachers activate students’ schemata, they prepare learners’ minds by connecting old knowledge with new information.
• The difference between learning goals and success criteria. Learning goals explain what students will learn, while success criteria explain how students will show they have learned it.

Learning Goals vs Success Criteria

🎯 Learning Goals

What students are going to learn.

They describe the purpose of the lesson — the knowledge or skill.

👉 Teacher-focused (planned by the teacher).
👉 Answer the question: “What am I learning today?”

Examples:

• We are learning to use the past simple tense.

• We are learning to write a short email.

• We are learning to identify main ideas in a text.

✅ Success Criteria

How students know they have achieved the goal.

They describe what successful learning looks like in concrete terms.

👉 Student-friendly.
👉 Observable and measurable.
👉 Answer the question: “How do I know I’ve done it well?”

Examples (for the past simple goal):

• I can write 5 sentences in the past simple.

• I can use regular and irregular verbs correctly.

• I can talk about yesterday using past verbs.

✨ Simple analogy

🗺 Learning goal = destination
📏 Success criteria = signs that you arrived

Very short version:

👉 Learning goal = WHAT we learn.
👉 Success criteria = HOW we show we learned it.

Regional Online Cambridge Day

 

Ternopil ENCOURSE Day#4 November 21

Ternopil INSETT. British Council Ukraine.

The final Module 3 focused on designing a TBL lesson plan aimed at developing mediation competencies in the English classroom. We started with a Trading Game, played twice: first to exchange word definitions related to mediation, and then to step into the role of advertisers, promoting different online platforms useful for teaching.

Next, the teachers watched a model TBL lesson delivered by the course author, Chris Cotterill, and then collaborated in groups to create their own lesson plans.

It was truly inspiring to see such a motivated team so fully engaged in productive work — and even more rewarding to watch them moving confidently toward the goals of the course.

Ternopil ENCOURSE Day#3 November 14

 Day 3. Module 2 was dedicated to mediation strategies and simulations.

We also took time to reflect on our TBL lessons — and it really helped us see how powerful and meaningful this approach can be for learners.

Feeling inspired to keep growing!