I’ve just started studying another of the free online courses on teaching English at Futurelearn run by the British Council. This one is called Teaching English: How to Plan a Great Lesson, and I’m finding it really useful.
As always, in courses like this, much of the value is provided by other students on the course and what they share. Because these students teach in different parts of the world and different contexts, you will get exposed to a lot of ideas that otherwise you wouldn’t, if you were to just ask your work colleagues for advice. Also, because some of the participants have significant teaching experience, they’ve grappled with many of the problems you might face and have developed effective solutions for working with them.
One of the things I like about the course is its structure. Some of the Futurelearn courses have a lot of fluff or filler, and a few courses are really just thinly disguised up-sells to another course or product. However, the British Council courses I’ve taken are generally really well designed. This one covers a lot of different topics with regard to teaching English. Also, there are a lot of resources supplied like lesson plan templates, and links to external resources and further reading. Each week, the trainers run a Facebook Live broadcast where you can ask questions you didn’t have a chance to in the course.
While the How to Plan a Great Lesson course is more focused at young learners and, in some cases, adult learners, I’ve found a lot of valuable information that I can apply to my classes of very young learners and Starter students. If you’re interested in some quality education, I’d suggest you take a look at this course. Its free, and it is run every few months.
