Learning Materials
Scran Learning Materials
Case Study
1. Author details
| Name: | Valerie Jones |
| Job title: | ESOL Course leader |
| Institution: | South Kent College |
About the author:
I have been working in the Basic Skills department of the college for four years as a lecturer in both Basic Skills and ESOL. My main area of teaching has been in the latter and we have developed several new courses over the past four years in line with the demand for ESOL in this part of Kent. My students are of all nationalities, which makes teaching interesting, and challenging and the cultural diversity of the groups is very enriching. My main academic interest is to provide students with ESOL courses in line with the new ESOL Core Curriculum and to give them an opportunity to reach a level of English which will enable them to, either gain employment, or to progress onto main-stream courses at the college. As well as language teaching part of the course is devoted to Cultural Studies and IT.
My previous experience in creating teaching materials has been mainly EFL materials such as handouts for language learning and vocabulary exercises, quizzes, games and posters. My IT skills have been confined to using Word and Excel. I have had no experience of using programmes such as Powerpoint etc.
2. The materials
Materials have been created to support adult ESOL students at Entry level 2/3 and Level 1 of the National ESOL Core Curriculum and Post Compulsory age students in Language Development and Cultural Studies, also at these levels. Classroom–based teaching supported by IT environment.
Why did you want to create these materials?
To develop new materials to support the new national framework for ESOL teaching, in line with the new curriculum and to link our teaching more to IT. Also to be able to access cultural material, which would be unavailable to students.
How will your materials benefit learners?
They will provide interactive material, which will enhance learning, enable them to become more familiar with IT and provide more in depth knowledge of British culture through exposure to history, art and customs of the U.K.
How will they improve on previous methods of teaching this topic?
The use of interactive materials will be a positive development in our teaching, providing a more stimulating environment for students. It will also provide a more diverse set of materials and incorporate more IT into the lessons. It will also help students who wish to study outside the classroom who have no access to books, museums, art galleries etc by broadening their cultural environment.
3. Creating the materials
What tools did you use?
- Desktop computer/Windows 2000
- Interactive whiteboard – assignments on ‘Weddings’ and ‘Weather’ were developed firstly as handouts and then I involved a colleague with the expertise in IT, to help put these into a Powerpoint presentation.
- Colour printer.
What additional support did you need in creating the materials?
IT support from a colleague for creating Powerpoint presentation.
What are the main skills required in creating materials like this?
Basic IT skills, plus knowledge of downloading Win Zip and other software..
Describe any difficulties you experienced and how you went about addressing them.
Initial problems centred around creating pictures in a handout. Advice from Scran was very helpful and also the ‘How to’ instructions on the Scran website were clear and easy to use. Also the search for suitable materials was a problem initially, but this was overcome by becoming more familiar with the different methods of using the site and refining my search to more specific targets.
What would you do differently next time?
I don’t think I would have chosen so many topics, as they were very wide ranging. However, it did give me a good insight into Scran resources and lots of ideas for the future.
What hints and tips would you offer to a colleague planning to create a similar resource?
Be specific in what you are looking for; note anything of interest for further use such as resource packs etc so that you can come back to them in the future. Record reference numbers of materials you are using. (I wasted a lot of time looking for things, which I had previously seen.)
Recommendations – please note any reading, software, websites, online courses etc that were useful to you.
Other websites of use have been BBC Education online for related materials.
Additional comments
I have found using Scran to make resources a very stimulating project and I know that the materials will provide an excellent resource for the class. It has made me aware of the necessity to upgrade my IT skills, which will be of great benefit for any future projects. I have found it frustrating at times not being more computer literate. To make full use of the resources these skills are definitely essential. I was able to produce handouts using all the instructions on the web but had difficulty when it came to downloading audio and video material.
