Important
S1. What can I study on this website?
Preparation
S2. How do I start using this website to prepare for class?
S3. What lessons should I do before class?
S4. How can I organize my preparation tasks?
S5. Why is it important for me to prepare for class?
Feedback
S6. What is feedback?
S7. Why is feedback important?
S8. Why is it important to request feedback?
Train
S9. What should I do when I get feedback from my teacher?
S10. What do I study with my teacher in class?
S11. How long is each live class?
S12. What should I bring with me to class?
Introduction and Orientation
T1. What is PFT?
T2. How do I use this website to teach ESL students?
T3. What free courses are there on this website?
T4. What should I tell students before making a teaching schedule with them?
T5. What do students do during their online preparation?
T6. Where do I find my teacher notes?
T7. What do the contents of the teacher notes entail?
T8. How do I access teacher notes for the entire course?
T9. How should I teach the live class?
T10. Can I use this website to run one-to-one live classes in open spaces like coffee shops?
T11. Can I use this website to run group classes in private physical spaces like classrooms?
T12. Can I use this website to run live classes in virtual spaces via an online platform?
T13. How do I know if my student has prepared for class?
T14. How do I add a student to my class list?
T15. How do students get on my class list?
T16. How do I find students to teach?
T17. What is the Take a Class page?
T18. What do I need to do to post to the Take a Class page?
T19. What does effective preparation involve?
T20. What is feedback?
T21. What are the categories of feedback on this website?
T22. How do I provide assessment feedback to my student?
T23. What materials do students use in the live class?
T24. Where do I find training session materials?
T25. What do I need to do to prepare for class?
T26. How long will it take me to prepare for class?
T27. What are the different teacher marks on this website?
T28. How do I reach the different teacher marks on this website?
-introduce yourself to your teacher and build a friendly relationship with him or her
-ask your teacher questions about any reps that you had trouble with (you find reps at the end of each online preparation lesson)
-practice with checkpoints that your teacher selects from your online preparation (you find checkpoints at the end of each online preparation lesson)
Before you go on to the next stage, you should take one minute to think and further organize your thoughts towards the training session.
-use assessment tasks that you have selected during your online preparation (you find assessment tasks at the end of each lesson)
-develop language skills that you have thought about before coming to class
-receive feedback from your teacher with a positive attitude
-receive a filled out copy of the PFT Assessment Sheet from your teacher
-discuss with your teacher any questions that you have about the training session
-ask you teacher how to better prepare for your next live class
-make sure your student is familiar with the format of this live class and what they will do at each stage
-answer questions about any reps that your student had trouble with
-focus on meaning, form and pronunciation of checkpoints that you feel would benefit your student most in the training session
Before you go on to the next stage, give your student one minute to think and organize their thoughts to further prepare for the training session.
During the Training Session, you help your student develop their skills and provide focused feedback to the tasks that you give them. At this stage you
-run through assessment tasks that your student has selected during their preparation (you plan this before the class)
-patiently observe and listen to your student and provide feedback based on the training session feedback comments (you can see these in your teacher notes)
-facilitate in a way that helps your student focus on improvement and development as opposed to receiving new input
It is important to make a clear transition from the previous stage to this Assessment Feedback section of the live class. How you do this is up to you. At this stage you
-provide your student with a filled out copy of the PFT Assessment Sheet including comments and suggestions for improvement
-briefly answer any questions your student has about their training session
-make your schedule for the next class and collect payment (if appropriate) for this class
-encourage the student to thank and support the proprietor if you study in a cafe or any other place of business
- building up expectation in the trainee’s mind about what will happen during the event.
- providing detailed knowledge of criteria by which they will be assessed.
- making suggestions about how to practice beforehand in order to maximize success in front of the assessor.
This learning system is not new. The following situation may be recognizable.
Think about the way you learned how to teach formally. There are a million different ways a teacher trainer can help a trainee, but if you have the Cambridge English Language Teaching to Adults certificate (CELTA), you probably did something like this on the first day:
Morning: Introduction and Orientation Session (Find Someone Who playing to Eddie Rabit "I love a rainy night").
Lunch: Stress out about all of the administrative documents.
Early Afternoon: You receive teaching practice notes and instruction from the teacher trainer about what you will do during the first teaching practice (TP) session, which is in 2 hours!
Late Afternoon: You teach your class, which may range from 3 students to 25 students depending on if it's raining in Vancouver and if the assistant tutors have done their volunteer job of phoning all of the TP students a million times pleading with them to come to class after thinking about what the teacher trainers said to you an hour earlier.
Early Evening: You sit with your teacher trainer and receive assessment feedback both verbal and written (the blue piece of paper that you get and that belongs in the portfolio and not be taken out the center ever that says "To standard" at the top).
This is Prepare Feedback Train without a computer. The focus of the entire preparation session is directed towards the the TP. However, other skills are practiced but not emphasized on the first day because the criteria for Week 2 have not kicked in yet. Thus, a game of Tic Tac Toe as a feedback activity to a conversation activity may receive a Pass in Week 1 because the instructions are delivered clearly with graded language but not in Week 2 because the content did not lead to the clarification of the language.
Since Cambridge Teacher Trainers are among the best in the world, they use relevant knowledge and experience to sequence these criteria to become active in a step function manner over the 4 week course. This is completely up to the center, but it must be consistent within a certain standard. Otherwise the external assessor will pick a fight with one of the trainers and somebody will end up doing extra photocopy duty.
This course uses green flags as the objective assessment criteria to be delivered subjectively by the teacher to the student. The feedback comments are based on the IELTS Public Speaking Band Descriptors available on the official IELTS website. There are two types of feedback comments on this website. First, preparation feedback comments are selected by the teacher in response to student preparation. This provides scaffolding for the student and a starting point for any teacher who is familiar with the contents of the training session module. Second, assessment feedback comments are delivered immediately following the training session. These comments are both verbal and written. The teacher may choose how and when to deliver the former, but the latter must be written down on the PFT Assessment Sheet.
During their preparation, students use a number of resources to prepare for their live classes. They are exposed to language in a way that contains enough structure to produce a familiar and comfortable framework in their minds with a constant reminder of why they are doing these lessons, which is to prepare for class. This message is consolidated at the end of every lesson when the student is directed to consider the assessment comments and how the contents of the lesson will help them achieve the green flag comment as a goal for a particular task during the training session.
2. Help this student register for free on the PFT website.
3. Give them an orientation to the website.
4. Read the teacher notes and prepare for class in whatever way you do.
5. Provide them with feedback to their preparation before they come to class.
6. Teach your live class. Use the A Mark 30 Live Class format.
- student and teacher access to 11 online student lessons spread over 3 modules
- access to teacher notes and training session materials for each module
- full access to the A Mark 21 Sequential Schedule
Interview/Input Engagement Video: Students watch a video and answer a question.
Explanation Video: Students watch a video and read some examples accompanied by a brief explanation comment.
This continues 2 more times.
Rep: Students engage with a receptive activity consistent with the lesson theme/topic/language focus designed to draw attention to form, meaning and/or pronunciation.
Checkpoint: Students engage with a productive activity consistent with the lesson theme/topic/language focus. Teachers can look at this to form a starting platform for an activity in the live class.
Assessment: Students select an assessment task that they would like to practice with the intention of receiving feedback during the training session.
Students complete every lesson in the module, request feedback and fill out the live class checklist for the teacher to check before coming to class. This information is stored in the PFT website and is visible to teachers who have a PFStudent on their Class List.
I have arranged the extra comments in sequential order. These are not meant to be an exhaustive presentation of teaching methodology or language clarification techniques. They are intended rather to provide a running commentary on aspects of teaching and learning within the context of Prepare Feedback Train and the A Mark 30 Live Class model in order to help you better prepare for your classes on the A Mark IELTS Speaking Short Course.
-introduce yourself to your teacher and build a friendly relationship with him or her
-ask your teacher questions about any reps that you had trouble with (you find reps at the end of each online preparation lesson)
-practice with checkpoints that your teacher selects from your online preparation (you find checkpoints at the end of each online preparation lesson)
Before you go on to the next stage, you should take one minute to think and further organize your thoughts towards the training session.
-use assessment tasks that you have selected during your online preparation (you find assessment tasks at the end of each lesson)
-develop language skills that you have thought about before coming to class
-receive feedback from your teacher with a positive attitude
-receive a filled out copy of the PFT Assessment Sheet from your teacher
-discuss with your teacher any questions that you have about the training session
-ask you teacher how to better prepare for your next live class
-make sure your student is familiar with the format of this live class and what they will do at each stage
-answer questions about any reps that your student had trouble with
-focus on meaning, form and pronunciation of checkpoints that you feel would benefit your student most in the training session
Before you go on to the next stage, give your student one minute to think and organize their thoughts to further prepare for the training session.
During the Training Session, you help your student develop their skills and provide focused feedback to the tasks that you give them. At this stage you
-run through assessment tasks that your student has selected during their preparation (you plan this before the class)
-patiently observe and listen to your student and provide feedback based on the training session feedback comments (you can see these in your teacher notes)
-facilitate in a way that helps your student focus on improvement and development as opposed to receiving new input
It is important to make a clear transition from the previous stage to this Assessment Feedback section of the live class. How you do this is up to you. At this stage you
-provide your student with a filled out copy of the PFT Assessment Sheet including comments and suggestions for improvement
-briefly answer any questions your student has about their training session
-make your schedule for the next class and collect payment (if appropriate) for this class
-encourage the student to thank and support the proprietor if you study in a cafe or any other place of business
If there is no internet connection, make sure you can access the assessment tasks. You can print them out or save them to somewhere offline as an alternative to viewing them online.
During the training session, students take turns delivering the assessment task and providing feedback to the best of their ability. This is where the teacher monitors and confirms accurate feedback or interjects when he or she feels there is a disagreement. This disagreement is not necessarily a correction of the choice of feedback flag the student has "inaccurately" selected but rather a difference in knowledge and experience.
If the teacher has earned the trust of the student, the suggested alternative feedback comment will not only be less defensively received but also will raise awareness in the mind of both about the gap between what they perceive their ability is and where the target actually is.
Teachers can collect the filled out PFT Assessment Sheets at the end of class as a record of progress or to write further comments that he or she has gathered from observation.
- building up expectation in the trainee’s mind about what will happen during the event.
- providing detailed knowledge of criteria by which they will be assessed.
- making suggestions about how to practice beforehand in order to maximize success in front of the assessor.
In order for the teacher to deliver effective feedback, I feel that three conditions must be met:
1. There is rapport between the teacher and the student (i.e. the student feels comfortable learning with the teacher).
2. Shared experience has been understood between the teacher and the student (i.e. both student and teacher know and have respect for the rules).
3. The teacher has earned platform from the student (i.e the student trusts the teacher and believes the teacher is willing and able and capable of deciding what the best way to help them is).
Your preparation for class comprises of:
- Checking and marking (click a button) your student's online preparation lessons, which result in a display of a combination of green, yellow and red flags on their notebook page. (~5 min)
- Filling out the PFT Assessment Sheet with information from your student's feedback page (~2 min)
- Thinking about and reading through the teacher notes, which tells you how the student has prepared in order to promote shared expectation (as long as you need).
You need to bring with you to class:
- One copy of the PFT Assessment Sheet (available on the Train page at the end of each module)
- Your laptop or tablet (the screen must be big with no text message or phone call interruptions) with the Train page open (all class materials are accessed from this page)
Your student needs to bring to class:
- A pencil and a copy of their own pre-filled out PFT assessment sheet (students identify what they think they need before class and you can see this on their feedback page...but it is good practice for students to do this on their own)
- A positive attitude
- The tuition fee for your class(if applicable or appropriate)
