Call for contributions: Creating Community Learning Together 7

Discussing Personal Stories and Puzzles

Hello everyone,

We hope you are well. Based on the response to the email which we sent out on October 27th, we are very happy to announce that we will be holding a Creating Community Learning Together event (CCLT7) online this year on Sunday December 12th.

In this year’s CCLT, both students and teachers from different schools and universities will break into small groups to share and discuss personal stories of their experiences of living and learning through the last unusual 6 months.

Here is a schedule of how the event will proceed:

• 14:00 Introduction 5-10 minutes
• 14:10 Round 1 group discussions
• 15:10 10-minute break / note-taking
• 15:20 Round 2 group discussion
• 16:10 10-minute break / note-taking
• 16:20 Reflection: 30 minutes
• 16:50 Wrap-up/closing: 10 minutes

If you or your students would like to participate in this event, we would like for each participant to submit a short personal story (70-100 words) with 1-3 related discussion questions for the group to discuss (Deadline: Tuesday November 30th). Possible topics could include: what/how you are learning, learning English online, satisfaction with your learning, interacting with others online or face to face, having face-to-face classes, and so on. Please see the bottom of this message for some examples of personal stories & discussion questions.

The discussions will be held in English. In each discussion group an LD SIG member will act as a facilitator to help all participants to speak as much as possible. If you are interested in being a facilitator for a discussion group, please indicate your interest in the Google Form below. To help everyone share their ideas, we will post all the submitted personal stories and discussion questions on the LD website by 5th December, one week ahead of the event on 12th December. This will give participants, particularly student participants, a chance to think about the questions before joining the discussions. There will also be breakout rooms for teachers who want to share their personal stories and puzzles with other teachers.

Please submit your personal stories or have your students submit their personal stories by completing the following Google form by Tuesday November 30th 23:59.

Many thanks – we are looking forward to hearing from you and your students!

Tim Ashwell, Andy Barfield, Tim Cleminson, Ellen Head, Ian Hurrell, Ken Ikeda, James Underwood (CCLT organizing team)

Personal Story:

In my English classes I often do “active citizen” research projects. Outside class this involves finding information, making notes, talking with friends or family members, and/or contacting organisations about our research issues (for example, discrimination in society, gender equality, the climate crisis). Inside class, I explain my research, work in pairs and small groups, and later write a short report and/or give a presentation. One challenge is deciding what action to take in my own life about an issue, or making a change in my own life.

Discussion questions:

1. What do you find interesting about doing research projects at university?
2. What are some example actions that students can take in their own lives or communities about issues that they learn about in their English classes?

Personal Story:

My students use Google Documents to write their reports and learner diaries. There are some students who read my comments but don’t reply. I tell them that Google Docs are designed for interaction, but they tell me they agree with my comments. When I ask them a question in my comments, they don’t reply because they think their answers won’t be included in their reports or diaries. Worse, they resolve my comments and don’t do as I ask them.

Discussion questions:

1. How can I encourage students to write comments?
2. How can I get them to incorporate their comments into their reports?