Rough schedule of work until the end of term

OK, so we still have quite a few assessments to do, but here is a rough plan of how we might roll out the Comm 4 and Oral Presentation Skills Units. Remember, I am planning for 5 months or so here, so will do my best to keep to it, no mean feat with two Units to work to.

As a reminder there are 13 assessments you do for me. For Comm 4 (2x reading, 2x listening, 2x talking and 2x writing) and for Oral Presentation Skills (2x presentation analysis, 1x presentation plan, 2x presentations to deliver).

Some of you have already completed 4 assessments - Comm 4 reading (digital books), OPS speaking (how to do), OPS plan (how to do) and OPS analysis 1 (Jamie Oliver). In the next couple of weeks you will also have completed (for Comm 4) 1 writing outcome (an essay you did for Evan) and 1 listening outcome (a Radio 4 Word of Mouth transmission). Phew...so, lets see if we can follow the plan below!

23rd Jan - listen to and discuss Word of Mouth radio transmission on "language borrowing" (unassessed).
25th Jan - work in groups, discuss the programme, answer some questions. I will give sample answers at the end of this class.
30th Jan - listen to Word of Mouth radio transmission on "presentations, PowerPoint use etc" (assessed).
1st, 6th  and 8th Feb - work on listening assessment for Comm 4 and hand in any history essay of your choosing that has passed for Evan - this will be credited as a pass for one of the writing outcomes for Comm 4.
13th Feb - no class.
20th Feb - remediation  session (if necessary).
22nd Feb - watching film one (of two).
27th Feb - discuss film that was watched on the 22nd and look at how to write a film review.
29th Feb - watch film two (of two).
5th and 7th March - write up review for one of the films we watched in class.
12th and 14th March - assemble into groups for group discussions. Research on topics.
19th and 21st March - discussion assessment.
26th March - give out brief for oral presentation (this will double up for Comm 4 and OPS outcomes - one presentation, two passes!)
28th March - prep for presentation.

2nd - 13th April - EASTER VACATION

16th April - final touches to assessed presentation.
18th, 23rd, 25th and 30th April - assessed presentation delivery.
2nd May - remediation as necessary.

7th May - HOLIDAY!

9th May - at this stage we will have three assessments to complete - one listening, one reading and one analysis of an oral presentation. I suggest that we negotiate what is best re assessments at this stage. The last day of classes will be WEDNESDAY 13TH JUNE 2012.

I hope this will work out well for us. I am satisfied that it will be.

We can move things around if we feel we need to, but this is the proposal anyway!

Cheers, Mark

New room for Monday at 9am

Dear all,

We will be in room 409 (the Digital self access room) on Mondays at 9 which means we will have PC access when we need it.

Thanks to Carlos and Jordi who helped make that happen for us.

See you Monday then where we will be listening to a Radio 4 Programme on Language.

Mark

Deadline for Jamie Oliver assessment

Dear all,
The deadline to hand in (or e mail me) your answers to the Jamie Oliver evaluation is WEDNESDAY 25TH JANUARY.

On Monday (23rd January) we will listen to a Radio 4 Programme on Language and have a short discussion afterwards.

All the best,

Mark

Jamie Oliver presentation - OPS assessment

Hi all,

Jamie Oliver's presentation is below for you to access. You can also view it on the TED website. You all have the transcript now and there are plenty of websites where you can find background information on his work.

I enjoyed listening to your thoughts after the talk and you raised some excellent points. Remember, points are valid when backed up by solid evidence, whether it be in terms of discourse, delivery, visual anchoring, signposting, tone etc and there are plenty of ways to evaluate Mr. Oliver's talk.

See you all tomorrow, Mark

School kills creativity - Ken Robinson

Thanks to Steven who commented on this. This was the talk I made reference to in Monday's class.

A quick glossary of the terms used for analysing oral presentations

Glossary of terms for OPS analysis

View more presentations from Mark Hetherington

Happy 2012 and making a case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity

Dear all,

Happy Ne'er and it was lovely to see you all this morning. Hopefully the 9am start on the first day back wasn't a hardship as we watched and discussed Sir Ken Robinson's presentation where he made an entertaining case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

I was interested to hear your thoughts on education, creativity, the working examples that Robinson uses and the style of delivery.

Tomorrow we will look at answering some questions (either individually or in groups) to analyse the talk. This will set us up nicely for the next assessment we'll be doing, which we'll we do on the 16th and 17th January 2012.

The link to Sir Ken's talk is noted below:

Sir Ken Robinson - bring on the revolution

And here is the TED website:

TED website

All the best,

Mark