Teachers writing workshop Thrissur 2024
Workshop Dates
April 29 and 30, 2024
Objective of the workshop
The District Centre for English (DCE), Thrissur is organizing a workshop with the aim of enabling Government and aided primary and secondary school teachers to enrich their seminar presentations into academic papers for publishing, thereby strengthening their academic writing skills.
Introduction
District Centres of English (DCEs) were established in Kerala in 1989 under the Department of General Education to provide specialized training for English language teachers in government and aided schools. DCEs function under the administrative oversight of the District Institute of Education and Training (DIET), offering specialized training for English educators at the primary and secondary levels. Since their inception, DCEs have been conducting structured training programmes, seminars, workshops, and other empowerment initiatives for English Language Teachers across districts, thus providing opportunities for teachers to grow professionally by focusing on innovative techniques, methods, and approaches to teaching English.
The DCE organized a seminar for primary and secondary teachers from government and aided schools in February 2024, where 15 teachers presented papers on classroom innovations in English Language Teaching (ELT). While some teachers had presented papers, others had prepared notes on their work, which they presented in the seminar.
Writing Workshop Methodology
DCE is proposing to conduct an ‘academic writing workshop’ for these 15 teachers. The aim of the workshop is to support these teachers to strengthen their capacities for academic writing, and to publish their work as academic outputs. This would have two benefits – firstly , their articles could benefit the wider community of teachers in Thrissur district, and even across Kerala (and elsewhere). Secondly, it would be a professional development exercise for these 15 teachers to progress as writers, who can publish their action research. It would also be a ‘first’ for the DCE, to work on ‘writing’ skills of teachers in a structured manner.
The DCE along with identified resource persons plans to conduct a two-day workshop towards these objectives. On the first day, the teachers would be introduced to the craft of writing, time-tested ways of converting ideas into written text, engaging in analytical, creative and critical thinking, taking and giving peer feedback and academic reading, which is a prerequisite for academic writing. The teachers would be encouraged to find and read other academic papers and articles related to their topic.
The second day would start with initiating the teachers into academic writing with a free writing activity, which would be followed by the preparation of the first draft of their academic papers. The sessions are designed in such a way that the teachers regularly receive supportive feedback from the resource persons and their own peers. By the end of the second day, the teachers would have written the first drafts of their articles and would have gone through one stage of revision. The second day would conclude with the discussion of how writing is an essential part of self-learning and professional development. The teachers are expected to continue working on their papers and share revised versions with the resource persons in a week’s time and receive detailed feedback and hand holding, to enable them to complete their papers. DCE intends to e-publish finalized papers as a ‘Teachers academic journal’.
Tentative workshop session plan - April 2024
| Session No | Time | Agenda | Resources for the session |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | |||
| Session 1 | 10 to 10:30 AM | Introduction to the program/workshop | Workshop page |
| Session 2 | 10:30 to 11:15 AM | Interactive session on writing: Writing as Carpentry | Write up and podcast |
| Tea Break | 11:15 to 11:30 AM | ||
| Session 3 | 11:30 to 1 PM | Overview of 'digital tools' and their use in writing
Initiating and organizing writing: Using digital mind maps |
Concept map 'Digital Tools for supporting writing'
Video on concept mapping User manual on the Digital Mindmap tool - Freeplane |
| Lunch | 1 to 2 PM | ||
| Session 4 | 2 to 3:30 PM | Creation of digital concept maps by teachers (on the papers they presented) | |
| Tea Break | 3:30 to 3:45 PM | ||
| Session 5 | 3:45 to 4:45 PM | Initial presentation + Peer feedback in plenary, and discussion | |
| Session 6 | 4:45 to 5:00 PM | Interactive session: ‘Reading for Writing’ and Accessing academic articles (assigning article for reading) | We learn to write by reading - Krashen |
| Day 2 | |||
| Session 1 | 10:00 to 11:30 AM | “Free writing” | Free Writing - what and how |
| Tea Break | 11:30 to 11:45 AM | ||
| Session 2 | 11:45 to 1:00 PM | Academic writing: Writing the first draft of the paper (in small groups with peer and resource person support) | |
| Lunch | 1:00 to 2:00 PM | ||
| Session 3 | 2:00 to 3:30 PM | Peer Feedback and discussion in small groups
(Each group member reads one paper of their peer and notes down comments/feedback. Then all members present this feedback to the whole group) |
|
| Tea Break | 3:30 to 3:45 PM | ||
| Session 5 | 3:45 to 4:45 | Final revisions in the draft, digitizing if needed | |
| Session 6 | 4:45 to 5:00 PM | Possible Way forward; journaling for continued learning | Skill Will matrix - Understanding Ability and Willingness to Write, to explore possible CPD |
Additional Resources for the workshop
Points to consider and think about while writing
- problem statement/context?
- objectives/research questions
- scope - where, when
- approach, processes and timelines
- how
- resources
- cost implications/funds for project
- challenges and mitigation
- constraints and how they were overcome
- reflections
- your key learnings from the project
- which children did well, why
- which did not, why
- outcomes
- what happened
- your plans for the future
- conclusions
- references
Caveat: Above only intended to serve as questions to think about while writing. Actual paper may have different headings