1. Oak National Academy here in the UK is in the news at present, as a result of the UK government’s plans to have Oak offer free curriculum resources to schools, described in apocalyptic terms by The Bookseller as “an unprecedented and unevidenced intervention that risks causing irreparable damage to the school sector as we know it”.
Oak have been quick off the mark: here’s an introductory lesson on the history of the English language https://www.thenational.academy/teachers/programmes/english-secondary-ks3-l/units/the-oral-tradition-7424/lessons/the-english-language-cgw36d#slide-deck and there’s many more of Oak’s ‘time-saving teaching resources’ here https://www.thenational.academy/#teachers
Here’s the whole of that piece from The Bookseller, outlining the controversy from a publisher’s perspective https://www.thebookseller.com/news/high-court-decides-judicial-review-claim-over-oak-national-academy-can-proceed
2. Stacks more resources here, in the Education & Training Foundation (ETF) resource library https://www.et-foundation.co.uk/resources/resource-library/ Put ‘ESOL’ or ‘English’ in the search bar, if that’s what you’re after, as ‘ELT’ doesn’t produce any results. Thanks to Nik Peachey for this one!
3. Can technology narrow the equity gap in language education? is – nay, was! – the title of the next PIE webinar at 13:00 UK time this Thursday, 30th November. I got my dates in a muddle. But you can register to watch the recording here (at double speed if you like) https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_A9nIU1nwSUiZhZDpjPXsFA#/registration
4. There’s a new ‘position paper’ out from OUP, written by Hayo Reinders, Supporting Refugees: a primer for language teachers https://corp.oup.com/news/new-paper-equips-teachers-and-schools-to-support-refugee-learners/
“In recent years, many language teachers have experienced having one or more refugee learners in their classes. Such learners often have specific educational, social, and affective needs, which many teachers feel they are ill equipped to deal with. This position paper is written with such teachers in mind, particularly those who have not received specialized training in teaching refugee learners.”
5. And, finally, some great Venn diagrams from Matt Shirley. Try #2, A Little Venn I Made and #4, Tag Someone Who Listens To Bad Music Loudly https://www.boredpanda.com/hilarious-relatable-charts-matt-shirley-2/
Roy Cross's Blog 