Introducing eSkills
This presentation provides an overview of the National LINC Online Curriculum (NLOC) project activities and timelines, it explains the purpose of the courseware, and it includes a demonstration of an e-unit. It shows specific activities at CLB 4 and how users navigate this learner-centered, task-based, accessible courseware.
The NLOC project, developed for the Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) Program, will introduce innovative and unprecedented online courseware on avenue.ca. This is a five-year project funded by IRCC for CLB-3, CLB-4 and CLB-5 learners. This curriculum incorporates digital literacy and specialized content, such as Indigenous perspectives, Francophone communities, inclusivity and cultural awareness. This accessible courseware fills a language learning gap for self-directed, asynchronous learning, offering “off the shelf” comprehensive e-units that learners can do anytime, anywhere. Also designed to be flexible, this courseware can be used as a blended model in face-to-face and virtual classrooms, providing a ready-made curriculum for instructors to supplement as they see fit. This courseware includes the principles and best practices for a PBLA-aligned curriculum, incorporating real-world tasks, prior knowledge and experience, skill-building activities, skill-using and assessment tasks and reflection. Content is organized under themes for the 21st century, and the activities are designed to take the learner on a journey that builds skills and strategies needed for integration in work, education and community.
Introduction to Extensive Reading on Avenue (Part 2)
In this second of a two-part webinar series on Extensive Reading (ER), John Allan and Sepideh Alavi, NLS mentors and content developers, explore the ER movement as an approach to language learning that encourages students to read at a comfortable level that inspires reading for pleasure, reinforces and strengthens the learner’s language foundation, and should build/boost L2 confidence as they progress through LINC levels.
The presenters delivered this second webinar explaining the Extensive Reading pilot course and the pathway towards the potential integration of an Extensive Reading program into Avenue.
During the presentation, John and Sepideh demonstrated the practical aspects of the Xreading platform on Avenue and invited volunteer teachers who are interested in the new Extensive Reading pilot project to try the course.
Only those instructors currently teaching LINC Literacy students are eligible to participate in the pilot phase.
H5P Hands-on Webinar
This tutorial by Avenue mentor John Allan explains how to learn more advanced H5P tools.
It demonstrates how to create true/false, multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, drag the word and mark the word questions and publish them into an H5P quiz.
The sessions included step-by-step “How To” guides, which are available
Basic Video Editing for Avenue Instructors
This session was delivered presented by LIT2T mentor and developer, John Allan.
Most teachers now have the ability to link or embed videos into their online courses, but there is so much more that instructors can do to provide more appropriate media for their lessons.
All teachers understand that videos should be relevant and concise or students will multitask or daydream through the activity.
If instructors want to take the next step and manipulate video by editing their videos, they can!
In this webinar, a complete video editing session is demonstrated.
Click below to download a detailed step-by-step document that was shared with registered Avenue members the day before the webinar.
Introduction to Extensive Reading on Avenue
In this first of a two-part webinar series on Extensive Reading (ER), John Allan and Sepideh Alavi, NLS mentors and content developers, explore the ER movement as an approach to language learning that encourages students to read at a comfortable level that inspires reading for pleasure, reinforces and strengthens the learner’s language foundation, and should build/boost L2 confidence as they progress through LINC levels.
The presenters talked about why graded readers are an important ER resource of reading materials, and how they have been created to accommodate different levels of language learners. Finally, they discussed how accessing graded readers online has made Extensive Reading practical for online or blended classrooms.
Using Avenue in Employment Training (CLB 4-8)
In this webinar Marijke Geurts, LearnIT2teach mentor/developer and TBLV lead, explored how Avenue could be used in an IRCC-funded CLB 4-8 Employment Language Training Program.
Marijke looked at how to use resources such as the Avenue Binder and the available courseware to increase the focus on Working in Canada in the context of LINC themes.
Students benefit by learning English and becoming work ready at the same time.
During the webinar, the presenter: – looked at the LINC themes through an employment Lens – reviewed a possible 8-week employment training curriculum with resources on Avenue – discussed how an employment training program could support PBLA.
Audacity, Audio and Avenue
In this webinar, LearnIT2teach mentor and developer Paul Carter showed Avenue teachers how to download, install, and use the free, open source, cross-platform audio editing software from Audacity. This software can be used to both create new audio files and to edit existing audio files. This session demonstrated how to:
– download and install Audacity
– record a new audio file
– edit an existing audio file
– combine two or more audio files into one (recording dialogues remotely)
– convert a video file to an audio file – export an audio file to various formats
– MP3, M4A, WAV, and OGG, and
– upload an audio file to various activity and resource types on Avenue.
Adventures in Moduleland
Does module planning sometimes feel like going down a rabbit hole?
Do you find yourself looking around in wonder at labels like Sociolinguistic and Functional Knowledge?
And how can you incorporate Language Learning Strategies into your skill-building activities? In this webinar recording, Larry Iveson (PBLA consultant and regional coach) explains the different steps in module planning.
Larry is joined by New Language Solutions module developers, Sepideh Alavi and Marijke Geurts, who illustrate this planning process with examples from two new modules: Preparing to Attend a Workplace Event CLB 5-6, and Arranging a Workplace Event CLB 7-8.
The presenters provide practical tips, and they demonstrate how the different components of a module plan are transferred into skill-building, skill-using and assessment tasks.
Introducing Avenue Accessibility Features
In this webinar, LearnIT2teach mentor and developer John Allan introduced six ways teachers can improve accessibility in their Avenue.ca courses.
Good accessibility practices provide alternative interaction modes for learners and enhanced course consistency.
Building Community and Making Learning Memorable
The rapid move to online learning and teaching last year left many teachers scrambling to find ways to connect with their learners.
This talk, by Dr. Deborah Healey (2019-2020 President of the Board of Directors of TESOL International Association), offers some lessons learned, including ideas that can be used in a face-to-face setting.
Topics include flipping the classroom (giving learners ways to prepare outside of class for activities in class), video tools and other digital resources to build collaboration and community, dealing with challenges in a combined virtual and face-to-face class, and insights from TESOL’s Six Principles for Exemplary Teaching of English Learners.
An optional discussion time was offered after the webinar. Dr. Deborah Healey was the 2019-2020 President of the Board of Directors of TESOL International Association.
She started her career in community ESL, teaching immigrants and refugees. She taught for many more years in intensive English programs in Oregon, with a mid-1980s stint in Yemen.
Now an online and face-to-face teacher educator, she writes and presents extensively internationally (Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, US) on appropriate use of technology in language teaching.
Her doctorate is in Computers in Education. Building Community and Making Learning Memorable –
Avenue Teacher Showcase: YMCA of Greater Saint John Newcomer Connections
In this demonstration, three teachers from YMCA Newcomer Connections in Saint John, NB, Rhonda Kelley, Erin Stewart, and Marijke Geurts, show how they use the Avenue courseware to support their Canada School and Sector Specific Employment Language Training programs.
The show how they use the Moodle platform to engage their learners in blended learning and PBLA.
Learning Objectives: – see different ways teachers use Moodle/Avenue to support blended delivery and PBLA – learn about some of the benefits of using Avenue – get some tips to help you implement blended learning
Features of Google Classroom – A Cross-Platform Comparison of Avenue and Google Classroom
Presented by LearnIT2teach mentor and developer, Jen Artan, this pre-recorded webinar looks at the features of the two learning management systems.
What does Google offer?
How does Avenue compare?
Are there functions that work better for our Adult Newcomer learners?
Customization features, learner analytics, PBLA materials and other features will be outlined and compared.
