Sectoral Group Work

This year (2020-2021), I want to put forward a new project in ESL.

In recent years, several PLCs (professional learning community) have developed in our school service center. However, most of the time, the PLCs are about something in French or in Math. Therefore, very few English teachers have the opportunity to take part into the discussions and work together with the rest of the school team.

Unfortunately, currently, it is difficult to offer this experience (re: PLC) to you (elementary English teachers) since many of you are alone in your school(s). (Plus, a PLC is usually formed of a group of educators, who all have the same students, and their principal…)

However, at our school service center, we believe it is important AND possible to develop a structure where English teachers, working in the same sector, could be in contact with their colleagues and go beyond simple collaboration. We want you to think about some key questions. We want you to take time to discuss what needs to be taught (re: essential knowledge), as well as the order and pace of content presentation (global planning), in order to establish a guaranteed and viable curriculum.

These meetings aim at reducing the gaps between our students from the same sector when they arrive in our secondary schools, whether or not they benefit from the intensive English program. As teachers, you would become interdependent on each other, since you would all have the same goals. Goals that you would have determined together and for which you would be mutually responsible.

It would therefore be a matter of developing a common understanding of expectations; of valuing the benefits of collective efforts, and, in the long-term; of reducing the impact that staff turnover has on students’ learning and academic performance.

The goal of these working groups is NOT for you to all work with the same material or to all have the same pedagogical strategies, but rather that you reach a consensus on the priority learning (re: essential knowledge) for each level (re: learning to differentiate what is essential from what is important and what is interesting).

For this first year, the goal will be to ask ourselves “What do we want our students to learn?”. Even though you work in different schools, you all work for the same school service center and you all teach the same subject. Therefore, it would be interesting to discuss, by sector, what ALL students should learn and be able to do at the end of each cycle. To determine the learning targets (What are the essentials? What can we put aside?)

based on our official documents, the reality of our school calendar and the reality of the cyclical grid of the school(s) you are working at.

Your school principal will need to free you for THREE half-days (AM).

I sincerely hope this project will interest you!!!

Google Slide : Sectoral Group Work : Questionning, Collaborating and Coordinating in ESL, day 1 (SV)

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