Pathway to Progress: Empowering Educators for Today’s Classrooms: Full Schedule

Pathway to Progress: Empowering Educators for Today’s Classrooms

2025 ELSA France Annual International Conference for Educators

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9:00am CET

The Art of the Sentence: Essay Writing through Micro Preparation FILLING

Saturday March 15, 2025 9:00am - 10:15am CET

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The Art of the Sentence: Essay Writing through Micro Preparation
Novelist John Banville once described the sentence as the ‘greatest invention of civilization’. In this workshop, we’ll explore the powerful role that sentences play in our ability to construct and explore ideas, specifically in the context of essay writing. We’ll consider a variety of high impact sentence stems, grammatical rules, syntactic structures and phrases that, almost tweezer-like, students can pick up and place in a variety of their responses. When their use is honed through frequent practice and exposure, such stems and syntactic formulations can easily be transferred across multiple texts and age-ranges and, with repeated use, their deployment becomes almost automatic, a kind of stylistic flex that students apply almost without thinking. The workshop will cover a variety of specific examples as well as ideas for teaching and modelling them.

Secondary Ages (11-18) with a focus on 14-16

Speakers

Andrew Atherton

Director of Teaching and Learning, Teacher of English, Downe House

Having completed an MA in English Literature as well as a PhD in twentieth-century literature, both funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, I decided to make the jump from university to secondary school teaching. Since then, I’ve taught English to a range of classes... Read More →

Saturday March 15, 2025 9:00am - 10:15am CET
X111

ENGLISH, Middle School / High School

10:45am CET

A Vision for English Literature: What Matters in the English Classroom FULL

Saturday March 15, 2025 10:45am - 12:00pm CET

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A Vision for English Literature: What Matters in the English Classroom

As much philosophical as it is practical, this workshop will attempt to answer one of the most fundamental questions an English teacher can pose: what matters – really matters – in the teaching of literature. Working through a series of assertions, designed to provoke and generate discussion, the workshop will consider what makes the discipline of English distinctly and uniquely English-y. Having explore this question together, the workshop will conclude by considering its practical implication: what does it actually look like to teach in accordance with these proposed disciplinary assumptions?

Secondary Ages (11-18) with a focus on 14-16

Speakers

Andrew Atherton

Director of Teaching and Learning, Teacher of English, Downe House

Saturday March 15, 2025 10:45am - 12:00pm CET
X111

ENGLISH, Middle School / High School

1:00pm CET

Thinking Through Writing: Using Generative Writing in the English Classroom FILLING

Saturday March 15, 2025 1:00pm - 2:15pm CET

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Thinking Through Writing: Using Generative Writing in the English Classroom
Students often see writing as the terminus of thinking rather than its starting point. Writing is something that happens after thinking; it is the solidification of something that has already been considered and deliberated. This workshop offers a different way of thinking about and framing student writing. Rather than a record of thinking, writing is the thinking. Focussing specifically on the English classroom, the workshop will explore a series of practical strategies that teachers can deploy in their own practice, all designed to get students thinking hard through writing.

Secondary Ages (11-18) with a focus on 14-16

Speakers

Andrew Atherton

Director of Teaching and Learning, Teacher of English, Downe House

Saturday March 15, 2025 1:00pm - 2:15pm CET
X111

ENGLISH

2:45pm CET

Storytelling Essentials: interviewing & reporting for podcasting FULL

Saturday March 15, 2025 2:45pm - 4:00pm CET

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In this workshop, we’ll dive into the world of reporting and interviewing for audio storytelling. Podcasts are one of the most popular media formats among young people and offer a creative approach to teaching and learning, from encouraging language learners to engaging hard to reach students. Teachers will practice interviewing for audio while the News Decoder team demonstrates basic audio production techniques to use in the classroom.

Exhibitors

Maria Krasinski

Managing Director, News Decoder

Maria joined News Decoder in July 2021 managing operations and partnerships. An ardent believer in the values of global citizenship, she’s worked in experiential education, youth media and cultural diplomacy and has facilitated cross-border exchanges for hundreds of youth and professionals... Read More →

Saturday March 15, 2025 2:45pm - 4:00pm CET
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MEDIA LITERACY AND PODCASTING, Middle School / High School

Audience Secondary