What is the Level One Certification Program for Secondary English Teachers?

It is a teacher certification program that teachers in Gyeonggi-do are required to attend once during their teaching careers. This training program offers the trainees a chance to self-reflect on their teaching methods and techniques, network with their colleagues and study up-to-date teaching methodology and current trends in Korean foreign language education.

Unlike in other teacher training programs at GIFLE, the digital educational content and online classes are only part of the Level One Certification Program for Secondary English Teachers. The trainees must attend lectures and modules on a variety of topics that are related to being an effective teacher.

For the part that involves the GIFLE instructors this year, the Level One Certification Program for Secondary English Teachers has been offered in two parts : Online Training Program and Promoting Engagement in the English Classroom (PEEC).

Online Training Program (May 31st ~ June 13th, 2021)

For the online training program, the trainees studied ideas, techniques, tips, and resources that are relevant in English teaching for secondary students. They chose what to implement in their classrooms, created and taught their lesson(s) in real-life situations, and recorded the results. These observations and results were submitted as a written report and shared during the group discussions in the second part of the training program. The topics of the online training program are below (click on the link to view the content):

English Reading Education – Angie Lee

Career English – Elizabeth Baldwin

Culture of English Speaking Countries – Eric Flynn

Global Citizenship Education – Betsey Norman

Integrated Learning – Autumn Wright

Promoting Engagement in the English Classroom (July 28th ~ August 4th, 2021)

The second part of the training program were taught via Zoom. The topic was Promoting Engagement in the English Classroom (PEEC). In this set of modules, the trainees learned about how to implement various techniques and strategies on how to get students to participate in English in the classroom. The module sub-topics and instructors are written below:

Effective Teacher Talk (Angie Lee) – As an alternative to Teaching English in English (TEE), this module focuses on making teacher talk more effective for student understanding and language development. Trainees will experience the impact of comprehensible input that caters to multiple learning preferences and modalities. In groups, trainees will practice developing instructional checking questions (ICQs) and concept checking questions (CCQs) to promote comprehension in the English classroom. In addition, trainees will model think aloud strategies that build metacognitive skills and motivation in students.

Day Starters (Betsey Norman) – In the module, we will be looking at day starters, which are activities that students do at the beginning of every class as a way to transition from L1 to L2 and settle into “class mode”. This module will showcase various tools and activities that can be used as day starters, how to implement them and the benefits of using day starters within a secondary ESL setting.

Total Participation Techniques (developed by Elizabeth Baldwin, Taught by Justin Howard) – Practical Techniques to Increase Participation is ultimately about students becoming independent learners. As student participation increases, so does active learning. Benefits of active learning include: Integrated skills, collaboration, and connecting learning outside the classroom. Additionally, student participation takes the focus off the teacher and instead, shifts the focus on the student actively engaged in content. 

Trainees will examine and discuss four activities that promote student participation:  Collaboration Summaries, Picture Notes, Cornell Notes and Anticipatory Guides.  Finally, trainees will analyze a series of classroom situations and generate solutions to increase participation in their own classroom situation. 

Assessing the Multilevel Class (Autumn Wright) – ESL classrooms often follow a one-size-fits-all approach in terms of assessing and grading students. However, this can be quite demoralizing and even unfair to students of lower levels. In order to motivate lower-level students and create a more dynamic classroom, a variety of different assessment techniques can be incorporated. In this course, trainees will learn about different assessment strategies that go beyond tests and quizzes in order to learn how to truly gauge their students’ level, check for understanding, and better their students’ language abilities. Trainees will first work on differentiating assessments for different levels of speakers, then they will work to create their own assessment. Finally, trainees will examine a baseline rubric (adapted from WIDA) and work on adjusting the rubric to fit students of all different levels.

Template-based Teaching (Eric Flynn) – In the Template-based Teaching module, trainees will learn methods for guiding and scaffolding students’ English in a way that minimizes hesitance and maximizes output. Trainees will be shown examples of speaking and writing aids they can implement in their classes, and practice creating their own.

Online Training Program – Presentations on Findings and Discussion (All Instructors)

In addition to the PEEC modules, the trainees will have time to present and share their findings from the lessons they created after studying the Online Training Program content. They will discuss the educational content and also receive feedback from the instructor and other trainees on their lessons and presentations.