All you need to know about “How to Teach” Series

The IH Cairo “How to Teach Series” is a complete series that equips language teachers with the knowledge and practice needed and ensures they can plan and deliver communicative and engaging lessons.

Webinar Summary

Abeer: Hello everyone, and welcome to IH Cairo live session. This is Abeer, Head of the Educational and Training Dept. and the Educational Consultant at IH Cairo. Dalia and I are here today to talk about the new IH Cairo How to Teach Series.

Dalia: Hello everyone. My name is Dalia Ashraf and I’m a teacher and CELTA tutor. And I’m also a member of the teacher trainers at IH Cairo. 

Abeer: I’m happy to be here today to announce the launch of our very beneficial series “How to Teach” It is a 45 hour series designed to equip language teachers to plan and deliver lessons that are communicative and engaging to the Learners. 

Dalia: This series targets novice teachers, fresh graduates, maybe experienced teachers who need to brush up their knowledge. Also, teachers who want the practical course with updated classroom tips. Some of you may think of shifting careers and need the basic building blocks; this series gives teachers a clear picture of what communicative teaching is, and it’s divided into four modules. 

Abeer: The powerpoint shows the four modules. The IH Cairo “How to Teach” is divided into three core modules: How to Teach Systems, How to Teach Skills, How to Integrate Systems and Skills, and a supplementary module, How to Write SMART Objectives and to Integrate Technology for Educational Purposes. 

Dalia: The “How to Teach Systems” focuses on teaching, vocab grammar, functional language. And as for “How to Teach Skills”, it focuses on the language skills, which are reading, listening, reading and speaking. And as for the “How to Integrate” module, it focuses on teaching literature and how to integrate skills and systems in the same session. And as for “How to Write SMART Objectives and Use of Technology,” it focuses on how to integrate technology into teaching and how to write objectives that are appropriate and relevant to your students needs and your course aims 

Abeer: Do teachers have to register for the whole course?
Dalia: They don’t have to register for the whole course. It is highly recommended that they register for all four modules, but they can actually go for individual modules. This course will give the teachers the basic building blocks of how to teach communicatively. So it introduces new student-centered and engaging techniques. It will show teachers some of the new frameworks of teaching systems like grammar, vocabulary and functions. 

Abeer: I am glad you’ve mentioned functions because a lot of teachers are very familiar with grammar and vocabulary. Now, functional language is also a very important component of language learning. They are the functional exponents that we use in our everyday life. And this is something that a lot of teachers might not feel important or they might skip it. What about skills, Dalia? Why do you think we’ve included speaking and writing separately even though they can be integrated with reading and listening? 

Dalia: Of course, they can be integrated. But sometimes you just need to focus or to develop the sub skills of writing and the sub skills of speaking. And sometimes the teachers are a bit stuck, they don’t know how to develop these sub skills. So I think that this course will be very beneficial as well as it provides them with a couple of techniques. And it also puts them on a solid ground or what the sub skills of the productive skills are.

Abeer: Can you tell us more about teaching literature in the integrated module? 
Dalia: Sometimes we just focus on literature when it comes to focusing on the events, and I don’t think that this is what our students really need. I think the students also need the teachers to help them develop some critical thinking techniques. They need to develop how they criticize a text or give an opinion in the text. They need to read beyond the lines. They need to have a kind of reflective opinion. So all of these things and all of these techniques will be included in the course as well. 

Abeer: Integrating Systems and Skills. I think this is also very important because some teachers think that they can be taught separately. Nowadays if we are connecting language to real life, it’s pretty important to extract language from the reading or the listening of students. So I think also “Integrating Skills and Systems” is going to be a very interesting set of sessions. 

Abeer: What about “Writing SMART Objectives”? When you’re writing objectives for your course or for your individual lessons, your objectives need to be SMART. So we’ve also included this module, Integrating Technology. Since last March 2020, we’ve all been forced to integrate technology or even use it totally in our lesson planning and delivery. And now that most of us are back to face-to-face classes, I think we still can use technology to help students in their daily language learning process. 

Dalia: Do you need to take all four modules? Well, as we said earlier, it is highly recommended that you booked all four modules, three of which are core and one is supplementary. However, if you decide to go for one module, then from the top ones then definitely book also supplementary. So we recommend that the supplementary goes with either one module or the whole series, which is 45 hours. The sessions are going to be Fridays and Saturdays, so during the weekend in order to help teachers book for the course while they’re still teaching.

Abeer: It’s very important that they book the supplementary module because it’s complementary to what they’ll be studying in the core modules.

Dalia: How long is the course? It’s a 45 hour course. This is for the whole four modules. But if you’re booking one module, it depends on the length of the module. Some modules are longer than others. This is the official IH Cairo page and once you click on it, you are going to get all the information you need concerning course objectives and how the 45 hours are being divided along the Fridays and Saturdays. It will also give you the exact total of hours for each module. So once you click on the module, it will tell you the total hours. So Module One, which is “How to Teach Systems” is 17 hours and a half and it is divided into “How to teach grammar.” You have three sessions, each is two hours and a half. “How to teach vocabulary,” there are three sessions, two hours and a half. “How to teach functional language,” two sessions, two hours and a half each. The second module, you have the “How to teach reading,” two sessions, each is two hours and a half. “How to teach listening” two sessions. “How to teach speaking,” it’s one session, three hours, and “How to teach writing” is also one session, three hours. Module 3, it’s going to be “How to teach literature,” one session, three hours, and “How to integrate systems and skills” is also one session, three hours. Module 4, which is the supplementary module, is a total of five hours and a half on “How to integrate technology,” one session, and “How to write SMART objectives,” one session.

If you’re interested in applying to “How to teach series”, if you scroll down, you will find an application. And this is the application that you have to fill out. Once you fill out and press enter, it will be sent to an IH Cairo team and they will contact you as soon as they get your information. 

Abeer: So what will happen at the end of the course if you’ve taken all four modules?
Dalia: You’ll be given a certificate of achievement. But if you take only one or two modules, you’ll just take a certificate of attendance. So, there’s a difference, if you take the whole thing, you take a certificate of achievement, but if you take just one or two, you just take the attendance certificate. That’s why we’re highly recommending you take all four. 

Dalia: Can we link professional development with language proficiency? Of course, there will be part of language awareness raising in the course, especially in “How to teach grammar.” It will be in most of the sessions. But IH Cairo also will announce the launch of a language proficiency course soon.

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