Teachers' Afternoon 2017

More than one hundred NT2 teachers (including those in training) attended the TopTaal Group teachers' afternoon on April 21, 2017: a meeting specifically for teachers who work, or will work in the future, for the language provider. The meeting took place at the Domstad Course and Meeting Center in Utrecht, where various workshops were held in different rooms. Topics ranging from literacy and autonomous learning to civic integration and differentiation were discussed. Teachers gave the afternoon a score of 8, a great result for an afternoon where knowledge was shared and new contacts were made. In this event report, you will find a brief impression of the workshops that were given.

“It is excellent that you do this every year. It has become a fine tradition by now.”

Plenary opening by Monique Deenik

The third TopTaal Group teachers' afternoon was opened by director Monique Deenik. In a short presentation, she explained TopTaal's presence across the map with various types of programs. For instance, there are regions where TopTaal provides educational programs for the municipality and civic integration courses; 'Taal in het Bedrijf' (Language in the Workplace) works for clients throughout the Netherlands; and since 2016, there is the 'Stichting Leren Helpt!' (Learning Helps! Foundation), a part of the organization that focuses on matching people who want help with language to language volunteers. Monique also addressed how civic integration programs are currently featured in the news and how TopTaal ensures the quality of its programs is guaranteed. It goes without saying that good teachers are essential for this.

Workshops

Everyone active! by Anja Valk
Language methods offer ready-made lessons that allow for effective teaching. However, you sometimes want to do something different with the students you supervise. For example, what do you do to repeat the vocabulary of a certain lesson once more? What can you do with the reading texts in the curriculum? In this workshop, teachers were introduced to various working methods, including those from the book 'Actief met taal' (Active with Language). They received explanations on how to apply these methods, which work on different language skills, to the teaching materials they use themselves. Additionally, she explained why it is important to use activating methods, for example, because effective learning time increases and it boosts student motivation. After the workshop, teachers went home with an assignment for themselves: which method will they try, when, with which students, and what do they still need for that?

Tailor-made language learning: differentiation in the NT2 classroom by Caroline Bakker
Although TopTaal works primarily with homogeneous groups, small differences in level and learning ability will always arise within a group. Some students have difficulty with writing, while others need more support with speaking. Effective differentiation is a challenge, but also an opportunity to make a significant difference for individual students. In this workshop, the focus was on combining classroom and independent work and introducing level differences within the same assignment from the method. During the workshop, teachers shared a great deal with each other regarding differentiation, with Caroline Bakker offering practical tools. The teachers also created a lesson in the workshop that they could apply in practice and presented it to one another.

Goal-oriented speaking skills by Esther Oosterling and Ruth Monas
To properly develop your students' speaking skills, functional and relevant exercises are necessary. Esther Oosterling (teacher) and Ruth Monas (teacher and content advisor) demonstrated in this workshop how to practice speaking skills in class, how to determine the goal of a speaking exercise (and choose an appropriate method), and how to subsequently provide feedback on the students' speaking skills. This concerned both form and content. During the workshop, teachers' knowledge was primarily refreshed and shared. The participants were motivated, and excellent lesson plans for various levels and speaking goals were created.

Recognizing illiterate students by Annemarie Nuwenhoud
With the recent influx of new groups of refugees, the composition of the ANT2 (Literacy in Dutch as a Second Language) class has changed. In addition to students who still need to start the literacy process from scratch, there are now also many younger students who are literate in a different script or have low literacy skills in the alpha class. What characteristics and needs do these different groups of students have, how do you recognize them, and how can you best serve them as a teacher? After attending the workshop, teachers are better able to distinguish between the different types of alpha students and align with their talents and learning needs.

The 'My Plan' Approach: self-directed and sustainable learning by Annemarie Nuwenhoud
How do you ensure that your students take more responsibility for their own learning process and spend more time practicing Dutch outside of class and after the course has ended? The 'My Plan' approach can help with this. This approach is based on coaching techniques adapted for NT2 students. In Annemarie Nuwenhoud's workshop, she used a video she made with a 'Language in the Cleaning Sector' group to show how you can have students create a plan (for the short and long term) and how they can coach each other in achieving their goals. After watching the video, Annemarie revealed how you can work more as a coach as a teacher, the teachers set to work practicing coaching conversations, and plans were made to apply this approach in the classroom.

Civic Integration and TopTaal by Charlotte Bloem and José Glas
Setting realistic goals is an indispensable part of the civic integration process. As a teacher, you play an essential role in this. How do you coach your students during the course and in individual conversations toward an optimal trajectory? How do you ensure that the student has a realistic view of their future possibilities and is prepared for them as well as possible? In this workshop, Charlotte Bloem (teacher) and José Glas (manager of content and development) discuss, based on various cases, which trajectory is most suitable for different students. This explored how TopTaal's lesson offerings align with different needs, what you need to provide advice to a student, what the civic integration exam looks like, and what a student must be able to do before participating. Teachers went home with a significant amount of knowledge about how civic integration works and how TopTaal handles it.

Culturally sensitive teaching by Natascha Zoutewelle
As a teacher, it is important to remain constantly aware of your cultural frame of reference and the things you take for granted in your communication style. In this workshop, teachers learned to make more use of the students' cultural backgrounds and to better connect with them in communication. This was done through an interactive game, in which they learned a lot about themselves and, above all, had to laugh a lot at the way communication took place. After this communicative game, the link to teaching practice was made: how do you handle the intercultural aspect in the classroom and how can you learn something from a colleague in this regard? A degree of awareness was certainly created in this workshop.

Closing and evaluation

The teachers' afternoon concluded with drinks, during which there was a lot of chatting, laughing, and networking. The fact that TopTaal is spread across the entire country means that teachers and employees see each other sporadically, but there was no sign of that during these drinks. Naturally, the workshops were discussed, but experiences were also exchanged regarding methods, types of groups, specific students, and teaching styles. The presence of publishers Coutinho, Boom, and KleurRijker provided a good addition, as the mentioned methods and books could be viewed and purchased. Some reactions from attending teachers:

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