Reflection on the webinar (6)

source: https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator/using-authentic-materials-in-the-classroom/

Recently I got to catch up with one of the webinars we were invited to. It took place on May 16th, and was conducted by Ms Paulina Andruszkiewicz-Glińska. The topic of the webinar was ‘Authentic materials in education’. When I learned I wouldn’t be able to join in, I was quite unhappy. Not only I enjoyed this presenter's last appearance, I also really wanted to explore the topic more and I’m grateful for this opportunity. 
 
As usual, this webinar started with a short introduction and an overview of the aspects of the topic included in it. The presenter decided to start with defining authentic materials, categorising them and reasons for incorporating them into the classroom. Then, she talked about examples of authentic materials and planning the lessons with their use.
 
One of the first things that caught my attention was the interactive form of this webinar. I really liked that the presenter used listeners’ background knowledge and encouraged them to share their experiences and discuss the topic. Asking for examples of utilising given objects was another great idea of eliciting knowledge and brainstorming. The prospect of comparing different experiences and drawing reflections from them is a very useful and developing thing. It’s also useful to point out possible differences between the way the teacher sees a material and how students react to it. Some of them may not be suitable for a specific group of students or it doesn’t match their age, interests and efficiency level. Not every material may be successfully adapted to each group of students, which doesn’t make it useless. In some cases it just needs more preparation of readjusting it to the topic.
 
In my workplace, the focus is on revising the topics from the textbook. Usually, I try to expand them by adding new activities and working on different skills, but it’s worth noting how time-consuming it is. I can understand school teachers’ point of view and some of their reasons for sticking to the textbook. I also can’t really compare my experience of having one or two students in the classroom with the whole class. On the other hand, I have witnessed using authentic materials during CLIL classes and it raised my expectations as well as helped me realise that it is doable. 
 
Only recently I have started experimenting with different objects of everyday use. For the past few lessons I have been carrying a set of playing cards in my bag. With one group I use them to revise the numbers from 1111-9999, and with the other the dates from 1911-1999. It’s actually very simple and enables multiple uses. It’s engaging for students and they instantly know what to do with the cards, as they use them in everyday life. 
 
To sum up, I really enjoyed spending the time listening and learning more about authentic materials. It’s always useful to find new ideas, search through new sources and expand the knowledge on the topic that seems familiar and feels important to discuss further.

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