On December 16^th, Senior English Language Fellow John Mark King visited a middle school and met with English teachers from more than seven area schools in the city founded as the summer home of the tsars and where national poet Alexander Pushkin once studied.

25 working elementary and middle school teachers came for the Fellow’s two workshops, “Managing Large Classes” and the Christmas-themed reading workshop, “Using Stories to Build a Community of Learners.”

Russian teachers in and around Pushkin often have groups of 25 or more students when smaller groups are temporarily combined into one. The teachers shared many of their own ideas when managing large groups of students who may not be their own and also enthusiastically explored the benefits of approaches which the Fellow suggested.

In addition, teachers in Pushkin admitted that there is a need for innovation in their approach to the teaching of reading in English. This second workshop encouraged teachers to allow students to construct meaning on their own as they read and discover texts as a community of learners.

Many teachers exclaimed that much of what they explored in these workshops could be modified and used in their own classes right away.

These workshops were part of a series of additional workshops the Fellow conducts regularly for the Academy of Pedagogical Mastery in St. Petersburg.

On Oct. 21, 2009, Senior English Language Fellow John Mark King gave a workshop entitled, “Judging a Book by Its Cover: The First Step in Becoming an Effective Reader” to a group of 29 current teachers at the Academy of Pedagogical Mastery in St. Petersburg, Russia. Most of the teachers work at secondary schools and often teach reading. However, they admitted to rarely using authentic materials, primarily because they are too difficult for their students. In addition, they admitted to relying almost entirely on simple translation and text analysis. The Fellow suggested that materials written for native speakers can be used creatively in all classes, the only difference being that lower-level students will be asked to read less of the material than higher-level students.

To demonstrate this, the Fellow divided the teachers into groups and gave each of them a different book. The material included historical and suspense fiction, travel writing and historical non-fiction, all written for native speakers of English. The Fellow asked teachers to learn as much as they could from each book without looking inside. The teachers were then asked to evaluate each and share with their classmates whether or not (and why) their book is one they would choose to read themselves.

This, the teachers learned, is one of the qualities of an effective reader. All too often, learners select material to read and find later that it is either too difficult or uninteresting. The result is a loss of confidence and interest in reading as a whole. Practicing such skills not only generates interest in reading and allows low-level students to participate in reading activities with authentic materials, but it also helps students to develop the necessary skills of an effective reader.

This workshop is part of a series of bi-weekly events the Fellow is hosting in addition to his regular work at the Academy of Pedagogical Mastery. The goal is to provide a wide variety of teachers from all districts in St. Petersburg with innovative and creative approaches to English language education.