“Literature and creative texts: how to practise and test literature in line with the CEFR and its Companion Volume”
The Latvian Association of Teachers of English (LATE), in cooperation with the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML), conducted a 3-day teacher professional development course for English as a foreign language teachers, teacher trainers, curriculum developers and language test developers in Riga from 25-27th October 2023.
The RELANG workshop was implemented in cooperation with the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML), and was supported by the European Commission.
The workshop was conducted by ECML experts, Rita Juknevičienė (Vilnius University, Lithuania) and Gábor Szábo (Pécs University, Hungary).
The workshop was immensely beneficial for all the teachers as our National Curriculum includes teaching literature and creative texts and involved a lot of group work.
During the workshop teachers not only improved their theoretical knowledge of relating literature and creative texts, but also developed their own tasks related to the descriptors of the CEFR and Learning Outcomes of the National Curriculum. The tasks and assessment scales were presented and discussed in meaningful conversations.
The thought-provoking questions by ECML experts, Rita Juknevičienė and Gábor Szábo, helped the participants to gain deeper understanding on task development, assessment and mediation.
Participants said that it was an immensely useful workshop as it also provided a lot of opportunities for networking, which is important for everyone, but particularly for new teachers.
Here is some feedback from some of the course participants:
Literature offers enormous field of sources and opportunities to serve our students intellectual, psychological and emotional needs and I was happy to meet colleagues that share the same views and attitude. Thank you to consultants who kept reminding us about importance of assessment in every step we make.
Inguna Kalniņa
I have received meaningful information about CEFR levels and their practical application in the classroom. I had various opportunities to work with colleagues from Latvian schools, valuable discussions, and a lot of support from the experts/ consultants. I appreciate this experience. Thank you!
Veronika Skripačova