with Mark Heffernen and David Byrne

We learnt a lot of our early teaching skills and techniques from coursebooks. It was how we learnt the various grammar points, how we learnt about reading comprehension and so many other aspects of the classroom. But sometimes, we fell into the trap of moving from one activity to the next “covering” material without actually discussing the learning. Involving our students in a dialogue about their learning was not something we could learn from the coursebook.

In this session, we will make the case for taking a more overt approach to teaching by involving our students in the discussion of their own learning, involving them in the “why” of the lesson as opposed to just the “what”. We will outline the practical steps that you can take to become a more Overt Teacher.

David Byrne has worked in EFL for over a decade and in that time has taught all the ages, levels and exams he could find. He’s worked in Ireland, England, Spain and South Korea but the majority of his career has been spent in London. There, he has worked for a number of schools but mostly for EC, where he has been teacher, aDoS, DoS and most recently Curriculum Manager. With Mark, he publishes a popular blog and has written articles for ETP magazine as well as working on workbooks and online content for well-known publishers. In his free time he also writes stories for his little boy…who doesn’t seem that interested in them.

Mark Heffernan has taught English for over 16 years, spending many of those years focusing on exam teaching. In 2016, he moved to Queen Mary University where he teachers EAP, is a materials writer and a module convenor. Together, he and David have written a popular blog and a teachers resource book, calledTextploitation. Besides teaching, his main interest is creating and releasing music.

Photo by CDC on Unsplash