John Mark King, a Senior English Language Fellow from St. Petersburg is
accepting applications for participation in a free seven-week online course for teachers of English who want to improve their skills in teaching writing. The course, co-sponsored by the St. Petersburg English Language Teachers' Association and the English Language Office at the US Embassy will begin in early March and last until late April. Enrollment is open to all teachers of English in Russia who currently teach at a school, university or language center.
 
Participants will be selected based on their ability and motivation to 1) devote the required amount of time and work to the course, 2) work with a group of students on one expository writing assignment and 3) share what they learn with their colleagues through future workshops and seminars.
 
Please find attached an application form and a description of the course.
 
The deadline for application is February 15. Feel free to contact John Mark at jorabek@gmail.com if you have any questions.
 
Application for Enrollment
Teaching EFL Writing: An Online Skills Course for Teachers of English in Russia

Please complete the following information and submit it to johnmark@jorabek.com on or before February 15, 2010.

Your name, email address and telephone number

Where you teach (region, city and school)

Describe your students (age, level, number per group)

Describe your students’ writing needs. What do they need/want to learn how to do in writing?

Do you have easy access to the Internet?

From early March to late April will you have a maximum of four hours per week you will be able to devote to this course?

Can you devote 8-12 hours of classroom time to practicing your new skills with a group of your own students? This will be during the second half of the course.

List any teacher associations you are active in or US Department of State exchange/continuing education programs in which you have participated.

Describe in a paragraph or two why you want to take this course.

Describe in a few sentences specifically how you will share what you learn in this course with your colleagues.

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Teaching EFL Writing: An Online Skills Course for Teachers of English in Russia by John Mark King Senior English Language Fellow St. Petersburg English Language Teachers’ Association

Course capacity: 25 teachers*
Duration: 7 weeks (a maximum of four hours per week)
Course dates: Early March to late April (exact dates to be determined)
Location: http://teachingeflwriting.ning.com/ (Participants will not meet in person)
Requirements: Participants must be able to commit a maximum of four hours per week to this course. In addition, they must be currently working at a school, university or language center and be able to devote at least 8-12 classroom hours to one writing assignment.
*Space is limited, but special consideration will be given to teachers who are active in local teacher associations and are willing to share their experience in this course with their colleagues through workshops or seminars.
Teachers who complete the course successfully will receive a certificate from the American Embassy English Language Office in Moscow.
Interested teachers should send an email to John Mark King at johnmark@jorabek.com for consideration. The registration deadline is February 15.
Course Overview
This online course is designed to help teachers of English in Russia to improve their skills in teaching writing. Over the course of seven weeks, participants will discuss, evaluate and create a series of lessons for students that help them to learn the steps required to plan, revise and publish a successful piece of writing in a specific genre.
We will be following the Process/Genre approach to writing which has proven useful for helping students to discover that 1) writing can be made easier by dividing it into a series of recursive stages or tasks and that 2) each writing assignment (or genre) can have its own predefined organizational structure and conventions of language.
There is no requirement for a teacher to work with a particular student age or proficiency level in order to participate in this course. Participants must only be eager to try new approaches to writing with their own students and be willing to share their ideas with other members of the group.
Participants will be encouraged to decide what genre they will teach, but for the purposes of this course, all assignments must be some form of expository writing such as paragraphs, essays or letters.
During the first four weeks of the course, participants will explore the Process/Genre approach through readings and online discussion and then create a series of activities for their students which will culminate in the publication of a piece of student writing.
In the final three weeks, teachers will implement their activities in the classroom and reflect on their level of success in the online forum with their colleagues. Participants will also work together online to help their colleagues improve their approach to teaching writing in the future.
The stages of the writing process the course will cover and participants will create activities for will be:
1. Preparation
a. Reading texts
b. Videos
c. Class discussion/group activities
d. Freewriting/journals
2. Modeling and discovery
a. Sample essays
b. Noting structure
c. Discovering purpose and audience
3. Planning
a. Choosing a topic
b. Writing an outline
4. Revising
a. Writing multiple drafts
b. Peer review of early drafts
c. Teacher comments of all drafts
d. Error correction
e. Teacher conferences
5. Publication
a. Class binder
b. Web sites
c. Portfolios