We’re pleased to announce that Ivan Lacko is doing a workshop for SCET next month! Sign up while you can!
- When: 4.30pm, Tuesday 12th March 2013
- Where: Baštová 7, 811 03 Bratislava
- Fee: None, but registering is required due to the limited number of spots (18 max.)
PLAYING WITH TEXTS IN THE EFL CLASSROOM: Surprise your students, show them how to think (and feel) outside the box, and they just might surprise you back.
The negative myths surrounding the using texts in the English classroom are many:
- students don’t like to read
- text exercises are boring
- all texts have to be either literary (e.g. Dickens and Austen) or journalistic (i.e. about political, social or economic issues in current events).
But texts are all around us; we see, read and enjoy them every day. And yet very few of them are literary or journalistic.
In this workshop, Ivan will present some alternative ways to use a variety of texts in the classroom – and on all possible levels: individual words, chunks of words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs. He’ll demonstrate an approach very unlike the traditional top-down lesson plan structure. In his lessons, students have to rely on their feelings, understand their experience, and learn to deal with moments of unexpected creativity. The language they produce – be it written or spoken – is often unpredictable, weird, and perhaps banal. But it is also sometimes extraordinary. And it all grows out of the original text and reflects it in some way.
The workshop is not level-specific and the material can be adapted to virtually any type of classroom.
Ivan Lacko is an assistant professor at the Department of British and American Studies, 
Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava.
He has taught courses in American studies, literature, cultural studies, as well as creative writing and drama, both at undergraduate and graduate level. He has had extensive experience with teacher training — using drama, creative writing and a focus on critical literacy to spark new approaches to teaching.