English Language Symposium 2013: ‘Growing Together: Experience, Expertise, Exchange’

We held our inaugural English Language Symposium at the Academy of Singapore Teachers on 11 November 2013. The theme for the symposium was ‘Growing Together: Experience, Expertise, Exchange’. In attendance were about 300 participants, comprising EL teachers, officers from the English Language and Literature Branch (ELLB) of Curriculum Planning & Development Division (CPDD), and guests from the National Institute of Education (NIE).

Dr Ian McGrath, our Visiting Teaching Fellow for 2013, delivered the keynote address as well as a Practice-oriented Seminar on Differentiated Instruction (DI). In his keynote address, Dr McGrath spoke about what DI is, and why it is necessary. He also introduced Carol Tomlinson’s framework (2000) of differentiation strategies based on content, process and product. For his Practice-oriented Seminar, Dr McGrath provided concrete examples of DI based on the three areas identified by Tomlinson.

In addition to Dr McGrath’s two sessions, there was also a plenary session on ‘Professional Development@ De La Salle School’ by Mdm Koh Ting Ting, De La Salle School’s School Staff Developer (SSD). In her presentation, Mdm Koh spoke about her school’s three-year journey in understanding and applying Assessment for Learning (AfL), with the support given by Dr Tay May Yin, our Programme Director/ Pedagogy and Principal Master Teacher/ EL, who took the stage as well to introduce the context of her collaboration with the school.

The symposium also offered the participants the opportunity to learn from one another’s practice. There were in total 30 concurrent session presentations focusing on a broad and diverse range of topics relevant in ELT, presented by school teachers as well as our very own colleagues from ELIS.