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00:00:02

[Michelle Worgan]

Hello everybody, in this session I'm going to be talking about global thinking in primary classrooms and we're going to look at how our English lessons can help children see themselves as part of the bigger world in which they live, that it's not just their little lives and in their home or with their family but they are part of something bigger and this really does connect to what Vanessa and Miriam have been talking about earlier now and those future skills and skills like autonomy, independence, agency and so we're going to build on that and move towards helping our students become responsible citizens of the future which one day they will hopefully become but before we start I'd like to know how you feel about teaching these kinds of skills because I know that not everybody feels comfortable teaching future skills or soft skills or whatever you want to call them so three of these skills might be global citizenship, critical thinking and learner autonomy, it's not really a skill but for want of a better term that's what I'm calling it so how do you feel about teaching these things?

00:01:24

To make it a little bit easier I've provided five options for you, I'm going to read them out in case anybody's not able to read them and then I'll give you a few seconds to think about them so the first one is I think it's really important to teach these skills and I always try to develop them in my lessons, number two I think it's important but I'm not really sure about how to go about it, number three I think it's important but I don't have time to work on it, four I don't think it's as important as teaching vocabulary and grammar and other aspects of language and number five I don't think it's my job as an English teacher to teach these skills. Okay now you might think that maybe several of these are how you feel about it which is fine so feel free to choose more than one, if you're comfortable sharing you can type the number in the chat box so I can see lots of twos and threes here, some ones, I've not seen any fours or fives yet which is interesting but not completely surprising seeing as that you've chosen to come to these sessions which are about teaching these skills. So I think the truth is a lot of teachers find teaching these skills a bit of a challenge, we understand that they're important but you know they might make our job a little bit harder or that's how many teachers feel, know that it makes our job harder, it's difficult to find time to teach these things and that's because our job involves a lot of different elements. We've got vocabulary teaching, we've got grammar, we've got communication skills, speaking, pronunciation, reading, writing, listening, exam preparation in some cases and maybe also CLIL, that's a lot isn't it?

00:03:36

If you think about you've got to teach all of those things so it's not surprising that teachers might feel a bit overwhelmed at times and a bit frazzled like this picture of this funny bird here, I know I quite often felt like this in the classroom but the thing is global thinking and learner autonomy, critical thinking they're not actually extra things that we need to teach, they are a natural extension of what we already do in the classroom.

00:04:11

We need to think about why our students are learning English, is it just to pass an exam or to get a good mark at school or is it to be able to connect with other people and communicate with people in a globalised world? We live in this globalised world, it could be all three of those things actually. I believe that our role as English teachers is not only to teach language but to give children ways to express their ideas and their opinions, to ask questions, to talk about what's happening around them and what's going on in the world.

00:04:53

I think it's really important to make language learning meaningful and relevant to our students and their worlds and this is something that Vanessa touched on earlier in her session as well, even with the very young learners and this is where global thinking comes in but what is global thinking? It might be a new term for you, it might sound like something big and scary and complicated but really it's just understanding that we are part of a larger world, a bigger world and that our actions can affect other people in that world as well as ourselves. So it's about helping our younger learners, our primary learners, to understand that the things that they say and the things that they do can have an impact on other people.

00:05:53

So this involves nurturing curiosity, empathy and responsibility through the language that we teach. Global thinking actually brings together language learning which is the teaching, the vocabulary, the grammar and the pronunciation and the communication skills and the global awareness or maybe global citizenship that we also quite often teach in our English lessons. I think it brings these things together and I think that's really important.

00:06:32

Why? Well, a language, in this case English but it could be another language that you teach, it connects children or students in general to people and ideas worldwide. We also want to nurture curiosity and critical thinking skills and empathy and reflection and all of these future skills that we've just been talking about and we can do that through global thinking and it helps our learners act responsibly in their world. So global thinking isn't just another subject, it's not something additional to teach, it's a way of framing what we already teach so that children use English to explore, to connect with other people and to reflect on the world they live in. So in many ways, it grows out of what we already do. We focus on the things that our students are interested in.

00:07:32

We work on cultural awareness and communication skills. This is just the next step, is helping learners use their English to explore ideas and explore the world and not just practise language in isolation. Now, in their sessions, Vanessa and Miriam have talked about self-awareness, developing self-awareness, developing learner autonomy and independence and now with our primary students, we're going to take this one step further. Autonomy is about making choices and agency is about using your voice and acting on those choices. Global thinking encourages children to think about how these choices and decisions affect others and it helps them see how they fit in the world and what their actions fit in with the bigger picture. But you might be feeling a bit confused or overwhelmed by this now because it's all a bit theoretical at the moment.

00:08:40

So where do we start? Well, this is what we're going to do now. I'm hopefully going to show you how you can include global thinking in your teaching with a few simple strategies. And we're going to start with something that's really important and that is curiosity. Vanessa talked about this earlier and she shared some fantastic ideas about working with curiosity with very young learners. And we can use these similar strategies with our older learners too.

00:09:12

I think curiosity is the key to everything, really, because what it does is it creates a gap, a gap of knowledge. When you want to know something, this is a gap and we want to fill that gap with something. We want to find answers. So this is the ideal place for learning to happen. So the key here with working with curiosity is to take your students' curiosity and then let this direct the conversation, let that lead where you're going to go in your lesson. And then the other thing that we need to do is to ask the right questions. We need to ask students questions that foster critical thinking and empathy and these skills that we've been talking about. But how can you spark curiosity in your learners? Vanessa showed us earlier her little son as a baby being really curious about the kaleidoscope and exploring that.

00:10:17

And with very young learners, I mean, their curiosity is pretty much limitless, right? They're always exploring the world and asking questions. But what about your nine and ten-year-olds? Maybe they're not so curious. Maybe they're not asking so many questions because it kind of becomes a bit uncool to be asking questions when you reach a certain age. So this is where, as teachers, we need to develop activities that foster this curiosity and encourage students to ask questions. So the first strategy is, I can never say the word strategy. If I say it quickly, I say it wrong. The first strategy is to start with an image or an object, something interesting.

00:11:09

And we're going to do this now. I'd like you to have a look around you, wherever you are, whether you're at your desk or on your sofa, in the room that you're in, look around and find an object. It can be any object at all. It could be something big, something small. It could be something interesting, something special to you, just a random object on your desk. I'll give you a few seconds to go pick something up and then we'll continue. You don't have to tell me what it is. You just keep it for yourself. And let me know when you've got something. Just type a yes or a thumbs up or something like that. A few people have got something already. Great. So keep that for a few minutes. Now, because this isn't interactive and you can't turn on your cameras, you can't show me your object or show the others, but I'm going to demonstrate this activity with you. Okay, so I'm going to show you my object.Okay, here it is. It's also in the picture on the slide if you can't see it. Okay.

00:12:18

I'd like you to say what you can see here. What do you see? And you can type any ideas in the chat box. Okay. I'm going to move the angle a little bit so that you can see. It's a bit clearer here, a bit closer. I'm going to just do this so that you can see. You can see some ideas. We've got a tube, a pipe, something hollow, a straw. It looks like it's made out of plastic. Plastic tube. Okay. Silicon tube. Oh, some people are being very specific here. It's not for drinking my tea, which is going cold. Okay. So how would you describe it? I've seen some words like plastic. Any other words that you could use to describe it? Bendy, cylindrical. That's a good word.

00:13:14

Flexible, long. Okay. Okay. What do you think about this object? What do you think it is? What do you think it's for? Any ideas? What do you think about it? It might be part of another object or a number of objects. Oh, that's a good thought there. Somebody else. North Summer Education doesn't think it's very useful. Ah, well, you never know. A hot glue gun. Okay. A bracelet. Oh, there's some creative ideas actually here. To fill water from a bottle. For blowing. A tunnel. Okay. Okay. What do you wonder about
this object? What questions do you have? Do you have any questions about it? Does it glow in the dark? That's a fabulous question. Where does it come from? What is it used for? Where does it fit? Why did you choose it? Basically because it was on my desk. Is it broken in the middle?

00:14:37

Ah, because you see when I was bending it, it went like that. I'm not sure if it's broken. Okay. So I'm going to move on because we only have 30 minutes. Um, but, um, this is a, this is a visible thinking routine called See, Think, Wonder. Okay. Um, you'll see that now you've got lots of questions. You're wondering about this object because you don't know what it is. Uh, and I haven't confirmed any of your answers. Um, so I've piqued your curiosity. Um, and now there's a gap in your knowledge because you don't know what it is. You might have an idea, but you don't know. There's actually another part that I use it with. So I use these two items together. So that might give you another clue, but I'm not actually going to tell you if you're right or wrong.

00:15:30

And if I remember at the end, uh, I might tell you. Ask me at the end. Um, okay. So this is a great activity for generating curiosity and ideas at the beginning of a topic. Um, so you picked up an object before, um, do you think you could use this routine See, Think, Wonder with the object that you picked up? Could you use this in the classroom in this way? Uh, Vincenza says no. I guess it depends on the object, right? Obviously you didn't know why I was asking you to pick up an object, obviously.

00:16:14

Um, but yeah, you can do it with pretty much any object, um, and, uh, or any picture. Uh, we're going to look at that in a minute. So maybe this is something that you could try in your next lesson, uh, with your students and just see what happens. It's really nice to, to find out what language students know, um, and what language they don't know. Um, again, that's another gap that you can then, um, give them the language that they need. Um, so you get the point, right? It's just an object or a photograph that generates interest. Um, and then we're generating questions, um, with our students and our students want answers to those questions. And that's where we would want to move on to finding out more. So maybe after I've shown them an object, maybe not this one, maybe something else, um, I could show them what I use it for, or I could show them a video, or we could read a story or read a text or, or do some other kind of activity, um, based on that. But it's not really global thinking yet. For that, we need to link it, we need to, to link it to one of these areas here that are coming up now on the screen.

00:17:03

Um, one is learning about different countries and cultures. So understanding that people have different lives and experiences, they speak different languages, they eat different foods, they have different routines and different traditions. Um, exploring global issues in an age-appropriate way. Okay. A global issue is something that is, is, is globally important or something that's, you know, happens in many parts of the world. Um, can you think of any global issues that would be appropriate for the primary classroom? Pollution, Kelly. Yes. The use of plastic. Yes. And in fact, my object is made of, I think, plastic or silicone. Um, plastic bags, sustainability, recycling.

00: 18:24

Yeah. Some great ideas here. Yes. Cutting down trees, deforestation. Um, yes. Protecting animals and dangerous species. Yeah. All of these topics I think are age appropriate. Um, so that's another way of bringing in global thinking. Um, we can also work on building empathy and respect so we can encourage
children to imagine how other people feel. Um, especially if they're experiencing something different than what our students have experienced, or maybe they face a particular challenges. Um, and also understanding the connection, um, learning, for example, that our clothes might be made in another part of the world or how the weather, uh, and the climate in one place might affect something like food production in another, uh, another region.

00:19:22

Um, these connections, um, that exist in the world. So obviously with this, that's quite difficult, but what you can do is choose an object that has some cultural significance or a photo, maybe a postcard or something that shows something interesting about another country or that represents a problem in the world. And you can do this with pictures too. Photographs. Um, this photograph here is from, uh, Global Explorers, a primary course by Macmillan. This is from level three. And here we've got a big question. Where does food come from? And we can use this question to kick off the topic and guide the learning in the unit. So we can maybe ask this question and generate some initial ideas from our students. And we can do this see, think, wonder routine here with the picture. So there's lots to explore in this picture. Um, so we can use this picture to encourage students to think critically about where food comes from. Um, so imagine you were doing this topic and you wanted to talk about where food comes from. What areas could you explore here with your primary students?

00:20:47

Do you think you have any ideas about what exactly you could explore within this big question? For example, you could talk about food that comes from animals. Yeah. A farm, for example, farming. Um, and then you could talk about, uh, different diets like veganism and vegetarianism. Um, you can also look at where food is grown. Food groups. Yeah. That's another nice idea. And nutrition, importing and exporting food. So yes, the transportation of food and how sustainable that is. Things like this. Yeah. One thing I like to do is to ask my students to, if they go to the supermarket with their parents on the weekend, um, to have a look at the fruit and vegetables and see where it comes from, because it usually says now the country of origin. And then yes, Simon, we can look at food mileage. How far have these bananas travelled to get here? Okay. Um, so this is how you can bring in these, this global thinking.

00:21:57

Um, with a different topic here, um, of natural disasters, we can do the same thing. Um, the unit title, how can we help here is a great example of global thinking that requires students to develop empathy as they explore a global issue. Now your students may or may not have experience of extreme weather or natural disasters, but they will have seen them on the news. Probably, um, all of our students are seeing things like this all the time. So I think it's important that we give our students the language that they need to talk about these important topics. So yes, this means vocabulary to talk about, um, the events like storm or hurricane or, um, floods, but it also means other words to talk about solutions.

00:22:56

For example, uh, words like rescue, safe, danger, shelter, or the emergency services. And many of these words will be useful for other topics, but also in real life. Um, so this, the second strategy is to teach relevant and meaningful language and helping students build their linguistic repertoire through this interesting topic. The third strategy is to bring in authentic materials, and you can use these to supplement your coursebook. Um, stories and videos are great for this. Um, and it, they allow us to explore these kinds of topics with younger children. Um, I'm going to show you a very short excerpt from a video, um, on this topic of natural disasters that you could use with younger students.

00:23:41

This is Birdie. Birdie is a happy bird who likes to sing. She lives in a nest in a tall tree. Birdie feels cosy and safe in her nest. Birdie likes to catch worms and talk with her friend, Mr. Frog. Mr. Frog lives in a pond with green lily pads. One day when Birdie was looking for worms, she spotted some dark clouds in the sky. Bing, bing, bing. Some drops of rain fell out of the sky and landed on her head. Birdie flew back up to her dry nest. The rain got harder and harder. Bing, bing, bing. Splat, splat, splat. The water was making big puddles on the ground. Splash, splash, splash. It rained upon. There was loud thunder and a multiple lightning. Birdie didn't like loud noises of all the water. It was scary. Bing, bing, bing. The rain did not stop. Bing, bing, bing. It went on her head. Splash, splash, splash. It went in the pond. Birdie got wetter and wetter and colder and colder. Soon her feathers and nest were soggy and yucky. Birdie was not happy. She didn't feel safe. She was afraid. The water came up and up. The pond got fuller and fuller. Soon the water covered the ground and then it covered the road. It even covered the cars and went into the houses. When her nest started to break, Birdie flew to a safe place. When the rain stopped, Birdie flew back to her tree. Oh no, her tree was broken. Her nest was...

00:26:02

[Michelle Worgan]

Oh, I'm sorry. I couldn't play it to the end because we don't have time, but you can go and watch it. I'll share the link with you later. This is a video developed by the Queensland government in Australia, and they've got a whole series of these on different natural disasters and other things. And there's also a digital book, a flip book of them as well. So in terms of language, you could watch the video, but you could also use the flip book and maybe use your own language, not your own language, but use phrases and language that students can understand if this might be a little bit too challenging. So stories like this help students understand the concept, identify with a situation, and understand that different people have different experiences than the ones that they're having themselves. And I think this is really important.

00:26:59

The fourth strategy is to include practical tasks or activities that encourage students to use the new language that they've learnt. So here we've got an activity. Imagine you volunteer in a shelter after a natural disaster. Think of an activity for the kids to do there. So here we're really bringing it to something that our students can identify with because they're thinking about children just like them, but who are in a situation like this. So here, students are using the new language to talk about how they could take responsibility and help in a situation like this.

00:27:42

And yes, Liliana, it's empathy. This is developing empathy, which is a really important skill, I think. Another strategy, and this is something that Vanessa and Miriam talked about, is to provide choice. With these kinds of activities, we can give students choices on how to respond so they could act it out or draw a picture and then share it. This is a great way, choice is a great way to foster autonomy, but also to cater for the different learning preferences in your class and be more inclusive of the diversity of your class. And then finally, we can give students opportunities to produce a piece of work in groups that showcases what they've learned and that they can feel proud of.

00:28:32

So depending on the topic, it could be something that actively contributes to the community, maybe to your school community or the local community or even the global community. So, for example, here in this example from Global Explorers, they have to make a plan to help the community that's experienced a natural disaster, and they get to choose how they make that. So they could make a poster, they could make a leaflet, they could make a video that they can share with others. And then in the explore stage, where they're asked to encourage other people in the community to help, you could as a class find out whether there are any local charities or associations that help with natural disasters or other things like that and how you could contribute. So these activities encourage young learners to think beyond their immediate community and consider what they can do to make a difference and take real action. So just to recap, global thinking isn't about doing more, it's about changing the way we frame our lessons.

00:29:48

It's about asking questions instead of just giving answers and also getting our students to ask questions. It's about extending learning from what's on the page to our communities. And the key is to start with our learners. What do they already know? What do they want to know? What interests them? What are they curious about? What do they care about? I went, I got a bit ahead of myself there and clicked when I shouldn't have. Um, so just before… just to end. Um, it's really easy to add a simple question or a discussion task to any lesson, really, to encourage students to think about themselves and their part in the world. And when we develop global thinking like this, we're helping our. shape our learners into thoughtful, active participants in society. And, um, I think this is a really great thing to start doing in primary and then continue with in, in secondary.

00:30:56

So, if you would like any more information, if you'd like to talk to me about any of this, you can get in touch with me. Here are my details. Um, the QR code is for my LinkedIn profile, so that's the social network that I most active on, uh, these days. Um, and I am going to see if there are any questions.

[Will]

I'm here, can you see me okay? You can. Hi!

[Michelle Worgan]

Well, are there any questions? Yes, better now, you're not as dark anymore.

[Will]

I know, I've turned the light on. I don't know why I didn't do it before. Thank you, Michelle, what a talk. Thank you so much, really challenging to think about the way that we're, um, questioning our students and asking them and probing and probing and probing our students.

00:31:41

Um, okay, questions from Michelle? Anybody, do you have any questions for Michelle? We haven't had any Q&A yet. It's been a very observant audience today, actually. Very observant. Okay. If you have got a question, Michelle, please do, um, pop it in the Q&A.

[Michelle Worgan]

I mean, I wondered if people want to know about this, because I've… Oh!

[Will]

Um… No, interesting, Michelle. No, I'm not interested. No, don't care, don't care. No.

[Michelle Worgan]

Not interested. Oh, okay then. You can keep your curiosity.

[Will]

Don't wanna… I don't wanna know. No, come on, what is it? So, someone said, I'm… someone said, um… It's part of something else. And you said, ooh, that's an interesting one. It does look like it's part of something else.

[Michelle Worgan]

Yeah, well… So, yes. Well, it's just… it's not part of something else, we use them together, so it's actually… It's… I think it's called, like, a phonation tube, or something like that. So, it's used to, like, um. warm up your vocal cords, or something like that. So you have to, like, put it in water.

[Will]

No, go on. No, no, it's fine.

[Michelle Worgan]

a little bit of water and, like, blow. So somebody was right, you have to… I'm not gonna do it now. And it, like, vibrates your… This would be a bit embarrassing, because you have to make a sound, so, um, it's because I've started going to singing lessons, and, um, this is, like, one of the warm-up thing.

00:33:00

[Will]

Oh, right! I didn't even know about that. I'll look into it.

[Michelle Worgan]

Hmm. Camilla knows what it is. Camilla, maybe you can explain it better than me.

[Will]

Yeah, Camina, do you want to come on? I can put you on camera if you like. Go on. I'll let you respond to that. That's a pretty on-the-spot thing.

[Michelle Worgan]

Maybe she's shy. Yeah.

[Will]

I'm sure she wouldn't. Don't have a camera, no, okay, fine. Um… Okay, examples of other practical tasks teachers can use with young learners, Michelle?

[Michelle Worgan]

Um, well, I like to use a lot of, um, visible thinking routines, so not just the see, think, wonder, that's one that I like to use a lot, but there are other ones as well. Um, if you've not heard of these, they were routines developed by Project Zero at Harvard University. You can… they've got a website with. Loads of different routines. And they are designed to. Show our students thinking. Um, and so I like to use one that's called Question Starts, where. Um, I give students, like, the question words, um, and then I get them to. Uh, come up with as many questions as they can about the topic, and then they have to choose the kind of, like, the best questions in the group. So they all come up with lots of questions.

[Will]

Okay.

[Michelle Worgan]

Um, it's great for practicing question forms, which is, you know, quite challenging for most young learners, you know?

[Will]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Michelle Worgan]

Um, you get a lot of practice with asking questions, and then they choose, like, the top 3 questions, and then we will use those top 3 questions to then carry on, um, investigating or finding out some more information to help them answer those questions.

00:34:42

[Will]

Amazing. Are there… there's another point, and another question, a comment slash question here for you.

[Michelle Worgan]

What else? I don't know.

[Will]

So, as Lan has said in the chat. Um, thank you very much for the session really useful. Problem is, in some countries, global thinking hasn't been instilled. That's why when teachers like me start discussing global topics. They might be like, it's not my concern, there's nothing to do with me. Um, so she's sort of
implying that… not implying, but she says that maybe the mindset of, you know, the cultures… the cultural mindset needs to shift. before you can start exploring these things in class, what do you think?

00:35:21

[Michelle Worgan]

Yeah, I mean, I think maybe thinking globally, then, is maybe a bit a step too far. Maybe start with something that's a bit more local. And thinking about local issues, or maybe not even issues, just thinking about.

[Will]

Okay.

[Michelle Worgan]

Um, what's… what's going on just outside of the classroom, but, you know, in your local area. And then, starting there, and I don't think it's. Like I said, sometimes it's the name of things that sounds like it's not what we should be doing, global thinking, oh, that's really big and scary. Well, it doesn't have to be.

[Will]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, controversial, and, you know…

[Michelle Worgan]

Um, it's… it's just about, I think. Um, connecting what you do in the classroom with the real world. Because that's what makes it relevant and meaningful for learners. Um, anything that you can bring in from the outside world, from your home, or from your, you know, even in your school, into the classroom. Um, it's always gonna give them a reason for learning that language.

00:36:23

Um, learning that structure, learning that vocabulary, rather than just saying, okay, today we're going to do page 34, and this is the vocabulary we're learning. Why are they learning that? You need to connect it to something. So I think just start there, really. Start small. And then you can gradually maybe build up a little bit.

[Will]

Brilliant. Thank you so much, Michelle, that's really insightful. Thanks for putting the talk together as well, absolutely brilliant. Um, great to work with you, finally, and we'll see you for the final session in what? 5 hours or something. You've got one more left. One more.

[Michelle Worgan]

A few hours?

[Will]

Um, thanks for your time today, Michelle. Have a lovely afternoon and evening.

00:36:59

[Michelle Worgan]

Thank you, thank you everybody, bye-bye.