Why PTLLS?
PTTLS stands for Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector. It's a level 4 qualification which enables you to teach post 16 students and is a short course that takes about 10-12 weeks. I embarked upon the course as I felt it would be of great benefit to me and the students that I train in Information Literacy skills. I have felt for sometime that there has been a gap in my formal Library training despite gaining a MA in Information Management and also my Chartership and this gap had been Teaching skills. Throughout the course I have learnt how to improve my sessions, have gained new ideas for delivery and activities and also improved my confidence. I think completing the course will also help course tutors to have better confidence in my abilities to teach their students the skills they need to find information and research for their course.
Lessons Learnt
- Plan, Plan, Plan! Lesson plans are a great way of making sure you cover all the content you want to and also make it interesting by showing you at a glance whether you have included a range of activities and teaching methods.
- Reflect, Reflect, Reflect! Think about how your teaching session went, reflect on it and improve it for next time.
- LRC Jargon. Library staff a lot of jargon so make sure you always explain any jargon and don't presume your students understand it.
- Consider the different Learning styles, Visual, Kinesthetic, Reading and Auditory and mix up activities to cover them all.
- Remember your roles and responsibilities especially Health and Safety and the classroom environment. Give yourself time to set up and check the computers are working too.
- Embed Functional Skills in your session to improve students Literacy, Numeracy and ICT skills.
- Feedback is really important for students development and even though Library sessions don't involve formal assessment it is important that students get a sense how well they are doing and what they can do to improve.
- Evaluation! Feedback on your performance is key to your own development and improvement. You should always get students to evaluate the session even if it is just quickly on a post-it note.
Session Tips
- Use music at the start of your sessions to set the mood.
- Use Starter tasks and mini activities to focus and energise your learners.
- Ask tutors prior to the session to provide you with details of any students who have individual learning needs. This will allow you to plan differentiation into your activities and/or have support materials available in the correct formats.
- Don't do all the work. Encourage the students to do it for you.
- Always have a back up activity! If you finish too soon or if your technology doesn't work it's always good to have something else to call on.
Ideas for Activities
- Ping Pong word association game
- Word Searches
- Definitions matching game
- Gaped worksheets
- Quizzes
- Pass the ball to answer questions
- Paper folding task to generate ideas with reluctant learners
- Call my bluff
Mirco Teach Quiz
As part of my Micro Teach I developed a Search Strategy Quiz which students completed in pairs on iPads. Not ideal for large groups unless you have lots of iPads but it worked really well with my small group. I also used a QR Code for students to link to the quiz which is easier than them typing in a long URL.
Hannah (Library Gossip Girl)
Hannah (Library Gossip Girl)
