November 2, 2021: TEFL trainee teachers present their A-level teaching series to university students at GENiUS2 event
Another GENiUS2 event took place in the so-called teachers’ lounge at the Waldweg institute on 2 November 2021. We were delighted that this get-together could once again be held in presence. As part of a meeting of the Studienseminar Göttingen, the teacher training institute in Göttingen, English university students were given the opportunity to discuss teaching series which were designed by TEFL trainee teachers. In addition, the GENiUS2 buddy system, which had unfortunately been suspended during Corona, was revived.
Around 30 trainee teachers from the current training cohorts, three teacher trainers from the Studienseminar Göttingen, two TEFL university lecturers, and a number of English students from Göttingen University participated in the event. The trainee teachers presented their ideas for teaching series in small groups, which were based on the following texts and topics that are relevant for the Abitur (A-levels) 2022/23:
• Short stories on Postcolonialism: “The Third and Final Continent”, “Loose Change”, “She Shall Not Be Moved”, “The Escape”.
• Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
• Sindiwe Magona’s Mother to Mother
• Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino
After the presentations, the participants discussed to what extent the presented lesson series had embedded the A-level materials in a coherent progression that promotes students’ language and content skills as well as their textual and media literacy skills. In addition to the informed feedback that trainee teachers received on their lesson drafts, the discussions gave the university students a lively insight into the in-school teacher training phase and therefore into their next stage of education.
This networking between university students, TEFL department and Studienseminar was further consolidated at the end of the event when the trainee teachers introduced the buddy system to the English students and invited them to work with them – as their buddies – on future implementations of TEFL lessons. In this way, the students who attended the event were brought together with “teacher freshmen” at school for a future cooperation.