1. Home
2. BELTA Blog
3. Meet The Speakers: Natascha Coene

Meet The Speakers: Natascha Coene

14/03/2018 - 22:22

Room 316
13:50-14:30
40-minute talk

Three types of presentations used to write a reading portfolio

Natascha Coene
Belgian IATEFL Presenter's Grant Winner

This presentation, based on experience with sixth formers of a secondary academic school, wants to show through a practical example how alternative ways of presentations (elevator pitch, poster presentation, Pecha Kucha) can efficiently support the writing of a reading portfolio turning it into an integrated skills activity.

Natascha Coene’s Bio

Teacher
Sint-Aloysiuscollege Diksmuide
Belgium

Natascha Coene has been teaching since 1994, at first both English and Dutch, at this moment only English. She focuses on teaching English to youngsters aged 15 to 18. For ten years she has been actively involved in the European projects of her school, Saint Aloysius College of Diksmuide. The projects have always been integrated in the English lessons.

Why have you chosen this topic for your presentation?

My topic features, within the school's vision, to invest in 21st century learning, focussing on the components communication and creativity. At the same time it is an example of an integrated skills activity.

What do you want participants to take away from your presentation?

Secondary school teachers could be inspired to use an alternative way of presentation and they could also be inspired to create their own integrated skills activity.

Summary of presentation

Sixth formers, option modern languages, at my school have to write a reading portfolio comparing two books on the basis of a chosen topic. They are given eight months to complete this task. To make sure that they don’t postpone everything until the end, they have to report at regular intervals. The whole process is made more efficient by asking pupils to give specific presentations dealing with certain aspects in the course of the writing process:

• The research question is presented in writing to the teacher and orally to the other pupils by using an elevator pitch.
• The books, the research question, the method and the background information are presented by using a poster presentation.
• The final result is presented in a Pecha Kucha presentation.

These alternative ways of presentation are helpful because they require the pupils to think about the structure of their work and it helps them to go deeper into the content.

Writing and speaking skills combine into an integrated language task that could be used by other secondary school teachers.