Speaker:Amanda Maitland
Topic:Finding the hero in the young student whilst embracing the dark side
Date:Saturday April 6, 2013
Time:3:00pm - 5:30pm
Venue:KNU, Woodang Building, Room 201
Map: click here
This workshop aims at applying soft toy theory at the middle and high school levels although many of the underlying theory, themes and activities could also support adult literacy events. The workshop will add a socio-psychological goal to the other goals that underlie communicative language teaching. The aim is to present the soft toy and psychological theories and connect them to popular themes such as “fantasy”, “superhero” “traumatic world events” and “monster”. The workshop will demonstrate how learning through play can develop a dialogue between the teacher and student that can fuel creative thought, whilst raising general literacy standards. The workshop will also demonstrate how applying the soft toy theory and the popular themes can raise students’ self-esteem, encourage a greater complexity of thought and trigger discussions of morality and the general level of communicative ability in the classroom and out. Finally, the workshop will connect the popular themes and soft toy play to the notion of story sacks. Story sacks are a means of supporting extensive reading by developing students' comprehension of stories and readers whilst encouraging communicative/soft toy play and language reviewing activities. The themes and theories allow for the use of a rich variety of multi-media, memorabilia and realia. The activities discussed will aim generally at the young adult finding his hero or finding the hero that resides inside, whilst allowing the young adult to embrace his darker side and test boundaries, to feel empowered and learn how to deal with the feeling of power.
Amanda Maitland is a professor at Chonbuk National University in Jeonju, where she is Director of TESOL Teacher-Training and Education. Before she came to Korea, she was a senior professor at the University of East London where she taught linguistics, language studies, education theory and TESOL courses. Ms. Maitland also has extensive experience of teaching in the secondary sector in the UK and has developed a large personal portfolio of strategies for classroom management. In addition to this, Professor Maitland has been published in the fields of reading and reflective journal writing. Ms. Maitland is currently studying for a PhD in Criminal Psychology and has already obtained a diploma in Mental Health and Psychiatry and Counselling and Therapy. She can be reached at Maitland39@hotmail.co.uk
