Teacher CPD Secondary schools

Teaching LCA English and Communications

Teach LCA English and Communications to students who struggle with reading and writing, even if English is not your main subject.

  • 12 hours
  • 15 short lessons
  • Online, at your own pace
  • Certificate
Enrol now · €39 Try the first lesson free

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About this course

A course for teachers of LCA English and Communications, including teachers who come to it from History, Business, Art or another subject. It starts with who LCA students are and how to rebuild their relationship with reading and writing, how to cut reading load without cutting the challenge, and how to build oral confidence through talk in every lesson. It walks all four modules, maps the seventeen Key Assignments across two years, and shows how to take a Key Assignment from first draft to finished piece and verify a Communication Portfolio. You plan exam preparation into ordinary lessons for the written and oral examinations, which together carry twelve of the subject's sixteen credits. Eleven of the fifteen lessons show a real student lesson from the Coding Ireland LCA English and Communications course.

What you will be able to do

By the end you will be able to plan the full 120-hour English and Communications course over two years, put a real text in front of students who find reading hard, take each Key Assignment from first draft to finished piece, verify a Communication Portfolio consistently, and prepare students for the audio-visual part of the written paper and for the oral examination.

What's in the course

15 lessons, 40 to 45 minutes each. Take them in order, whenever suits you.

Module 1 · 2 lessons
Orientation: the Subject, the Cohort and Your Starting Point

Where English and Communications sits in LCA, what it is assessed on, and an honest measurement of where you are starting from. Participants locate the subject in the programme, state the 16-credit assessment structure precisely, and complete a baseline self-efficacy audit across the five areas the course develops.
  1. 1 Welcome, Confidence Audit and the Lead Learner Mindset for the LCA English Classroom Free preview 40 min
  2. 2 LCA English at a Glance: Modules, Key Assignments, Credits 40 min
Module 2 · 3 lessons
The Cohort, Literacy-first Teaching and Talk

Teaching reading and writing to students they have already failed, putting a real text in front of the class anyway, and building oral confidence as an everyday habit rather than an examination block. Participants leave with a repertoire of literacy-first moves and a redesigned lesson opening of their own.
  1. 3 Students Who Have Stopped Reading and Writing, and Repairing the Relationship 40 min
  2. 4 Putting a Text in Front of Them Anyway: Reading Load, Read-aloud and the Reading Interactives 40 min
  3. 5 Talk as the Everyday Mode: Building Oral Confidence in Every Lesson 40 min
Module 3 · 4 lessons
The Four Modules End to End

What each of the four modules actually asks for, how its units build toward its Key Assignments, and where it is easy to plan past something. Participants leave with a worked plan for the module they will teach first, and a clear sense of content areas that carry disproportionate examination weight.
  1. 6 M1 Personal and Social Communication: Identity, the Anchor Text and the Journal That Runs for Two Years 40 min
  2. 7 Module 2 at a Glance: Six Criteria, Bias Mark-up and Planning the Charter 40 min
  3. 8 M3 Communication in Media: Media Forms, Design, Advertising and Film 40 min
  4. 9 M4 Express Yourself: Song, Poetry, Drama and the Personal Composition 40 min
Module 4 · 3 lessons
Seventeen Key Assignments, the Portfolio and the Two-year Plan

Seventeen Key Assignments across two years, most of them the visible end of a workshop chain, all of them evidenced from one Communication Portfolio that the class teacher verifies. Participants leave with a seventeen-KA two-year map, a scaffolded workshop sequence, and a judged sample portfolio.
  1. 10 Seventeen Key Assignments Across Two Years: the Map, the Cadence and the Banking Points 40 min
  2. 11 Running a Prep, Draft, Bank Workshop Sequence 40 min
  3. 12 Verifying the Communication Portfolio 40 min
Module 5 · 3 lessons
The Examinations, the Off-map Credits and Final Reflection

Twelve of the sixteen credits are awarded by an external examiner, split 67% written and 33% oral, and two of the largest assessed areas are not named after any module. Participants leave with an examination preparation plan, a named plan for audio-visual and oral coverage, a post-course confidence audit, and final implementation intentions.
  1. 13 The Written Paper: One Shape, Five Times 45 min
  2. 14 Off the Map: Audio Visual and the Oral Examination 40 min
  3. 15 Progression, Community and Final Reflection 40 min

What you get

A certificateFor 12 hours of professional learning, when you finish.
Your own portfolioEverything you write in the course collects in one place to keep.
Try it firstOpen the whole first lesson free, before you enrol.

Ready to start?

15 short lessons, at your own pace, with a certificate at the end.

Enrol now · €39 Try the first lesson free
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