Learning Circles – Teachers’ Page

As teachers, we want to help our students learn to speak English well. However, actually getting
students to use English with each other is a problem which is often difficult to overcome. How can we help students to recognise the importance of actually using English, and motivate them to do this in the classroom?

Learning Circles are one way of helping students to become more effective users of English. Many Learning Circles meet outside of lesson time – but there is no reason why teachers cannot use the underlying principles to help students become better learners inside the classroom too. By setting aside just a little classroom time to Learning Circle activities, you might find that your students become more motivated and begin to really communicate in English.

However, setting up a classroom Learning Circle takes careful planning.

Here are our 5 top tips for teachers.

5 TOP TIPS

1. Find class time You may be motivated to help organise an out-ofschool
   Learning Circle for interested students. However, it is also possible to adopt the principles of the Learning Circle into your scheduled classes.You could begin by identifying one of your lessons per week as a ‘club’ lesson, with the students participating in the types of activities and projects described in this booklet, and with you taking the role of support rather than controller.
2. Take time to explain the principles The aim of a Learning Circle is to help learners
   become more independent. However, your students will need help in deciding how to
   organise their club.What types of activities can they do? Who is going to do what? Before
   you start a Learning Circle, talk with your students about the aims of a club like this to help
   them understand why it is a good idea.
3. Think about regulations and routines Like normal classroom lessons, Learning
   Circles need to have some rules and routines to help them to be successful. However, the
   most successful clubs are those in which the members feel they have some say in setting
   these rules and routines. By asking the club members to discuss and decide what they feel
   the club rules should be, you make sure that everyone has responsibility for ensuring the
   success of the Learning Circle.
4. Provide guidance for decisionsYour students will need guidance on how to choose the best and most interesting types of tasks for the Learning Circle, and on how to approach them. In the initial meetings, it’s a good idea to ask the participants to try out some activities to decide which they like and which they don’t. If you are setting up larger projects, take time to ensure that the Learning Circle members all recognise and understand the stages which they need to go through to ensure that the project is successful.
5. Share responsibility with your students In the traditional classroom, the teacher is responsible for setting and for marking tasks. In a Learning Circle, group members create
   tasks for each other. For example, instead of the teacher selecting a reading text and setting comprehension questions, it’s possible for the students in the Learning Circle to choose a text which they find interesting, then set questions on that text for others to answer.This helps the students to improve their own reading (or listening) skills – they
   have to be able to understand the text in order to set the questions – and helps them become more independent learners by asking them to select appropriate learning materials and tasks.