Preparación Oposiciones-Profesores-Profesionales-Inglés

*************Ayudamos a profesores de inglés a preparar la oposición de manera eficiente y sus clases de forma innovadora ************* Además, ayudamos a profesionales a expresarse en inglés, o a superar con éxito el examen de inglés en la oposición que preparan

Oposiciones Profesores Inglés Part 1B. Should it change? Tips for the future

by 2 Comments

Oposiciones Profesores Inglés Part 1B for Secundarias, Escuelas and Primarias, is common to all the Autonomous Regions. As we know, everybody has to write on one out of 4 or 5 topics – or two for Primaria, and depending on the public call.

Where we are now

In some Autonomous Regions, the candidates have to then read aloud their topic essay (Part 1B) and the Language Exam (Part 1A).  In other Autonomous regions, the members of the panel mark it directly to ensure the anonymity of the candidate.

Good move in Madrid 2017 & 2018

In Madrid this year for Secondary Education and Escuelas  -and last year for Primary education- the candidates wrote both part 1A and 1B on carbon copies. They took the carbon copy with them and handed in the original to the board.

Why such low marks? Analysis of the situation

The general complaint this year was that the panels had been told not to cover all the available posts.

I am in no position to say whether this is true or false. I can only say that I asked a former Poppies candidate  who was a member of one of the panels in  Madrid and she flatly denied the accusations. No reason to question what she told me. Consequently, I need to look further into the matter to explain the low marks.

Too many panels or boards, so it’s tough for them to follow exactly the same criteria when marking

Yes, I do know they are given assessment criteria to follow. I am also aware that they are given guidelines for penalisation procedures. But having read some of the exams this year myself from the carbon copies candidates have shown me, I was able to see some strict and some lenient penalisation procedures.

In some cases, the penalisation was so strict that candidates got a zero. I have only seen one of those and, to be honest, I doubt that a different panel would have assigned such a mark to the essay. Not that it deserved a pass, but a zero? I do not think it did.

General comments on Part 1B

Marks 8 or over

So, in general, those who got a high mark (8 or over) in Part 1B did so because they wrote a well-structured essay covering all the contents. They also included updated, relevant information, did not make major language mistakes and used appropriate lexis and grammatical structures. Finally, the ideas were presented logically, flowing nicely from one to the next. As we have often mentioned in the face-to-face classes.

Marks between 5 and 7.99

Well, obviously it is not the same a 5 as a 7.99, and I am going to comment based only on what I have seen.

My impression is that some of you wanted to include so much that you didn’t have time for revision. Or you gave too many details about the context and not enough about the subject matter. In some cases I found statements which were not quite right. Or they were expressed in a muddled way, lacking clarity. And so you may have been penalised for mistakes you could have easily avoided.  A name mistaken for another name, not explaining the connections between one section and the next. Fairly simple structures which do not show contrast or addition, consequence, etc.  All those elements count and may explain why you did not get the high mark you were expecting.

Marks below 5

I know you feel bitter about the exam results and you may not like what I am saying here. Yet, as English teachers, we need to write well in English. You may or may not know that very much about the topic in question, but if you write well and express your ideas with clarity and follow a good structure, you may be able to get at least a 5. Consider the number of topics you have studied and the possibilities.

In general, I found that those who did not get at least a 5 in the topic

  • had written on a different topic from the one they said they were going to write,  or
  • presented an almost illegible hand-writing, or
  • the essay contained fundamental errors, or
  • did not finish the essay or was badly written.

Sometimes we think we have done something well and then, when we re-read it we find we made serious mistakes. Be honest with yourself: did you really write a good essay and you failed this part?

If the answer is yes, I hope you have filed a formal complaint and have asked to see the correction and marking of your essay. I think that most of the times, the reason why we have failed this part is one of those expressed above. In which case:

My tips for the future

Write a good outline

Draft your own essay

Write good paragraphs, as we say in the Poppies’ mini-course on study techniques and on this post at Grammarly

Have a look at the picture in the post: the key words are tips for you!

And remember these tips from candidates who got a position

Should the exam for Oposiciones Profesores Inglés Part 1B change in the future?

After the results, candidates were questioning the exam. The general feeling is that it is not fair. That it rewards memorisation rather than whether the candidate is a good teacher or not. And I sympathise and partially agree with you.

Some were proposing a type of “objective” exam to make it “fair”. But, in my view, this is an oxymoron. The Oposiciones a Profesores de Inglés cannot, should not be a multiple choice test. This would turn the exam into something much more unfair than what it is now. People may get a pass just by pure luck, by randomly ticking the right answer without knowing what they are choosing. Think about it.

An essay of sorts in the Oposiciones Profesores Inglés Part 1B is necessary

The reason why I think there should always be an essay or, at the very least, some paragraph writing is that teachers need to teach their students how to write well in English. Consequently, they need to show that they can write well in English. So their writing should be assessed following clear assessment criteria

Your views on the subject

What are your views on this?  I would like to hear from candidates and from members of panels. And from different Autonomous Regions. We want a proper open call, with open and clear assessment criteria and exam procedures so that we can learn and improve. We all need to take part in it. Please, take part! Comment here or send me an email with your views. I do already have some feedback from  Catalonia. Thank you very much, Assumpta,  for your contribution. And congratulations on your success.

Congratulations from Poppies and myself to all the successful candidates

by Leave a Comment

Congratulations from Poppies    …. and from myself, of course    Here`s a toast and a big hip, hip, hooray!!!!!  

…to the successful candidates

In Madrid

  • Cristina S:

What a feat, my girl! I am so happy for you. A number 1 and a 9.3 & 9.4 in the syllabus and unit, is not something one achieves every day.  Do you remember what I said to you on the Friday before your performance? When you think you can’t, or you feel you won’t, go for a run or a quick long walk. And while you’re doing it, tell yourself that of course, you can, and of course, you will. As you have.

and her presentation

And I would like to add here what you told me when you called me after you had given your presentation: “At the beginning, I couldn’t remember things, but then, I started explaining what I do in class, how I handle the situations, what I do to motivate students, and I started remembering things and connecting them”. Those were, more or less your words. If I am writing them here is in the hope that anybody who has not managed to get through the net, reads this and doesn’t give up.

    • Oscar B, Laura G, Elena G, and Esther M

Hundreds of hips! and a great hooray! to you: It’s always hard for everybody who’s working and then needs to find time to study, revise the syllabus, prepare or improve the units…and come to classes. On top of that, I know that you’ve had family issues of various types to cope with: one of you felicitous, the others not quite so. I am so happy and delighted that you have succeeded and so grateful that either last year or this year, or both you chose me as your trainer.

  •  Tamara H, Patricia A, Ana J, Sandra B, Jorge C, and Inma Z

My heartfelt congratulations to you all: You have worked hard and you do deserve the position. I have been with you for almost a year or, in some cases even more. Let me thank you for your trust, even when in previous years some of you did not get the desired position. I am most grateful for the things I have learnt training you. I know you are great teachers and your students will be -have been- really fortunate having you as teachers. Well done and carry on working.

  • Elena R

Congratulations,  you have also achieved a great feat. Not anybody is able to get a position in their first attempt. But you have worked hard and you are very enthusiastic about teaching and willing to learn. Watch your fellow teachers with more experience than you and learn from them. Observe your students and learn from them. I am sure you will make a great teacher.

In Castilla León and Catalonia

My congratulations, too, to Silvia and Asumpta. Thank you very much for your trust and for the feedback you have given me.

For the rest…

I have the same words as in 2016, so, rather than bore you, I will give you the link. I’ll be reflecting on what I can do to improve and I’ll be expecting your feedback. Do not give up, and remember what a member of one of the panels told me in 2016:

How the panels usually feel

Have a great summer!

Another year, another bitter-sweet moment for the Poppies

by Leave a Comment

Another year and, like any year there’s a public call for Secondary English teachers, particularly in Madrid but also in all the other Autonomous Regions in Spain, Poppies experiences bitter-sweet moments.

Another year: first, the sweet moments

Allow me to start first with the sweet moments. My congratulations to all the face-to-face and online students I know have passed to the second part of the competitive exam in 2018 in:

  • Madrid: Rubén, Tamara, Sandra, Cristina S, Jorge, Cristina A, Patricia A, Ana J, Marta S, Oscar, Bea G, Elena G and Elena R.
  • Castilla León: Cristina and Lidia.
  • Castilla La Mancha: Cristina.
  • Canarias: also Tami in Canarias who, although has not followed the Poppies Courses has used the materials I have written  and published with 7Editores-MAD

My strong recommendations to them

I know that Cristina, Lidia, Tami and one or two others are having the presentation of their rationale and unit today. These recommendations come a bit late for them. In some cases, I’ve told them personally. For those who haven’t done it yet: be yourself in your presentation. Defend your syllabus because it is yours, and your units because you designed them yourself. Remember what others who were in your position in previous years recommended!!!

and another year of bitter moments

Happy as I am with the success of those who have passed to the second round, I am also sad for those who have not passed. And I feel, with them, bitter at a process which is not as transparent as it should be.

Disagreements about how the process is run

Today, teachers in Madrid were expressing their disagreement about how the process is run. 

A few days ago, the candidates in Murcia were doing the same.

There are rumors that the Administration in the different Autonomous Regions did not want to fill all the places on offer. Now, I don’t know how much of this is true or false. I do know that a lot of good teachers have not passed. They had been working hard to combine their complex work in the classroom with the preparation for this exam. And despite risking their way of life, they did not leave the interests of their students aside.

I also know that the teachers who are members of the panels try to be as even as they can. I know some of them and I have full trust in them.

This is not the only year

I remember back in 2006 when the exam -or part of it- was the same as one of the “samples” from an Academy.

Something similar happened in 2014 if I remember rightly.

Then in 2015    and in 2016 some of those who deserved to pass did not. Why they didn’t, I am not 100% sure in some cases.

I will examine the exam in detail and the answers of those who have trusted me with them to see if I can make sense and give you an explanation. I still do not know why the exams and their expected answers are not made public when the exams are over. I think it would help us all.

My wishes for all of you

In any case, those who are not in the second round, don’t give up. Try another year. Success is for those who persist.

Those who have made it to the second round, give it all out. And I hope that next week I can congratulate all of you again! Good luck and good week.

Putting yourselves in the panels’ shoes will help you succeed in the exam

by Leave a Comment

Putting yourselves in the panels’ shoes was first published on 1st July 2014. Here it comes again, with a few addendums and changes…to wish you all the best of lucks and to tell you, my dear students and fellow-teachers, that I’ll be thinking of you tomorrow, 23rd of June, and that I hope you’ll bear in mind the things we have commented in class and which boil down to: 

Put yourselves in the panels’ shoes!

I know you are all stressed out…

First the 2nd Bachillerato’s final exams and now going with them to the University Entry Exam. Then the final exams for CSE and 1st Bachillerato, and this year the September exams in June…  your exam, tomorrow and then, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday you have the final assessment meetings. And You risk so much…

…Have been working hard

You have been working hard for over two years, finding time when there is none, after long hours of teaching, preparation, correction, planning, coming to classes, revising the topics, the syllabus…

So, I’ve been thinking…

what can I do, what can I tell you which may be of help?

First, 

I thought I could put together some of the links where I have given you tips on the exam:

How to approach Text Analysis

Your essay: how to draft it

Your essay: The Outline

Then,

I realised that the best piece of advice I can give you now is

“put yourselves first in your students’, then in your panel’s shoes”… always remembering what the other party does, what you expect from them, what it feels like to be in their shoes. Remember what if feels like trying to read something which is not coherent, is plainly memorised without showing understanding, or has an impossible-to-read handwriting? Exactly!

You are in the best position to do it. So, use your many talents and make the best of the great advantage you have.

 We are teachers, so… we are learners

As we keep saying “learning is a life-long process”. Have a brief break. Hope you enjoy Taylor Mali’s

What teachers make   

One last word to:

  • Those candidates who took the exam in Catalonia and have already finished the process: I’d love to hear your impressions about the exam, the type of questions you were asked and how you feel about the exam in general.
  • Those who are starting tomorrow, I’ll try and get back when the marks for the first part are published.

And, to my students: See you next week. Tomorrow, I’ll be at your side. Thanks for being with me this year. I have learned with you and I am truly grateful to you. All the best to you all.