Part C: Facilitating the AWAL Workshop

Before You Begin

The AWAL Workshop has two important goals:

1. To engage the participants in a useful, authentic professional development experience.
2. To produce teaching and learning activities based on that experience that they can use with their learners.

The two goals are of equal importance and the AWAL Workshop is built around a particular process designed to accomplish both.

The facilitator’s role in this process is to be a guide, rather than critic or evaluator. This is particularly important as for some participants the Workshop may mean moving out of their comfort zone – moving away from the classroom where they are expert to a situation that may be much less familiar.

Overview of the Day

The AWAL Workshop is designed to run as a one-day activity. There are a number of practical reasons for this that include the costs of participant release time, and taking advantage of the momentum that is built in a single day. It is a busy day, but doable.

There is a sample agenda below. The specific times shown are a guideline and you may adjust them depending on distances that have to be travelled, etc. Many facilitators begin the day by reviewing the agenda as proposed, then negotiating any changes. For example, will you take afternoon breaks as a group or leave it to the individual pairs to decide when to break? The latter is usually more effective.

Sample Agenda