Page 18 - Student Handbook Feb

PORTFOLIO

All students who stay at the College for 3 months or longer can work towards the Birmingham
College ELL Portfolio Diploma.

You will keep a collection of your work in a folder (a portfolio) and submit this for teachers to
assess and give you a grade. You will get details of the portfolio and the work you need to do
when you begin your course at the college.

HOW TO BE A SUCCESSFUL STUDENT

In Class:
Offer opinions and participate in discussions.
You can learn from each other so there will group work sometimes.
Teamwork is an important part of working life.
Experiment in class, don’t just sit and listen to the teacher.

Outside Class:
Read as much as you can.
Complete your homework.
Do self-study work from books or websites and extend your knowledge of the world and
different cultures.

Keep an organised folder, including:

 Learner Journals – write about how you feel about your English language skills.
 Weekly Work Record – write down what you do in every class and the homework you get.
 Worksheets  any loose worksheets or paper you get from the teacher.

Keep a vocabulary book. Write down new words that you learn, and additional information like
whether it is a noun, verb or adjective; how it is pronounced; what words come before and
after it.

Every student has an INDIVIDUAL LEARNING PLAN (ILP). In this plan you decide what you need to
focus on and how you can do this. You can change you plan every six weeks and discuss this in your
tutorials.

SOCIAL PROGRAMME

The teachers will give you information about College trips and events that are available locally.
The teachers are also happy to talk to you about free time ideas.

There is a full-day trip every term which is included in the cost of the 21-hour course.

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