CSEC English Teachers Attend 6th Annual Patricia Ismond Literary Workshop

As its contribution to Nobel Laureate Festival celebrations for 2022, The UWI Open Campus Saint Lucia hosted the 6^th Annual Patricia Ismond Literary Workshop on Friday, March 4^th, 2022, under the theme, “Appreciating and Assessing the Power of Poetic and Dramatic Texts”.

This Workshop is dedicated to literary icon and long-serving UWI Lecturer Dr Patricia Ismond, in whose name a scholarship for Saint Lucian students studying BEd Literacy Studies at The UWI Open Campus Saint Lucia, has been established. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Workshop was hosted online for the first time in 2021; however, the face-to-face modality was re-introduced this year to a limited number of participants.

Tailored to CSEC English B teachers, The 6th Annual Patricia Ismond Literary Workshop welcomed a total of 13 participants from various secondary schools throughout the island. Facilitator of the Workshop and Professor of English at the St George's University, Dr Antonia MacDonald, posited, “The focus [of the workshop] is not only on the teaching of the subject but also how to measure and evaluate student performance.” Dr MacDonald believes that by training teachers at the CSEC level, the knowledge and skills will be transferred to students in the classroom and increase the chances of them selecting English B at CAPE Literatures in English level. In attendance also was Mr Kendel Hippolyte who addressed the understanding and appreciation of the writer’s craft and skills.

Participants expressed positive feedback after attending the one-day workshop; one participant stated that, “I realized that it is more meaningful for students when they actually act out the scene… I benefited from Dr MacDonald’s marrying the thematic, character and technique concerns in the play/poem to the requirements of the exam question… it allowed me to better appreciate the demands placed on my students in the exam environment.”

The 6^th Annual Patricia Ismond Workshop took place on Friday, March 4^th, 2022, from 9:00 a.m.

– 3:00 p.m. at The UWI Open Campus Saint Lucia Site located at Morne Fortuné, Castries.

Photo 1 - CSEC English B Teacher and Participant - 6th Annual Patricia Ismond Literary Workshop

Photo 2 - Facilitator Dr Antonia MacDonald (standing) Addresses Participants

Photo 3 - Mr Kendel Hippolyte (published poet and dramatist) Addresses CSEC English B Teachers at 6th Annual Patricia Ismond Literary Workshop

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From a university college of London in Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948, The UWI is today an internationally respected, global university with near 50,000 students and five campuses: Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados, Five Islands in Antigua and Barbuda and its Open Campus, and 10 global centres in partnership with universities in North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe.

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