You are certainly in for a treat today. Among a plethora of other incredible accomplishments – and one is the song you’re listening to and only hundreds he has in his musical pallet, the world-renown author of graded readers – yes it’s a thing, writing graded readers has an expertise not many people can claim – Michael Lacey Freeman is here to talk about how he’s reached the pinnacle of this particular writing style – my accolade, not his! and the connection he’s had children all over the world because of how his stories resonate with them. You’ll see that this not-so-frequent success is founded on Michael’s incredible investment to his craft precisely because he doesn’t take for granted the challenges involved in adapting and writing original stories for a very particular audience. The demands include attaining an overall vision of the story, finding a way to tailor it to a students’ current level – often the most basic, giving them a level of comfort, while also inherently encouraging them to believe in themselves, in their abilities to understand content and structure and ultimately, want to read more and more sophisticated stories. And that’s not even scratching the surface of what’s necessary.
Michael started out like anyone else, not really knowing what he wanted to do, fell into a teaching job, was lauded for his adaptability and energy in finding dynamic ways to give classes, and then was grabbed up by the publishing world from all sides – to put his methods into print, to share his intuitive way of finding the core message of stories, and to reach the souls of his readers in person, online, and in books. Michael tells us about the insanely easy way he found his first job in Italy, and the hysterical challenge he had to face to use one particular word in his rewriting of a story about a religious pilgrimage – can you guess what he might have been forbidden to use that might cancelled the whole project had he not fought for leniency?
Michael’s bio:
Michael Lacey Freeman has taught English at the Università diAncona for more than 30 years, during which time he has also written numerous graded readers. He has won several Language Learner Literature Awards for both his adaptations and original stories. In 2017 he was appointed to the board of directors of the prestigious Extensive Reading Foundation. He has worked on several projects for Oxford University Press, including the popular podcast “Tea at 5:00: Authentic Listening with Michael Lacey Freeman,” long listed for a British Council ELTons Award forLocal Innovation. He has also authored the reading for pleasure pages included in Oxford’s new lower secondary course for Italy, Think Big, and most recently co-authored an upper secondary course book, New Identity. Michael’s latest graded reader, ‘Egghead The Movie,’ is now available at a bookstore near you. https://michaellaceyfreeman.com/ / @hev477b
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