I attended the following conference workshops. I enjoyed all of them. Here is what I learned:
1) 20 Web 2.0 Tools for Student Literacy Projects- This was my favorite presentation. I learned how to create a wiki to use in the classroom. A wiki was recommended instead of a class website because a wiki allows students to participate and work can be posted that people around the world can view. Therefore family members in other countries can see what the students are learning and doing. I also learned how to use avatars for oral speaking practice. I have put both a wiki and avatar into use and will be incorporating them into a presentation for another class.
2) National Geographic/Hampton-Brown's EDGE: ELD for 9-12 English Learners- This presentation was commercial. However, it was good for me because I learned about the new EDGE series textbook that will be used in the 9-12 classrooms next year in all public schools in California. There are 4 levels that include a textbook, workbook, and grammar book. They are designed to have a more mature appearance and content within. They will replace the High Point series. I think the themes of the units are very engaging and interesting.
Lunch- Secondary Level Rap- This was a small group. The focus of our discussion was on what issues we see at the secondary level with ELLs. Since I have not had much classroom experience yet in this area, I was more of an observer. Standardized testing appears to be the big issue.
3) Getting a Job in ESL: Qualifications, Procedures, and Openings- This presentation was very informative. I learned about what to expect when trying to get a job in an ESL classroom. I also learned that some adult schools in the area have morning classes. I might apply to these schools, as this would work well with my USD schedule.
4) Games Teachers Play- This presentation was run by the author of the Downtown textbook series. He discussed games he uses that correlate to the units he presents in his text. Many of the games seemed like they would be fun and engaging for all levels. Many of the games I had already heard of or used in my Spanish classrooms but I really liked the Yes/No game. This involved students guessing something by asking yes/no questions. Once they guessed it, they were then the leader. It seemed to work well to practice asking questions and using correct grammar. A prize for guessing correctly encourages everyone to participate too.
I really enjoyed the conference! I also was able to get some free materials which is excellent since at this point I don't have any ESL stuff! :)
I really enjoyed this conference very much. It was useful. I attended four conferences as belows;
1) 20 Web 2.0 Tools for Student Literacy Projects: It was very useful workshop. The presentor went through 2o web tools which can use in classroom. After conference, I tried to practice some websites and it was wonderful. 2) Effective Video Teaching Strategies with STAND OUT 2nd Edition: This was commercial workshop but provided some interactive skills which were published in books including video clips. So I could have some ideas about communicative activities using accroding to interesting topics. 3) Rap Sessions : During the lunch break, I participated TELL-IG Rap and this was about sharing Technology Enhaced Language Learning group. In a small group, we introduced each other and shared some ideas related with technology in class. 4) Using Classroom Stations to Review:Presentors showed some interactive ways to review materials in small group. She introduced various worksheets which can be used in activities. 5) Blogging Fun while Building Liteacy Skills: This workshop was practical. She demonstrated us how to make blog and I also made my blog right after her presentation. But it is real basic there should be filled with resources later.
I was really happy to attend the sessions that I chose to go to! What follows is a brief summary of each and a point or two that I found most interesting from each of the sessions that I attended.
1) Session 1: Hot New ESL Curriculum on Immigrant Rights (10:00-10:50)
Carolyn McGavock and Irene Ayon presented on a new curriculum they've developed for adult ESL classes. Driven by visual images, the curriculum that they developed incorporates learning about human rights into the process of learning English. For 2-3 weeks, language is studied through this lens. Students view images such as a border patrol car pulling up outside of a person's home and learn pertinent vocabulary, facts, listen to and engage in dialogue, pose questions, act out scenarios, write, and are assessed on this topic. Learning how to pose questions such as, "May I see your warrant?" and "I would like to speak to my lawyer before answering any questions" gives immigrant students the language they need to express their knowledge in English of the rights they possess by living in this country. In progressing through the curriculum, teachers McGovern and Ayon reported that students felt empowered by knowing their rights. The first class with whom the curriculum was piloted actually went with Ayon, the teacher, to spread the curriculum and teach it to other adult ESL classes at the school. The idea to include this topic of immigrant rights into an adult ESL curriculum is so wonderful, and am glad that McGavock and Ayon are now done with the research phase of this project and can begin to publicize and spread word of it to all who will hear it. They distributed a copy of the curriculum on CD to all of us that attended, so if anyone else wants a copy of it, please let me know.
2) Session 2: Towards an Understanding of Mexican Immigrant Parents in School Communities (11:30-12:15)
This was, by far, my favorite session. Pablo Ramirez, an adjunct professor at SDSU, presented on the research he has done for his doctoral dissertation. Ramirez presented on how immigrant parents bring a rich, large cultural knowledge base to the classroom, but that this resource is not being used because the possible roles of involvement for parents in the classroom are predescribed. Offering PTA membership is not the way to get immigrant parents interested in and involved in the school community; instead, parents need other avenues to involvement that value community values. When the culture is not valued, kids begin to internalize this lack of respect for cultural values of the home culture. Ramirez cited several ideas for how to get parents to come to traditional school events, like holding parent-teacher conferences on the weekends and having food provided. As Ramirez clearly pointed out, these seemingly-simple things need to be more about the convenience of the parent, and less about the convenience of the teacher. The end of Ramirez' presentation illustrated poetry by students and parents that expressed their sadness that their language and culture had been devalued in schools and in the eyes of the education system. To get parents truly involved in their child's education, Ramirez argued, this is going to have to change.
3) Session 3: Innovative Techniques for Teaching Words in Context (1:15-2:00)
This was a commercial presentation, but theory was interwoven very well with the material being presented. Eric Bredenberg from Heinle Cengage Learning presented on the Footprint Reading Library, a series of 100 leveled readers with accompanying video, games, questions, and so on to get the students engaged with the text. While geared for a subject that I don't intend to teach (science and straightforward ESL), some of the learning strategies that were presented were beneficial for me to have reinforced. One main premise of the Footprint Reading Library is that vocabulary words have to be heard somewhere like 10 times for students to truly understand their meaning. Along with this, students need to engage with texts in a variety of different ways to extrapolate the full meaning that it offers to be made.
4) Session 4: Academic Language - How to Help Your English Learners Succeed
Unfortunately, this was by far my LEAST favorite presentation of the day. Tamara Collins-Parks, a professor at SDSU, presented on the importance of teaching academic language to ELLs. However, her presentation emphasized "academic language" as being mostly about teaching big, technical, polysyllabic vocabulary. I am of the understanding that academic language is the technically-specific, pertinent-to-academic-content-area, clear and concise language that students need to learn to fully engage in the school setting. Hearing about academic language in the way it was presented made the topic seem to me more like teaching students how to use a thesaurus. However, the idea of consciously teaching however you define academic language in the school setting is an important role to take on as a teacher, so in that way I'm sure I benefited from being present at this session.
Overall, I had a great day at the conference. The RAP session I went to over lunch was interesting, too, and was related to identifying obstacles that stand in the way of English language learners' achieving in the classroom. This was my first professional conference I've ever attended, and it made a good impression on me. Plus, the freebies are always fun!! I look forward to chatting about this more in class, and make sure to contact me if any of you are interested in getting an electronic version of that "Know Your Rights" adult ESL curriculum.
Session 1: Web 2.0 This workshop was exceptional. Kristi Reyes introduced Web 2.0 tools beneficial for teacher-student classroom interactions online. She discussed common tools such as blogs, podcasts, and wikis; but also expanded my horizon with bookr (online books), glogster (online scraphbooks), circavie (timelines), scribd (upload and have computer read texts online to you), bubbleply (adding voice to video), jumpcut (video-editor), dvolver (animated movies), and bubbleshare (cartoons online). The session was informative and by far my favorite.
Guide to 20 Web 2.0 tools at: http://snipurl.com/3w4ep
Session 2: Let’s Blog Focused on setting up blog for beginners. It went step-by-step on creating an account, how to make a post, how to upload pictures/sounds/wikis/videos, etc. Since Eli Clarke had worked with Kristi in the first session, I expected this to be more informative. Everything it covered I had already known, so I was basically just helping my neighbor teachers, since it was all foreign to them.
I have a handout which puts everything in a step-by-step easy to use format if anyone is interested.
Session 3: Getting a Job in ESL This session had various speakers inform us about the positions available to teach ESL in different settings: private intensive programs, non-credit adult education, credited adult education, and K-12. The basic overview was that it is highly difficult to obtain a job as an ESL teacher, however, subbing at a school and gaining experience is a great way to “put your foot in the door”- so to say. Some schools also are looking for volunteers, open to practicums, and offer free workshops for future ESL teachers.
For copies of any handouts in any of the four areas, let me know.
Session 4: Rookie Teachers Forum Kathren Bouldin is a highly passionate and caring teacher that shared many helpful strategies and mind-sets to easing rookie teacher tensions. She spoke of personalizing your teaching- sit, speak, and interact with the class how it comes natural to you. Don’t focus on what a traditional teacher does- look “outside the box” and be yourself. Also don’t focus too much on the little things. For example, student roll can be a student’s job- so pass this on to them. Use your students as a resource. Don’t feel alone and think you have to do everything yourself. Be open to wandering away from the lesson plan and looking more in-depth at a certain issue if conversation leads there. Be flexible to the pacing of your students. If you don’t accomplish all that you planned in one day, no one will put a knife to your throat. So basically she said that teaching is one of the hardest things you will do, however, your perspective is what makes the difference.
There are lists of advice from her, seasoned teachers, and from students if anyone wants copies.
I enjoyed both conferences that I attended that day!
At the CCTE conference, I was part of a panel that spoke about our experiences teaching abroad - outside of the US. I recounted my student teaching experience in Guadalajara, Mexico. The audience wanted to know what were the successes and challenges of my teaching, what was different about teaching in the other country than here in the US, and what did this experience teach me about myself as a teacher that will affect my personal philosophy as a teacher now back in the US. I mentioned the difficulty of having to speak a L2 (Spanish) with 1st graders who often corrected my Spanish pronunciation and vocabulary as well as speaking in English (the L2) for a class of 4th graders. I saw both sides of the language learning experience spectrum!
I also compared the differences between teacher/teacher relationships in Mexico to those of the US. I felt the Mexican teachers had great relationships with each other, and the US teachers did as well. I, wanting to learn as much Spanish as possible, did not always fit in with my fellow US teachers, nor did I perfectly fit in with the girls who had lived in Mexico their whole life. I found my balance in soccer, where both nationalities were accepted.
Finally, I compared the outlook of the school structure and attitude: Mexico was focused more on the family holidays and allowed for ample time to be at home with family on holidays such as Day of the Child, Mother's Day. If a day off was not given, the parents were encouraged to come in a have a party to celebrate holidays and birthdays.
Because I came late to the CATESOL conference, I missed the keynote speaker, which I am sorry to say. I came for the Second Session and stayed until the end.
2nd – Great Short Stories for Listening and Speaking: Easy Reading Adaptations: I chose this session randomly without looking at all my options, because it started immediately after I arrived at SDSU. I listened to a Commercial Presentation of a series of books and textbooks for ELLs. The presenter was not very animated, but I was able to see the benefits of the product, a book called Great Short Stories for Listening-Speaking. Like the Grammar-Translation Method of teaching English in "Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching" (our textbook), one of the most basic reasons to learn a language is to be able to read the literature of the culture in the foreign language (p. 15). Being able to read and respond to literacy in the L2 is more important and shows greater understanding than simply speaking the L2. The book reminded me of a textbook I used when teaching English at Converse International School of Languages this summer.
Lunch Rap - During the lunch break, I attended the Rap session designed for secondary teachers. We discussed how and why students of this generation are not reading like they did before, what teachers can do about it, and how to reach students who are not as inclined to read and write. Everyone was involved in the topic, and one of the presenters added to the discussion by teaching us about some of the CA Acts that discriminate against language learners and how to write to representatives.
3rd – WRITE Institute: Scaffolding Persuasive Writing in Secondary and College: The third session I attended was a presentation from the WRITE Institute. This workshop presented ideas and ways to get students writing. They supplied us with activity packets about different genres for writing, the writing process, and much more. I especially enjoyed the way the presenter broke down the genres into two main types (narrative and expository) and gave great illustrated handouts to use with middle or high school students. I am very interested when I have my own classroom to utilize the activities and explanations from this organization.
4th – Blogging Fun while Building Literacy Skills: I chose to go to this session out of pure curiosity and based on my interests. I am in the process of learning about Social Virtual Worlds for my Multiple Literacies class, and starting a Blog was one other option I could have chosen to research. I created a blog right then and there because the directions given by the presenter were so easy. She gave us ideas for how to incorporate a blog within the classroom and gave us a sample lesson plan. I have now updated and added an avatar to my blog and think it would be a great tool in the classroom. Also, it is much simpler than trying to navigate the Social Virtual World.
1. 20 Web 2.0 Tools for Student Literacy Projects - used a couple of the websites after I got home. haven't tried everything..
2. Self-Determination among Asian English Language Learners - focused mostly on how to get students motivated to learn English. discussed learning styles typically associated with Asian learners.
3. Enhancing Communicative Competence: Exploring Culturally-Based Verbal Communication Styles - presenter discussed differences in English discourse. mostly focused on comparison between English and Japanese.
4. Take Grammar Teaching to the next Dimension - described the next Dimension book series in helping students improve their grammar.
Workshop 1: Teaching Reading and Writing with National Geographic Content- This was a commercial presentation and sort of felt like a sales pitch for the books. However, it is a great program and I think that students would love it! The books are designed just like a National Geographic magazine but with content and language that is much more accessible for English Learners. The content is interesting and engaging! We were given a sample book...so let me know anyone is interested in seeing it!
Workshop 2: WRITE Institute: Scaffolding Compare/Contrast Writing in Grades K-3- This workshop was fantastic (if you are interested in teaching primary grades). When I get my own classroom, I will attend their full workshops! They gave out sample activities which help teachers scaffold the writing process. This workshop was specific to compare/contrast writing. It is a very focused program and supports the needs of English learners.
Workshop 3: Getting a Job in ESL: Qualifications, Procedures, and Openings- This was a very informative presentation. There were a panel of school representatives who discussed the different ESL schools (private intensive, community college non-credit and credit, and K-12). They gave out information sheets with information on who to contact, how to go about applying, salary, and benefits. If you are interested I can make copies of all the different options!
Workshop 4: Researcher's Notebook: A Tool that Motivates Students to Write! This was another workshop geared for elementary teachers, however, I feel like it can be adapted and used in any classroom. The goal is to get students to write non-fiction reports but in a very fun and motivating way. Each student gets a notebook and chooses an animal to research and write about. Over a period of several weeks they compile information, pictures, drawings with labels, etc. and organize it into different categories (habitat, appearance, diet, location, locomotion...) The samples they showed us from their classes were amazing. This program was put together by three third grade teachers in Chula Vista. The website is www.paragraphicsforyoungwriters.com I have TONS of reproducibles and handouts!!
The TESOL Conference was totally worth getting up on a Saturday at 7:00 a.m. It increased my appreciation and motivation for teaching ELLs and offered numerous ideas to implement in my own classroom.
The first session I attended was the 20 Web 2.0 Tools for Student Literacy Projects. This was by far my favorite session since it combined both of the classes I teach into one amazing tutorial. Kristi Reyes gave an exceptional presentation over 20 different techniques that utilize the newest and best technology websites in order to enhance student learning. From personal experience, I know that students look forward to their Technology classes (not just mine) because it is a chance for them to create something that is entirely their own. They love to explore new technology, and it seems as though even the ELL students are not intimidated by the Internet. It is an environment in which students are on a mostly level basis. Kristi Reyes provided a handout and website to go along with her presentation, and I was able to learn about several tools that I know my students will love. It is so important to channel ELLs energy into a project in which they use English to construct meaning, and she did just that. I will definitely use her handout (I have already created a Timeline lesson plan). Also, I forwarded her website to all of my coworkers and got several enthusiastic thank you’s. The website is http://snipurl.com/3w4ep. Check it out!
The next session was over Academic Vocabulary Strategies. Although this session was mostly promoting a textbook for Adult or College level ELLs, I was still able to get some useful advice. In short, the presenter promoted teaching vocabulary in the same manners that our in-class reading research has proven to be successful. Listen for words that students may need, preview material before you teach in order to anticipate or pre-teach vocab words, and use the word repetitively in class. He encouraged using varied reading strategies such as text sets to widen students’ vocabulary, and make sure to focus on different content areas and their vocabulary throughout the year. Vary routines and exercises so as to maintain student interest and my favorite – reuse old words on assessments over and over again. This seminar, although a bit repetitive, definitely made me cognizant of my own classroom vocabulary strategies.
Lunch was the least productive of the seminars. I wasn’t quite sure what we were supposed to be doing in our session. I thought we would be discussing using technology to teach ELL’s, but it was more of a “sign up for this organization” recruitment. I think it would have been more productive if we could have all sat down together and recapped what we had learned that morning.
The Write Institute’s Session One over Secondary Writing was a productive session. The one thing that stuck with me when I left the room was a new term which I cannot remember currently that identified many of our ELL’s that have been brought up with Spanish, but are then taught in English. These students, therefore, never really become fully fluent in any language, and in turn, are never able to function to their highest ability in school. I believe that this is true for several of my ELD students, as their parents speak Spanish at home, but they have been in the United States since birth. It is an interesting problem, and I’m not sure how we can reach a productive solution. Something to think about… Other than that, I also liked this session because it got me thinking about how to break down writing into building blocks. For example, we have to teach our students one writing genre at a time before we can introduce writing assignments that require the use of multiple genres, such as persuasive and research essays. It is sometimes difficult for me to break down and organize ideas, and this was a nice example of how to do that.
Finally, I ended the day on an upbeat note. The Games Teachers Play was a fun seminar that introduced several energetic games to use in the classroom. Some of the games were Action Verb Bingo (which can really be used with any grammar or vocab lesson), picture memorization games, the name game (guess someone’s relation for family vocabulary), whole class story development, and an activity with personal ads. All games require students to use full sentences and questions, and our class got pretty into the games. The teacher handed out fake $500 bills and the person with the most money won a prize. You could also hand out coins and have the students count the amount of money they won to combine strategies. The instructor had us sign up for free books in his series, called Downtown, and overall, gave a great presentation.
Impression of October 2008 CATESOL E. Catesby Massey EDUC 543
Teaching Reading and Vocabulary with National Geographic Video and Content Jim McDonough and Katie Kelly Heinle Cengage Learning
First of the four presentations I attended was a National Geographic workshop on ways to use their new publication, Reading Explorer, with modified readings and language centered activities for ESL learners. The presenter walked us through the steps of “Read, Listen, and Watch,” the typical organization of every chapter which supports the standard approach to reading by first previewing material, followed by reading, completing related vocabulary exercises and watching a video segment. Every fourth chapter was a review of the previous three. The novelty of the chapter themes with unique visual aids and video representations was a clear motivator for using this program, given the unlikelihood that students would already know about these topics. Each chapter provided its own intrigue with new information about the world, while also utilizing language skills so that students of all ages and background could explore their interests. Additionally, the CD-Rom with videos provided supplementary material for students to practice listening and comprehension exercises outside of the program. My evaluation of this program is that it would be a great textbook to use to address reading and listening components taught in the classroom. It could easily be incorporated into weekly lessons but should not be the sole source for teaching any skills. Video exercises would be great for extra at-home practice and topics could be expanded upon for individual student research or as part of a theme for a more comprehensive look at language. The program definitely helps teachers not as a new approach but as new material to keep students interested while learning language.
Enhancing ESL Pronunciation through Pedagogical Techniques Used in Music Paul Mori Kaplan Aspect, Westmont College
I had high hopes for this workshop, given of tricky nature of teaching pronunciation and the enthusiastic promise of music as a means to address it. Sadly, this workshop was a huge disappointment. For one hour the teacher proceeded to delve into the concept of “clapping” and hand gestures to teach the musical elements of rhythm, speed, volume, and pitch and relate them to pronunciation. I have had teachers pass out manipulatives and address individual pronunciation issues using mirrors, kazoos and rubber bands and I’ve been to workshops where clapping was incorporated as an element. This workshop failed me. Given the musical background that this teacher boasted of, I was not impressed with his sole reliance on clapping and pausing to teach pronunciation. It is a valuable tool but I felt that the workshop did not live up to its promises of providing “practical, easy and classroom-proven methods,” given the lack of variety presented here.
WRITE Institute: Scaffolding Persuasive Writing in Secondary and College – Part 1 Julie Goldman and Laurie Nesrala San Diego County Office of Education, Write Institute
This workshop, unlike the one previous, exceeded my expectations. The WRITE Institute is a teacher operated and California based not for profit that has been investigating and teaching writing strategies for the past 15 years. They hold teacher training programs that prepare students for academic writing and state standards. Originally designed for the K-12 setting, they have expanded their program to include writing at the college level. Although part of their purpose at CATESOL was to pitch upcoming trainings, they still provided ample teaching strategies with classroom ready handouts to explain the components of writing in useful day to day activities. What seems to make their program so successful is their ability to simplify the steps that contribute to the more academic and complicated essays. A primary focus of their preview to the training program was the connection between foundation genres like summary and description essays and composite and bridge genres, the scaffolding of instruction from the short story to literary response and analysis. The WRITE Institute simplifies teaching complex writing requirements by exploring the basic writing skill components that make up these more complicated types. Literary response and analysis for example is a combination of summary, comparative analysis, response to literature, comparison/ contrast, short story and descriptive essay skills. Writing is based on building block strategies that incorporate familiar, easier essay types into one more broad and academically recognized. I look forward to exploring this approach more and learning more about the workshops they offer.
Games Teachers Play Ed McBride, LAUSD
Ed McBride teaches ESL in the Los Angeles Unified School District and is the author of the Downtown series, which offers a communicative approach to teaching adult learners English “for work and life.” His enthusiasm for exploring games and role playing to teach English is contagious and supplies ample motivation for further research of his books. He offers several strategies through use of manipulatives, including picture cards and homemade board games, for encouraging communication with many speaking centered activities. For effective and indirect teaching of grammar, he relies heavily on Richard Schmidt’s Noticing hypothesis (1990 in Robinson, 1995), which mandates conscious awareness and attention to learning as a condition for students to process input and retain it as intake in the long term. McBride teaches grammar by introducing students to task-based activities that focus on noticing grammatical patterns through implicit instruction that makes students responsible for testing their own theories on grammar rules and devising correct and appropriate use of their L2 through experimentation and attention to native use. Realia is frequently used in Downtown to introduce students to real life uses of language and grammar forms and students reproduce these forms (i.e. driver licenses and letters) without direct instruction, making them responsible for attention to form and use.
Of all the presentations attended the writing workshop and games lectures impressed me the most. A noted skill of value to each lecture was the zeal with which the presenter attacked his subject. Second was the organization of their approach to teaching language. If a strategy could not be followed, it was impossible to experiment with in the classroom. Both Ms. Goldman and Mr. McBride provided ample handouts and step by step explanation of the tools they used in their approach to teaching various components of language. I plan to explore each of their approaches to writing and teaching grammar through task based activities and look forward to the next CATESOL conference. I also hope that future conferences will pay strong attention to presenters’ organizational strategies and require that they explain the reasoning behind their approach. Strategies that followed this were the most informative for me since they allowed for eventual ownership of new ideas in the classroom and that is the purpose for collaboration at CATESOL.
Conferences are always welcomed in my world. You get free stuff and you are enlightened and possibly inspired by people who are chosen as authorities of the subject matter of their panels.
Session I: Teaching Reading and Vocabulary with National Geographic Video and Content This panel focused on strategies for teaching reading, comprehension and vocabulary through a National Geographic interactive workbook. While this was a panel that was geared at pushing interest in a product, it was useful as the entire workbook is based upon visual scaffolding. Within the workbook there is a map that highlights a handful of countries and a cultural and/or historical topic connected with each country. While the CD was not available at the time of the conference, the demo incorporated several aspects of language such as listening and reading. The CD also included authentic footage of the culture and/or history of each country. The workbook would be great as a supplemental tool in language arts and geography.
Session II: Learn Vietnamese: Easy as 1,2,3 I was supposed to attend Keeping it Real: Incorporating Authentic Listening into the Classroom, but it was cancelled. This was my default panel. I thought it would be interesting to learn Vietnamese, nonetheless using implicit strategies. To my surprise, the panel content didn’t meet the panel description. We did do a quick 5 minute Vietnamese expression mini-lesson, but the class focused more on the nuances of the Vietnamese student culture. The teachers who attended the panel all had Vietnamese students and wanted to know how to pronounce their names or key in on phrases they often heard their students say. While I think it is a good idea to be able to connect with your students on some level, even if it is just the pronunciation of their name(s), this panel was supposed to be geared at giving teachers ideas and/or tools to utilize within the classroom in terms of language teaching methodology. Attendees of the panel were supposed to “leave with an in-depth knowledge of language approaches, as well as experience firsthand the challenge of learning another language.” The panelist allowed participants to change the course of the panel leaving others who came for something more substantial empty handed.
Session III: Enhancing Communicative Competence: Exploring Culturally-Based Verbal Communication Styles This panel did focus on culturally-based verbal communication styles yet failed to connect that concept to enhancing communicative competence within those cultures and the communication styles.
Session IV: Academic Language – How to Help Your English Learners Succeed I was excited to attend this panel as we had recently discussed academic language in our class. I was looking to gain more insight on approaching academic language for ELLs, instead the panelist loosely defined academic language as big words used to replace simple words. The description of the panel specifically stated that “academic language is not just vocabulary,” yet I along with others were left with this impression as well as we sought to replace simple jargon with smarter sounding terminology in a lesson plan that was provided.
Despite having three panels that could have been better, I still think highly of the value that conferences possess. I do, however, think that when panelists’ proposals are approved, another process of some sort should be added to make sure that the content the day of the conference and the proposal correspond.
So since I unfortunately could not attend the CATESOL conference, I instead attended a videoconferencing session with Mexico City on a Saturday. I observed Sarina’s lessons presentation with her Mexico city students who are teachers-in-training, and I feel like it was quite a valuable learning experience. Half of the of the day was devoted to talking about a broad range of topics and strategies(most of which our class would be familiar with after this semester), while the second half of the conference was devoted to the students’ presentations on lesson plans they had devised.
The discussions included ideas on everything from writing, to behaviorism, to grammar, to reading. On writing, they discussed the high pedagogy and new technology involved with it, how you must analyze, synthesize and apply your knowledge, so you must first read in order to write. Also, writing is no longer product-oriented, but rather it it’s about the process. The students also discussed their learning on grammar, and how they have noted that grammar often tends to not be socially relevant, as one student humorously recalled her experience of getting lost in the airport since she did not know the common phrases, expressions, and information pertaining to airport knowledge. Connectionism was also referenced in terms our responses to a stimulus. We are conscious about what we want to learn. And as ELL’s the teachers-in-training are conscious about the English grammar structure when they actually teach it, and they realize the important of teaching it through communication. Sarina explained the most efficient way of teaching grammar, typically it is not right off the bat, but rather if the teacher needs to instruct her students on the past tense for example, they could talk about what they learned yesterday; if they need to learn the present, t hey could talk about their daily schedules. Most importantly, grammar should arise as a result of trying to communicate. Afterwards, they were given an hour or so long break in which they could get lunch and prepare their presentations in groups based on their communal interests. Sarina and I also went to lunch together, and then we came back and watched some of the students’ engaging presentations. With a lot of them, I was pretty pleasantly surprised with how conscious they were of integrating efficient and interesting strategies into their lesson plans. In several of the presentations, the students perceived the need of employing a wide array of visual images and actual realia (some students brought actual food objects they had gathered from the grocery store to teach a lesson on food). Their reading of directions and text was enunciated and at a reasonably slow pace. In another presentation, the students used a very engaging pattern book, which due to its repetitive nature, learning is achieved through recalling and memorization. With the majority of these presentations, Sarina stressed the importance of building background and seeing the bigger picture, the context of the lesson, and being able to explain the motives for deciding to teach that particular lesson. Overall, I thought the experience was highly beneficial and also enjoyable since I could really see how the strategies we had learned through our class assignments were applied by others in a distance education course.
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Crystal's Post:
I attended the following conference workshops. I enjoyed all of them. Here is what I learned:
1) 20 Web 2.0 Tools for Student Literacy Projects- This was my favorite presentation. I learned how to create a wiki to use in the classroom. A wiki was recommended instead of a class website because a wiki allows students to participate and work can be posted that people around the world can view. Therefore family members in other countries can see what the students are learning and doing. I also learned how to use avatars for oral speaking practice. I have put both a wiki and avatar into use and will be incorporating them into a presentation for another class.
2) National Geographic/Hampton-Brown's EDGE: ELD for 9-12 English Learners- This presentation was commercial. However, it was good for me because I learned about the new EDGE series textbook that will be used in the 9-12 classrooms next year in all public schools in California. There are 4 levels that include a textbook, workbook, and grammar book. They are designed to have a more mature appearance and content within. They will replace the High Point series. I think the themes of the units are very engaging and interesting.
Lunch- Secondary Level Rap- This was a small group. The focus of our discussion was on what issues we see at the secondary level with ELLs. Since I have not had much classroom experience yet in this area, I was more of an observer. Standardized testing appears to be the big issue.
3) Getting a Job in ESL: Qualifications, Procedures, and Openings- This presentation was very informative. I learned about what to expect when trying to get a job in an ESL classroom. I also learned that some adult schools in the area have morning classes. I might apply to these schools, as this would work well with my USD schedule.
4) Games Teachers Play- This presentation was run by the author of the Downtown textbook series. He discussed games he uses that correlate to the units he presents in his text. Many of the games seemed like they would be fun and engaging for all levels. Many of the games I had already heard of or used in my Spanish classrooms but I really liked the Yes/No game. This involved students guessing something by asking yes/no questions. Once they guessed it, they were then the leader. It seemed to work well to practice asking questions and using correct grammar. A prize for guessing correctly encourages everyone to participate too.
I really enjoyed the conference! I also was able to get some free materials which is excellent since at this point I don't have any ESL stuff! :)
I really enjoyed this conference very much. It was useful. I attended four conferences as belows;
1) 20 Web 2.0 Tools for Student Literacy Projects: It was very useful workshop. The presentor went through 2o web tools which can use in classroom. After conference, I tried to practice some websites and it was wonderful.
2) Effective Video Teaching Strategies with STAND OUT 2nd Edition: This was commercial workshop but provided some interactive skills which were published in books including video clips. So I could have some ideas about communicative activities using accroding to interesting topics.
3) Rap Sessions : During the lunch break, I participated TELL-IG Rap and this was about sharing Technology Enhaced Language Learning group. In a small group, we introduced each other and shared some ideas related with technology in class.
4) Using Classroom Stations to Review:Presentors showed some interactive ways to review materials in small group. She introduced various worksheets which can be used in activities.
5) Blogging Fun while Building Liteacy Skills: This workshop was practical. She demonstrated us how to make blog and I also made my blog right after her presentation. But it is real basic there should be filled with resources later.
Oh it didn't show my real name:
marianne is my user name in blog
Marianne is KyungAh Chang, it's my baptismal name.
I was really happy to attend the sessions that I chose to go to! What follows is a brief summary of each and a point or two that I found most interesting from each of the sessions that I attended.
1) Session 1: Hot New ESL Curriculum on Immigrant Rights (10:00-10:50)
Carolyn McGavock and Irene Ayon presented on a new curriculum they've developed for adult ESL classes. Driven by visual images, the curriculum that they developed incorporates learning about human rights into the process of learning English. For 2-3 weeks, language is studied through this lens. Students view images such as a border patrol car pulling up outside of a person's home and learn pertinent vocabulary, facts, listen to and engage in dialogue, pose questions, act out scenarios, write, and are assessed on this topic. Learning how to pose questions such as, "May I see your warrant?" and "I would like to speak to my lawyer before answering any questions" gives immigrant students the language they need to express their knowledge in English of the rights they possess by living in this country. In progressing through the curriculum, teachers McGovern and Ayon reported that students felt empowered by knowing their rights. The first class with whom the curriculum was piloted actually went with Ayon, the teacher, to spread the curriculum and teach it to other adult ESL classes at the school. The idea to include this topic of immigrant rights into an adult ESL curriculum is so wonderful, and am glad that McGavock and Ayon are now done with the research phase of this project and can begin to publicize and spread word of it to all who will hear it. They distributed a copy of the curriculum on CD to all of us that attended, so if anyone else wants a copy of it, please let me know.
2) Session 2: Towards an Understanding of Mexican Immigrant Parents in School Communities (11:30-12:15)
This was, by far, my favorite session. Pablo Ramirez, an adjunct professor at SDSU, presented on the research he has done for his doctoral dissertation. Ramirez presented on how immigrant parents bring a rich, large cultural knowledge base to the classroom, but that this resource is not being used because the possible roles of involvement for parents in the classroom are predescribed. Offering PTA membership is not the way to get immigrant parents interested in and involved in the school community; instead, parents need other avenues to involvement that value community values. When the culture is not valued, kids begin to internalize this lack of respect for cultural values of the home culture. Ramirez cited several ideas for how to get parents to come to traditional school events, like holding parent-teacher conferences on the weekends and having food provided. As Ramirez clearly pointed out, these seemingly-simple things need to be more about the convenience of the parent, and less about the convenience of the teacher. The end of Ramirez' presentation illustrated poetry by students and parents that expressed their sadness that their language and culture had been devalued in schools and in the eyes of the education system. To get parents truly involved in their child's education, Ramirez argued, this is going to have to change.
3) Session 3: Innovative Techniques for Teaching Words in Context (1:15-2:00)
This was a commercial presentation, but theory was interwoven very well with the material being presented. Eric Bredenberg from Heinle Cengage Learning presented on the Footprint Reading Library, a series of 100 leveled readers with accompanying video, games, questions, and so on to get the students engaged with the text. While geared for a subject that I don't intend to teach (science and straightforward ESL), some of the learning strategies that were presented were beneficial for me to have reinforced. One main premise of the Footprint Reading Library is that vocabulary words have to be heard somewhere like 10 times for students to truly understand their meaning. Along with this, students need to engage with texts in a variety of different ways to extrapolate the full meaning that it offers to be made.
4) Session 4: Academic Language - How to Help Your English Learners Succeed
Unfortunately, this was by far my LEAST favorite presentation of the day. Tamara Collins-Parks, a professor at SDSU, presented on the importance of teaching academic language to ELLs. However, her presentation emphasized "academic language" as being mostly about teaching big, technical, polysyllabic vocabulary. I am of the understanding that academic language is the technically-specific, pertinent-to-academic-content-area, clear and concise language that students need to learn to fully engage in the school setting. Hearing about academic language in the way it was presented made the topic seem to me more like teaching students how to use a thesaurus. However, the idea of consciously teaching however you define academic language in the school setting is an important role to take on as a teacher, so in that way I'm sure I benefited from being present at this session.
Overall, I had a great day at the conference. The RAP session I went to over lunch was interesting, too, and was related to identifying obstacles that stand in the way of English language learners' achieving in the classroom. This was my first professional conference I've ever attended, and it made a good impression on me. Plus, the freebies are always fun!! I look forward to chatting about this more in class, and make sure to contact me if any of you are interested in getting an electronic version of that "Know Your Rights" adult ESL curriculum.
Pam Flagg
Iria-Carmen's post:
Session 1: Web 2.0
This workshop was exceptional. Kristi Reyes introduced Web 2.0 tools beneficial for teacher-student classroom interactions online. She discussed common tools such as blogs, podcasts, and wikis; but also expanded my horizon with bookr (online books), glogster (online scraphbooks), circavie (timelines), scribd (upload and have computer read texts online to you), bubbleply (adding voice to video), jumpcut (video-editor), dvolver (animated movies), and bubbleshare (cartoons online). The session was informative and by far my favorite.
Guide to 20 Web 2.0 tools at:
http://snipurl.com/3w4ep
Session 2: Let’s Blog
Focused on setting up blog for beginners. It went step-by-step on creating an account, how to make a post, how to upload pictures/sounds/wikis/videos, etc. Since Eli Clarke had worked with Kristi in the first session, I expected this to be more informative. Everything it covered I had already known, so I was basically just helping my neighbor teachers, since it was all foreign to them.
I have a handout which puts everything in a step-by-step easy to use format if anyone is interested.
Session 3: Getting a Job in ESL
This session had various speakers inform us about the positions available to teach ESL in different settings: private intensive programs, non-credit adult education, credited adult education, and K-12. The basic overview was that it is highly difficult to obtain a job as an ESL teacher, however, subbing at a school and gaining experience is a great way to “put your foot in the door”- so to say. Some schools also are looking for volunteers, open to practicums, and offer free workshops for future ESL teachers.
For copies of any handouts in any of the four areas, let me know.
Session 4: Rookie Teachers Forum
Kathren Bouldin is a highly passionate and caring teacher that shared many helpful strategies and mind-sets to easing rookie teacher tensions. She spoke of personalizing your teaching- sit, speak, and interact with the class how it comes natural to you. Don’t focus on what a traditional teacher does- look “outside the box” and be yourself. Also don’t focus too much on the little things. For example, student roll can be a student’s job- so pass this on to them. Use your students as a resource. Don’t feel alone and think you have to do everything yourself. Be open to wandering away from the lesson plan and looking more in-depth at a certain issue if conversation leads there. Be flexible to the pacing of your students. If you don’t accomplish all that you planned in one day, no one will put a knife to your throat. So basically she said that teaching is one of the hardest things you will do, however, your perspective is what makes the difference.
There are lists of advice from her, seasoned teachers, and from students if anyone wants copies.
: )
I enjoyed both conferences that I attended that day!
At the CCTE conference, I was part of a panel that spoke about our experiences teaching abroad - outside of the US. I recounted my student teaching experience in Guadalajara, Mexico. The audience wanted to know what were the successes and challenges of my teaching, what was different about teaching in the other country than here in the US, and what did this experience teach me about myself as a teacher that will affect my personal philosophy as a teacher now back in the US. I mentioned the difficulty of having to speak a L2 (Spanish) with 1st graders who often corrected my Spanish pronunciation and vocabulary as well as speaking in English (the L2) for a class of 4th graders. I saw both sides of the language learning experience spectrum!
I also compared the differences between teacher/teacher relationships in Mexico to those of the US. I felt the Mexican teachers had great relationships with each other, and the US teachers did as well. I, wanting to learn as much Spanish as possible, did not always fit in with my fellow US teachers, nor did I perfectly fit in with the girls who had lived in Mexico their whole life. I found my balance in soccer, where both nationalities were accepted.
Finally, I compared the outlook of the school structure and attitude: Mexico was focused more on the family holidays and allowed for ample time to be at home with family on holidays such as Day of the Child, Mother's Day. If a day off was not given, the parents were encouraged to come in a have a party to celebrate holidays and birthdays.
Because I came late to the CATESOL conference, I missed the keynote speaker, which I am sorry to say. I came for the Second Session and stayed until the end.
2nd – Great Short Stories for Listening and Speaking: Easy Reading Adaptations: I chose this session randomly without looking at all my options, because it started immediately after I arrived at SDSU. I listened to a Commercial Presentation of a series of books and textbooks for ELLs. The presenter was not very animated, but I was able to see the benefits of the product, a book called Great Short Stories for Listening-Speaking. Like the Grammar-Translation Method of teaching English in "Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching" (our textbook), one of the most basic reasons to learn a language is to be able to read the literature of the culture in the foreign language (p. 15). Being able to read and respond to literacy in the L2 is more important and shows greater understanding than simply speaking the L2. The book reminded me of a textbook I used when teaching English at Converse International School of Languages this summer.
Lunch Rap - During the lunch break, I attended the Rap session designed for secondary teachers. We discussed how and why students of this generation are not reading like they did before, what teachers can do about it, and how to reach students who are not as inclined to read and write. Everyone was involved in the topic, and one of the presenters added to the discussion by teaching us about some of the CA Acts that discriminate against language learners and how to write to representatives.
3rd – WRITE Institute: Scaffolding Persuasive Writing in Secondary and College: The third session I attended was a presentation from the WRITE Institute. This workshop presented ideas and ways to get students writing. They supplied us with activity packets about different genres for writing, the writing process, and much more. I especially enjoyed the way the presenter broke down the genres into two main types (narrative and expository) and gave great illustrated handouts to use with middle or high school students. I am very interested when I have my own classroom to utilize the activities and explanations from this organization.
4th – Blogging Fun while Building Literacy Skills: I chose to go to this session out of pure curiosity and based on my interests. I am in the process of learning about Social Virtual Worlds for my Multiple Literacies class, and starting a Blog was one other option I could have chosen to research. I created a blog right then and there because the directions given by the presenter were so easy. She gave us ideas for how to incorporate a blog within the classroom and gave us a sample lesson plan. I have now updated and added an avatar to my blog and think it would be a great tool in the classroom. Also, it is much simpler than trying to navigate the Social Virtual World.
1. 20 Web 2.0 Tools for Student Literacy Projects - used a couple of the websites after I got home. haven't tried everything..
2. Self-Determination among Asian English Language Learners - focused mostly on how to get students motivated to learn English. discussed learning styles typically associated with Asian learners.
3. Enhancing Communicative Competence: Exploring Culturally-Based Verbal Communication Styles - presenter discussed differences in English discourse. mostly focused on comparison between English and Japanese.
4. Take Grammar Teaching to the next Dimension - described the next Dimension book series in helping students improve their grammar.
Gretchen's Post:
Workshop 1: Teaching Reading and Writing with National Geographic Content- This was a commercial presentation and sort of felt like a sales pitch for the books. However, it is a great program and I think that students would love it! The books are designed just like a National Geographic magazine but with content and language that is much more accessible for English Learners. The content is interesting and engaging! We were given a sample book...so let me know anyone is interested in seeing it!
Workshop 2: WRITE Institute: Scaffolding Compare/Contrast Writing in Grades K-3- This workshop was fantastic (if you are interested in teaching primary grades). When I get my own classroom, I will attend their full workshops! They gave out sample activities which help teachers scaffold the writing process. This workshop was specific to compare/contrast writing. It is a very focused program and supports the needs of English learners.
Workshop 3: Getting a Job in ESL: Qualifications, Procedures, and Openings- This was a very informative presentation. There were a panel of school representatives who discussed the different ESL schools (private intensive, community college non-credit and credit, and K-12). They gave out information sheets with information on who to contact, how to go about applying, salary, and benefits. If you are interested I can make copies of all the different options!
Workshop 4: Researcher's Notebook: A Tool that Motivates Students to Write! This was another workshop geared for elementary teachers, however, I feel like it can be adapted and used in any classroom. The goal is to get students to write non-fiction reports but in a very fun and motivating way. Each student gets a notebook and chooses an animal to research and write about. Over a period of several weeks they compile information, pictures, drawings with labels, etc. and organize it into different categories (habitat, appearance, diet, location, locomotion...) The samples they showed us from their classes were amazing. This program was put together by three third grade teachers in Chula Vista. The website is www.paragraphicsforyoungwriters.com I have TONS of reproducibles and handouts!!
The TESOL Conference was totally worth getting up on a Saturday at 7:00 a.m. It increased my appreciation and motivation for teaching ELLs and offered numerous ideas to implement in my own classroom.
The first session I attended was the 20 Web 2.0 Tools for Student Literacy Projects. This was by far my favorite session since it combined both of the classes I teach into one amazing tutorial. Kristi Reyes gave an exceptional presentation over 20 different techniques that utilize the newest and best technology websites in order to enhance student learning. From personal experience, I know that students look forward to their Technology classes (not just mine) because it is a chance for them to create something that is entirely their own. They love to explore new technology, and it seems as though even the ELL students are not intimidated by the Internet. It is an environment in which students are on a mostly level basis. Kristi Reyes provided a handout and website to go along with her presentation, and I was able to learn about several tools that I know my students will love. It is so important to channel ELLs energy into a project in which they use English to construct meaning, and she did just that. I will definitely use her handout (I have already created a Timeline lesson plan). Also, I forwarded her website to all of my coworkers and got several enthusiastic thank you’s. The website is http://snipurl.com/3w4ep. Check it out!
The next session was over Academic Vocabulary Strategies. Although this session was mostly promoting a textbook for Adult or College level ELLs, I was still able to get some useful advice. In short, the presenter promoted teaching vocabulary in the same manners that our in-class reading research has proven to be successful. Listen for words that students may need, preview material before you teach in order to anticipate or pre-teach vocab words, and use the word repetitively in class. He encouraged using varied reading strategies such as text sets to widen students’ vocabulary, and make sure to focus on different content areas and their vocabulary throughout the year. Vary routines and exercises so as to maintain student interest and my favorite – reuse old words on assessments over and over again. This seminar, although a bit repetitive, definitely made me cognizant of my own classroom vocabulary strategies.
Lunch was the least productive of the seminars. I wasn’t quite sure what we were supposed to be doing in our session. I thought we would be discussing using technology to teach ELL’s, but it was more of a “sign up for this organization” recruitment. I think it would have been more productive if we could have all sat down together and recapped what we had learned that morning.
The Write Institute’s Session One over Secondary Writing was a productive session. The one thing that stuck with me when I left the room was a new term which I cannot remember currently that identified many of our ELL’s that have been brought up with Spanish, but are then taught in English. These students, therefore, never really become fully fluent in any language, and in turn, are never able to function to their highest ability in school. I believe that this is true for several of my ELD students, as their parents speak Spanish at home, but they have been in the United States since birth. It is an interesting problem, and I’m not sure how we can reach a productive solution. Something to think about… Other than that, I also liked this session because it got me thinking about how to break down writing into building blocks. For example, we have to teach our students one writing genre at a time before we can introduce writing assignments that require the use of multiple genres, such as persuasive and research essays. It is sometimes difficult for me to break down and organize ideas, and this was a nice example of how to do that.
Finally, I ended the day on an upbeat note. The Games Teachers Play was a fun seminar that introduced several energetic games to use in the classroom. Some of the games were Action Verb Bingo (which can really be used with any grammar or vocab lesson), picture memorization games, the name game (guess someone’s relation for family vocabulary), whole class story development, and an activity with personal ads. All games require students to use full sentences and questions, and our class got pretty into the games. The teacher handed out fake $500 bills and the person with the most money won a prize. You could also hand out coins and have the students count the amount of money they won to combine strategies. The instructor had us sign up for free books in his series, called Downtown, and overall, gave a great presentation.
Impression of October 2008 CATESOL
E. Catesby Massey
EDUC 543
Teaching Reading and Vocabulary with National Geographic Video and Content
Jim McDonough and Katie Kelly
Heinle Cengage Learning
First of the four presentations I attended was a National Geographic workshop on ways to use their new publication, Reading Explorer, with modified readings and language centered activities for ESL learners. The presenter walked us through the steps of “Read, Listen, and Watch,” the typical organization of every chapter which supports the standard approach to reading by first previewing material, followed by reading, completing related vocabulary exercises and watching a video segment. Every fourth chapter was a review of the previous three. The novelty of the chapter themes with unique visual aids and video representations was a clear motivator for using this program, given the unlikelihood that students would already know about these topics. Each chapter provided its own intrigue with new information about the world, while also utilizing language skills so that students of all ages and background could explore their interests. Additionally, the CD-Rom with videos provided supplementary material for students to practice listening and comprehension exercises outside of the program.
My evaluation of this program is that it would be a great textbook to use to address reading and listening components taught in the classroom. It could easily be incorporated into weekly lessons but should not be the sole source for teaching any skills. Video exercises would be great for extra at-home practice and topics could be expanded upon for individual student research or as part of a theme for a more comprehensive look at language. The program definitely helps teachers not as a new approach but as new material to keep students interested while learning language.
Enhancing ESL Pronunciation through Pedagogical Techniques Used in Music
Paul Mori
Kaplan Aspect, Westmont College
I had high hopes for this workshop, given of tricky nature of teaching pronunciation and the enthusiastic promise of music as a means to address it. Sadly, this workshop was a huge disappointment. For one hour the teacher proceeded to delve into the concept of “clapping” and hand gestures to teach the musical elements of rhythm, speed, volume, and pitch and relate them to pronunciation. I have had teachers pass out manipulatives and address individual pronunciation issues using mirrors, kazoos and rubber bands and I’ve been to workshops where clapping was incorporated as an element. This workshop failed me. Given the musical background that this teacher boasted of, I was not impressed with his sole reliance on clapping and pausing to teach pronunciation. It is a valuable tool but I felt that the workshop did not live up to its promises of providing “practical, easy and classroom-proven methods,” given the lack of variety presented here.
WRITE Institute: Scaffolding Persuasive Writing in Secondary and College – Part 1
Julie Goldman and Laurie Nesrala
San Diego County Office of Education, Write Institute
This workshop, unlike the one previous, exceeded my expectations. The WRITE Institute is a teacher operated and California based not for profit that has been investigating and teaching writing strategies for the past 15 years. They hold teacher training programs that prepare students for academic writing and state standards. Originally designed for the K-12 setting, they have expanded their program to include writing at the college level.
Although part of their purpose at CATESOL was to pitch upcoming trainings, they still provided ample teaching strategies with classroom ready handouts to explain the components of writing in useful day to day activities. What seems to make their program so successful is their ability to simplify the steps that contribute to the more academic and complicated essays. A primary focus of their preview to the training program was the connection between foundation genres like summary and description essays and composite and bridge genres, the scaffolding of instruction from the short story to literary response and analysis. The WRITE Institute simplifies teaching complex writing requirements by exploring the basic writing skill components that make up these more complicated types. Literary response and analysis for example is a combination of summary, comparative analysis, response to literature, comparison/ contrast, short story and descriptive essay skills. Writing is based on building block strategies that incorporate familiar, easier essay types into one more broad and academically recognized. I look forward to exploring this approach more and learning more about the workshops they offer.
Games Teachers Play
Ed McBride, LAUSD
Ed McBride teaches ESL in the Los Angeles Unified School District and is the author of the Downtown series, which offers a communicative approach to teaching adult learners English “for work and life.” His enthusiasm for exploring games and role playing to teach English is contagious and supplies ample motivation for further research of his books. He offers several strategies through use of manipulatives, including picture cards and homemade board games, for encouraging communication with many speaking centered activities. For effective and indirect teaching of grammar, he relies heavily on Richard Schmidt’s Noticing hypothesis (1990 in Robinson, 1995), which mandates conscious awareness and attention to learning as a condition for students to process input and retain it as intake in the long term. McBride teaches grammar by introducing students to task-based activities that focus on noticing grammatical patterns through implicit instruction that makes students responsible for testing their own theories on grammar rules and devising correct and appropriate use of their L2 through experimentation and attention to native use. Realia is frequently used in Downtown to introduce students to real life uses of language and grammar forms and students reproduce these forms (i.e. driver licenses and letters) without direct instruction, making them responsible for attention to form and use.
Of all the presentations attended the writing workshop and games lectures impressed me the most. A noted skill of value to each lecture was the zeal with which the presenter attacked his subject. Second was the organization of their approach to teaching language. If a strategy could not be followed, it was impossible to experiment with in the classroom. Both Ms. Goldman and Mr. McBride provided ample handouts and step by step explanation of the tools they used in their approach to teaching various components of language. I plan to explore each of their approaches to writing and teaching grammar through task based activities and look forward to the next CATESOL conference. I also hope that future conferences will pay strong attention to presenters’ organizational strategies and require that they explain the reasoning behind their approach. Strategies that followed this were the most informative for me since they allowed for eventual ownership of new ideas in the classroom and that is the purpose for collaboration at CATESOL.
END
Conferences are always welcomed in my world. You get free stuff and you are enlightened and possibly inspired by people who are chosen as authorities of the subject matter of their panels.
Session I: Teaching Reading and Vocabulary with National Geographic Video and Content
This panel focused on strategies for teaching reading, comprehension and vocabulary through a National Geographic interactive workbook. While this was a panel that was geared at pushing interest in a product, it was useful as the entire workbook is based upon visual scaffolding. Within the workbook there is a map that highlights a handful of countries and a cultural and/or historical topic connected with each country. While the CD was not available at the time of the conference, the demo incorporated several aspects of language such as listening and reading. The CD also included authentic footage of the culture and/or history of each country. The workbook would be great as a supplemental tool in language arts and geography.
Session II: Learn Vietnamese: Easy as 1,2,3
I was supposed to attend Keeping it Real: Incorporating Authentic Listening into the Classroom, but it was cancelled. This was my default panel. I thought it would be interesting to learn Vietnamese, nonetheless using implicit strategies. To my surprise, the panel content didn’t meet the panel description. We did do a quick 5 minute Vietnamese expression mini-lesson, but the class focused more on the nuances of the Vietnamese student culture. The teachers who attended the panel all had Vietnamese students and wanted to know how to pronounce their names or key in on phrases they often heard their students say. While I think it is a good idea to be able to connect with your students on some level, even if it is just the pronunciation of their name(s), this panel was supposed to be geared at giving teachers ideas and/or tools to utilize within the classroom in terms of language teaching methodology. Attendees of the panel were supposed to “leave with an in-depth knowledge of language approaches, as well as experience firsthand the challenge of learning another language.” The panelist allowed participants to change the course of the panel leaving others who came for something more substantial empty handed.
Session III: Enhancing Communicative Competence: Exploring Culturally-Based Verbal Communication Styles
This panel did focus on culturally-based verbal communication styles yet failed to connect that concept to enhancing communicative competence within those cultures and the communication styles.
Session IV: Academic Language – How to Help Your English Learners Succeed
I was excited to attend this panel as we had recently discussed academic language in our class. I was looking to gain more insight on approaching academic language for ELLs, instead the panelist loosely defined academic language as big words used to replace simple words. The description of the panel specifically stated that “academic language is not just vocabulary,” yet I along with others were left with this impression as well as we sought to replace simple jargon with smarter sounding terminology in a lesson plan that was provided.
Despite having three panels that could have been better, I still think highly of the value that conferences possess. I do, however, think that when panelists’ proposals are approved, another process of some sort should be added to make sure that the content the day of the conference and the proposal correspond.
So since I unfortunately could not attend the CATESOL conference, I instead attended a videoconferencing session with Mexico City on a Saturday. I observed Sarina’s lessons presentation with her Mexico city students who are teachers-in-training, and I feel like it was quite a valuable learning experience. Half of the of the day was devoted to talking about a broad range of topics and strategies(most of which our class would be familiar with after this semester), while the second half of the conference was devoted to the students’ presentations on lesson plans they had devised.
The discussions included ideas on everything from writing, to behaviorism, to grammar, to reading. On writing, they discussed the high pedagogy and new technology involved with it, how you must analyze, synthesize and apply your knowledge, so you must first read in order to write. Also, writing is no longer product-oriented, but rather it it’s about the process. The students also discussed their learning on grammar, and how they have noted that grammar often tends to not be socially relevant, as one student humorously recalled her experience of getting lost in the airport since she did not know the common phrases, expressions, and information pertaining to airport knowledge. Connectionism was also referenced in terms our responses to a stimulus. We are conscious about what we want to learn. And as ELL’s the teachers-in-training are conscious about the English grammar structure when they actually teach it, and they realize the important of teaching it through communication. Sarina explained the most efficient way of teaching grammar, typically it is not right off the bat, but rather if the teacher needs to instruct her students on the past tense for example, they could talk about what they learned yesterday; if they need to learn the present, t hey could talk about their daily schedules. Most importantly, grammar should arise as a result of trying to communicate.
Afterwards, they were given an hour or so long break in which they could get lunch and prepare their presentations in groups based on their communal interests. Sarina and I also went to lunch together, and then we came back and watched some of the students’ engaging presentations. With a lot of them, I was pretty pleasantly surprised with how conscious they were of integrating efficient and interesting strategies into their lesson plans. In several of the presentations, the students perceived the need of employing a wide array of visual images and actual realia (some students brought actual food objects they had gathered from the grocery store to teach a lesson on food). Their reading of directions and text was enunciated and at a reasonably slow pace. In another presentation, the students used a very engaging pattern book, which due to its repetitive nature, learning is achieved through recalling and memorization. With the majority of these presentations, Sarina stressed the importance of building background and seeing the bigger picture, the context of the lesson, and being able to explain the motives for deciding to teach that particular lesson. Overall, I thought the experience was highly beneficial and also enjoyable since I could really see how the strategies we had learned through our class assignments were applied by others in a distance education course.
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