More than ‘WH’: The Art of Asking Questions in the ESL Classroom

Jayme Adelson-Goldstein

We’ll explore a variety of instructional questioning strategies that take learners from comprehension to production.  We will also work with “leveled questions” for multilevel settings, and contrast focusing and processing questions to create questions that engage learners’ higher-level thinking.  Finally, we’ll try out three learner-centered practice activities to examine how we can best build learners’ question-asking skills.  Come prepared to ask and answer and then ask some more!

Jayme Adelson-Goldstein is an ESL teacher-trainer, consultant, and author living in Northridge, California. She began her ESL career working with helicopter pilots from the UAE in 1981 and from there went on to work with the adult division of LAUSD as a classroom teacher, program coordinator, and professional development specialist. She taught the adult ESL methods courses at UCLA Extension for many years and was a part of the ESL Teacher Institute as well. She has been involved in curriculum development for Distance Learning programs on a local, state and federal level and has helped develop mentor programs though CAL PRO (the adult education professional development program funded by the California Department of Education). As an ESL consultant, Jayme conducts teacher-training workshops on topics such as vocabulary development, focused listening, cooperative learning, and multi-level instruction across the U.S. and Canada.

English Learners in the Language Arts: Essential Tools for Teaching Vocabulary and Comprehension (Rounds 104)

Marla Perez-Selles and Dr. Mary Cazabon

The session will provide participants with a sample of essential tools from WestEd’s ELLA (English Learners in the Language Arts) program geared to effectively deliver core literacy and academic content curriculum to English learners. ELLA prepares teachers to provide systematic and explicit instruction for academic vocabulary and other forms of academic literacy in ESL and academic content classrooms by making rigorous content comprehensible and scaffolding reading for improving comprehension.   E

Cultivating Traditional Knowledge in a High School ELL Science Class (Rounds 118)

Tom Talarico

This workshop will explore the role of students’ “traditional knowledge” in the ELL classroom and how teachers can incorporate this knowledge into the curriculum. Participants in the workshop will examine a lesson plan from an ethnobotany unit in an ELL content science course. We will discuss vocabulary selection, writing prompts, project design, and parent/guardian interviews as a means for eliciting traditional knowledge and linking it to developing English literacy and verbal skills.   S/IRE

Essentials of Dynamic ESL High School Program (Rounds 124)

Karen Boxell

            Participants will learn how to regain control of their responsibilities to their ESOL students. First there
            will be an open discussion about what elements are important in making a sound ESOL high school
            program. Following the discussion and short power point presentation, participants will work in small
            groups to create their own unique programs. They will be encouraged to add components from their own
            experiences to the important essentials already presented. Groups will share their ideas with all     
            participants in a closing discussion period.   S

Teaching Non-Native Speakers of English in a Correctional Setting (Rounds 203)

James Whiting and D. Joan Bishop

This talk will explore the implementation of English language classes at one of the New Hampshire correctional facilities. Focus will be on challenges of prison teaching, societal benefits that accrue from such work, and what this project teaches us about all English language teaching.   AE/IRE

Policeman, Actress, or Flight Attendant? Awareness Building Activities for ELLs (Rounds 206)
Anna Patkus and Lucas Kovacevich
             This demonstration will begin with generating awareness of and illustrating kinds of sexist language through participatory exercises. Participants will explore possible causes of sexist language and demonstrate activities that can be used to foster awareness in the ELL classroom. The goals of this demonstration are to provide participants with an awareness of the prevalence of sexism in English, to emphasize the importance of raising this awareness both in educators and language learners, and to offer a number of classroom activities that can enable students to make informed language choices and be culturally cognizant.   S/SE/HE/W

Using The New York Times in ESL Advanced Composition Classes (Rounds 223)

Tim Brotherton

The presenter requires extensive reading of The New York Times in an advanced ESL writing class. He will explain the assignment and relate benefits to the students as revealed in end-of-course essays.  TTP, HE

Tracking Error Rate in Writing (Room 001 Mary Lyons Hall)

 Zita Bodonyi and Raylene Davis

As teachers, we are constantly facing the task of evaluating writing pieces. While many aspects of writing are evaluated in a holistic manner, the error rate is certainly a part of most evaluations. Our experience shows that the specific and personalized feedback to students helps all parties involved: students, mainstream teachers and support teachers can keep track of progress in quality of expression.  Especially with the introduction of computer grading, it is important that we help students keep track of their recurring errors and provide support on how to reduce them. The hands-on workshop focuses on a technique to keep track of error rates. A laptop with M suite and working knowledge of Excel is preferable but not required. S, HE

Mastering the Madness of Multilevel Classroom (Boyd 144)

Jamye Adelson-Goldstein

In this workshop, participants will discover, practice, and apply the instructional strategies that address the challenges of the multilevel environment:
• building class community;
• linking level objectives;
• using different groups and activities to match students’ diverse needs.   AE/S/TTP/HE/IRE

Hand in Hand: Active Learning and the ESOL Grammar Class (Rounds 104)

Erin Wynn and Emily Spitzman

Presenters will demonstrate the use of active learning teaching strategies in an ESOL grammar class. All of the ideas and lessons presented in this session can be adapted to most grammar texts and can be used to reinforce grammar points being taught in any grammar class. During this demonstration, participants will be given a packet of our featured lessons. In addition to these handouts, visual aids will be used to assist the attendees in understanding our lessons. The presentation will show how certain grammar points are effectively taught by using active learning techniques to help students understand grammar.  S/AE/HE/TTP

Let’s Talk about the Universal Themes of Illustrated Books (Rounds 118)

Margy Burns Knight

Using her published books, Talking Walls, Welcoming Babies, Africa Is Not A Country and pending books What A Beautiful Baby and  Who's That Lady ? as examples, Margy will share how she uses universal themes to help ELL students  make connections, share knowledge, have great conversations and ask  relevant questions.   E/S/TTP

Earth Matters: Three New ESL Books (Rounds 118)

Ray Clark (Publisher)

Earth Matters is a set of three books that focus on the concepts, vocabulary, and issues of being green. Our Living Planet is an introduction to the physical geography of Planet Earth. The second book, Going Green, explores environmental problems such as waste, pollution, and overconsumption. The third book is a photocopyable Teacher’s Handbook for reinforcing the concepts and vocabulary of the texts.   E/S/AE/TTP/IRE

Resources for ELL: Support for ACCESS and Academic Subjects (Rounds 206)

Debra Blake (Sales Representative)

               The focus for the presentation will be to share three products that are developed for English Language Learners.  The presenter will give a brief presentation on each product and share samples of each. The products and links to the companies are listed below:
               - Finish Line for ELLs grades 1-12 published by Continental Press. This is a new product that was developed to help teachers familiarize students with the types of questions found on the ACCESS.
               - Velazquez Press publishes Velazquez Spanish and English Dictionaries, Spanish and English Glossary for the Science Classroom, Spanish and English Dictionary for the Mathematics Classroom.
               - Okapi Educational Publishers had developed packages of non-fiction guided reading materials with beautiful illustrations and without pictures of small children so that they can be used with any grade level.   E/S

Gaining Respect: Promoting ESOL in the Low-Incidence School (Rounds 104)

Mary Quinton-Barry and Charlotte Johnson

ESOL teachers in low-incidence schools often face ‘visibility’ and identity problems: working part-time and/or in multiple schools, teaching in ‘closets’ or hallways, dealing with insufficient budgets, and encountering skepticism from classroom teachers and administration—“Can’t anybody teach ESOL?” This presentation will offer concrete suggestions for raising awareness of ESOL’s critical role in the schools, and ideas on how to ‘sell’ ESOL to classroom teachers, the administration, the special ed department, and the school board.   E/S/TTP

Refugee Awareness Project: Connecting Classrooms with Community (Rounds 118)

Olga Beniot, Susan Brennan and Linda McSweeney

The Refugee Awareness Project represents a collaborative unit between ELL students, English students, and the school library. Students choose a refugee memoir to read and participate in an online virtual book discussion using a wiki. The wiki also includes resources, assignments, multimedia links, and assessments. Participating in an online game allows students to relive refugee experiences. Students also collaboratively create Google Lit Trips for each memoir. Reading related articles on the conflict, listening to interviews with authors, and watching documentaries provide the students with background knowledge. The culminating activity is an in-school field trip that includes a book discussion and a guest speaker. Presenters will demonstrate the wiki at www.refugeeprojectcollaboration.pbworks.com that contains a description of project structure, books, speakers, sample lesson plans, and unit break downs.  S/IRE/

Picturing Writing: Using Universal Language of Pictures to Support ESLs (Rounds 223)

Beth Olshansky, Donna Papanikolau and Kristen Beakey

Picturing Writing: Fostering Literacy Through Art (PW) is an art-and-literature approach to literacy learning which has had documented success improving the reading and writing skills of
all students including English Language Learners.
This presentation will offer a first showing of a brand new instructional DVD that showcases the work of refugee and immigrant children, grades 3-5, in Manchester, NH while they participated in an integrated language arts and science Picturing Writing unit of study. The developer of Picturing Writing and director of a four-year federally funded research study in Manchester, NH will talk about the PW process and share preliminary research results. A panel discussion will follow between the developer and two teachers from Manchester’s Magnet ESL program. Audience questions will be welcomed.   E/TTP

Census 2010: Make a Difference, Make History (Rounds 206)

Leslie Vogt and Yasnanhia Cabral

In collaboration with Scholastic, the U.S. Census Bureau has created a series of free educational materials called 2010 Census: It’s About Us (http://www.scholastic.com/census/).The goal of the program is to support curricular standards and provide information that will inform every student about the importance of their household’s participation in the census. Learning activities will be provided for kindergarten through adult education, including materials for English language learners and adult English as second language classrooms. Workshop participants will work in grade level grouping to discuss classroom implementation strategies.  E/S/AE/H/IRE

Celebrating Human Creativity (Rounds 124)

Laura Val and Julie Criscitiello Wise

Celebrating Human Creativity is an interactive educational web-based resource for teachers and youth professionals.  Through the use of short, engaging videos educators will find the knowledge and tools to promote self-awareness, cross-cultural understanding and to inspire civic involvement. CHC’s materials
lend themselves to creative problem solving projects, critical thinking, research, and web video production. The team of presenters will introduce this initiative and demonstrate how to use its content in the classroom across disciplines with ELL and native English speakers. Attention will be paid to vocabulary development and other activities suitable for ELL students of various levels. The presentation is designed to explore, in an accessible way, complex issues related to intercultural communication such as perception and communication styles and to assist participants in gaining an awareness of how their own communication styles effect their perceptions and interactions with people from other cultures.   E/S/AE/HE/TTP/W/IRE

Resilience Skills and Attitudes in Your Classroom (Rounds 203)

Ina Demers and Dr. Ron Breazeale

The workshop will focus on the use of storytelling as a tool to teach and reinforce these skills and attitudes. Resources that can assist educators in integrating these skills into the activities that they are
presently doing in the classroom will be presented and discussed. Educators will be assisted in developing a plan for integrating these skills and attitudes into their present curriculum and into their individual activities with students. During the workshop presenter/s will be reading poems written by children and adults who have sought refuge in this country, as a way to share their experiences as well as sharing stories which their students have told.  E/S/AE/W/TTP/IRE

Taking an ESL Seat (Boyd 144)

Wolodymyra Gnap

There are three main objectives for this workshop. The first is for participants to gain an appreciation for what it “feels like” being an English Language Learner in an academic setting. The second is to learn about the levels of language acquisition and their implications for instruction. The third is to identify best practices for teaching English Language Learners. Participants will leave this session not only with the valuable experience of being in the ELL’s seat but with practical strategies that they can begin to employ the next day.   E/S/TTP/AE/HE/W