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A lot of people said they had a hard time making choices at our November meeting. Want to know what happened elsewhere?
Take a look! And for documents that the presenters provided, check the conferences link on the left. Click on the author's
photo to send an email!
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Here's what happened: “Mentoring for School-Age Children”
by Jean Fahey, New Hampshire Rep
This was a very interactive workshop which started with participants
circulating around the room and writing answers to questions written on poster paper by the workshop leaders. The questions
were designed to activate the attendees’ knowledge about mentoring and get participants thinking about the topic. Examples
of the questions were: “What words come to mind when you think of mentoring?” “What activities do you think
a mentor could do together with the student they are mentoring?” “Why should someone mentor?” “What
are some of the challenges do you think mentors might face when initiating a mentoring program?”  After this initial brainstorming activity, participants were divided into groups to discuss
these questions and then report back to everyone. The presenters also provided resources of successful mentoring programs.
The consensus of the participants was that mentoring can be beneficial to second language learners as they can have a supportive
adult to assist with homework or engage in games and activities to develop their language skills. Adults interested in beginning
a mentoring program can find many online sources to assist in the initial planning. An example was given of a elementary school
where the parents were asked to come in to the classroom and share an interest or skill with the students. This was very powerful
for the Ells if their parents might not be proficient in English but could demonstrate something from their culture-cooking
or dancing or a craft. Mentoring can provide yet another resource for our ELLs. |
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"Using the CLIMBS Instructional Model to Scaffold Instruction for
ELLs" with Marguerite Ames and Solange Zwicker
by Linda Lucas
 This workshop explained how a classroom content teacher of Social Studies and an ESL teacher worked together to design a lesson
on the Stamp Act to include ELLs. These two teachers used the WIDA ELP standards and the CLIMBS instructional model to modify,
adapt, and scaffold the content material to the level of ELLs language proficiency. Students got to experience life
in colonial America in a lively class environment.
I thought that this presentation was very helpful and informative,
and I wish I'd been able to attend it years ago when my district first introduced mandatory posted objectives for every
lesson that teachers taught. I spent much of my time as an ESL teacher struggling to word language objectives that would
fit with the content objectives. This workshop walked us through a thoughtul planning process that resulted in both
language learning and higher-order thinking skills for ELLS.
"ACCESS
Power-Emerging Insights of ACCESS for ELLs Test Scores for Programming and Instruction" with Donald Bouchard
by Linda Lucas If anyone has ever wondered what to do with all the information and data on the
ACCESS reports, this was the workshop to attend.
It provided a good overview of what academic language proficiency involves.
The ACCESS is a powerful assessment tool that ESL teachers can use to examine individual ELL's academic language progress.
Participants learned about two ways to analyse and compare data to determine their students' growth. ESL teachers
must examine their categories of ELLs, provide 'best practice' instruction in academic language proficiency,
begin collaboration with mainstream teachers, and instruct at ELLs' proficiency level in the four domains of language.
Participants learned about lesson transformations to accomplish these tasks and goals.
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Campus and WEB-based Culture Resources for ESL Teachers
Lyra Riabov
by Ruth Dater, Past President  Lyra Riabov shared with us her development of a class at SNHU on culture. She first made up a survey that asked the
students how they wanted the course to work and what methods of presentation they preferred. Many wanted to work on
projects so the course was designed to allow the students to work in groups, make presentations, and then put them on the
WEB for all to reference. The unique part of the course was combining the non-ESL students that are taking an introductory
course in college life with the ESL students. The non-ESL students learned about the country and life of the ESL students
and formed new friendships. The ESL students were able to learn the differences between their own countries and life
in the US. Many of these projects were put on the web and can be viewed at http://acadweb.snhu.edu/riabov_lyra/Research.htm
Teaching and Learning English in Public Schools in Mexico
Judy Sharkey
by Ruth Dater, Past President
Judy Sharkey spent
a semester in Aguacalientes, Mexico, on a Fulbright. First she showed us how the Mexican educational system compares to our
system and statistically how many students complete what is the equivalent of a high school education. Then she explained
that she was doing teacher training with English teachers in the public schools in the area. She showed us the English
books that are used with the elementary students and they were very similar to the books used in literacy classes in the states.
Then we did an exercise of putting the words of an English song in the right order by listening to the song. This exercise
was used by one of her practice teachers to tap into the interests of her students and motivate them to learn English.
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Words for Wordle: exciting, professional, fascinating
by
Rita MacDonald, Vermont Rep
 I was so fortunate this year to attend three workshops on a related theme: Beth Evans’
Cool Things to Share, Beth Evans’ Visualizing Storyboarding, and James Whiting’s Using Web 2.0. Each workshop
by itself was informative and exciting.
In Cool Things, I learned about web-based tools that I didn’t even
know existed, and (even though I rank only slightly above the dinosaur category when it comes to technology) was able to imagine
immediate uses for every one of them, and am confident that the websites suggested will help me learn how to use the tools
with a do-able learning curve.
In Storyboarding, I learned a really neat set of technology-based strategies that
can help ELLs (and many others!) get ideas out in a non-verbal way for discussion, reflection and even for pre-writing. I
know I’ll be able to put this to use immediately, and that students will find it an exciting way to work with ideas.
In Using Web 2.0, I learned some great tools to use with students in my grad courses. My knowledge of blogs and podcasts
and v-casts has grown exponentially because of the one hour I spent in this workshop, and I can’t wait to put some of
these ideas into the course I teach!
In addition to the benefits derived singly from each of these workshops is
the benefit of being able to attend them all in one day. The layered understanding that developed over the course of the day
is very exciting to me, and I feel as if a door has been opened into a new world of technology for me. I’m eager to
cross the threshold!
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We may make past editions of the newsletter available for download.
 
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