president's message marc tremblay
TRANSCRIPT
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President’s Message Marc Tremblay [email protected]
Hello ELL teachers, As you read this we may or may not be on a rotating strike. While there is no significant progress being made in the negotiations, let’s hope that the government brings the necessary funding to the table that would allow us to reach a reasonable deal on issues like class size, composition, staffing levels and fair wages. I hope that as you look back at this past school year you will have fond memories. Given the stress that we all face day to day working in an underfunded system, it is easy to focus upon the negatives. Still, I encourage you to look for the light in all that you have done over the last ten months. ESL PSA members value relationships above all. It is the relationships we form in teaching that make all the difference. In retrospect we have been as busy as ever this past year. On October 25, 2013 we hosted our 23rd Annual ESL PSA Conference – Elevating Their Voices: Connecting Com-munities. Held in West Vancouver for the second time in a row, the conference was a great success. The New Teachers Conference was held in Richmond this year on February 28 and March 1. This is an annual event hosted by BCTF. Providing some information for this group of young teachers is critical for the PSA. It is the new and young teachers who struggle when sent into schools without the knowledge and understandings they need to work with ELLs. These teachers want to help and are wonderfully eager and dedicated, but stress themselves beyond reason as they are not always given the appropriate
In this Issue: President's Message p. 1, 2 5, and 6
Notice of Annual General Meeting p. 2
ESL PSA Executive p. 3 Editor's Introduction p. 6 A conversation with Victoria LSA for ESL by Sylvia Helmer p. 6 ESL PSA Conference 2014: UPDATES p.7 Survey about Bilingualism and Children with and without Disabilities p.7 TESOL 2014 in Portland p.8-11 By Sylvia Helmer The Fresh Voices report p. 12 By The Vancouver Foundation Language and Literacy Courses Available this summer at UBC p.13 Dinner Recipe p. 14
Call for Newsletter Submissions p. 14
ESL PSA Conference 2014 Flyer p.15
Add a highlight from your family’s life
Add a highlight from your family’s life
June 2014, Volume 24, Number 2
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teaching and learning tools they need to succeed. Our role is to support this conference by offering sessions and hosting a display table where our newest colleagues can learn more about our PSA. We thank Barbara Mitchell, a member at large of the ESL PSA, for presenting her workshop, “English in Motion”. Our Vision Day has become Vision Tour. In the past the ESL PSA Executive hosted a Vision Day every two years. Vision day was the opportunity to hear from members across our vast province and the ever-changing challenges they face in their efforts to support their English [as an additional] Language Learners [ELLs]. As in the past, your ESL PSA wants to ensure that our members have access to both human and material resources to support the teaching of ELLs. Vision Tour differs from Vision Day as it is no longer the members coming to the executive, but instead the executive extending itself to its members. We have created the beginnings of a resource directory. Members of the executive as well as other ESL PSA trained specialist teachers have outlined potential sessions they are willing to present in your school/district to provide professional development tailored to your needs. Examples of potential sessions available are posted on our website http://ellpsa.ca and listed on the BCTF website under PSAs http://bctf.ca/PSAa.aspx?id=4308. If what you feel your school or district needs are not reflected in what’s available, we will tailor a session to meet your needs. To access one of our ESL Specialists and bring them to your area, please ensure you meet the following requirements:
x You have formed or are in the process of forming a Local Specialists Association [LSA] as per the outline in the BCTF handbook and in the document “Creating your LSA/Support Network” [appended to this newsletter].
x Your group has met and is looking toward next steps in their professional development. x You have created a meeting time and location, and plan to bring some snacks and beverages. x You advertised well in advance across your district. x You have applied to your district Pro D funds to help defray the costs of bringing a speaker to town and
applied to the ESL PSA for support, funding and a speaker. This spring I had the pleasure to attend the TESOL International Convention and English Language Expo in Portland, Oregon. I came back to Vancouver excited and re-energized, motivated by the many ideas, activities and strategies presented at the workshops. One thing that was emphasized was the importance of scaffolding instructions and using appropriate strategies to scaffold content and language input for children in the process of learning English. Most teaching techniques should be content-neutral and should be used flexibly in a variety of teaching environments. The strategies are chosen to reflect five research-based principles of scaffolded instruction for English language learners:
1) To focus on academic language, literacy, and vocabulary; 2) To link background knowledge and culture to learning; 3) To increase comprehensible input and language output; 4) To promote classroom interaction; 5) To stimulate higher order and the use of learning strategies.
Levine, L.N., Lukens, L. & Smallwood, B. A. (2013). To GO TO strategies: Scaffolding options for teachers of English language learners, K-12. …continued on p.4
SAVE THE DATE!
OUR AGM IS COMING! All ESL PSA members or interested teachers are welcome to attend.
at lunch, Friday, October 24, 2014 Vancouver, B.C.
University Hill Secondary, on the beautiful UBC campus.
There will be PSA Executive positions up for election
President’s Message continued…
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Vice President: Our vice-president has retired and resigned her position. The position will be up for election at our AGM in 2014. If you are interested in getting involved, contact Marc at [email protected]
Secretary: Stacey McEachern is a high school social studies and ELL teacher in Vancouver. She has lived abroad and completed her TESL diploma at UBC. Her goal is to advocate for the learners who need a voice in their schools and communities. [email protected]
Treasurer : Analisa Feuz is a District Helping Teacher in LST with the Surrey School District. Previous to this position she taught at the elementary and secondary levels. [email protected]
Member-at-Large: Vicki Schrader teaches ELLs at Semiahmoo Secondary in Surrey. Educated at UBC, Vicki enjoys collaborating with colleagues and doing what she can to support other teachers of ELLs. She and Carole Davis maintain a website: SecondaryELLinSurrey.wordpress.com
Member-at-Large Barbara Mitchell first taught in ELL volunteering at the Settlement House in Toronto as a teenager and later volunteering in Israel and Japan teaching English to both Adults and Adolescents. She believes drama, music, and art enrich and enhance speaking, writing, listening, and reading skills in a second language. She is presently the ELL teacher at Spectrum Community School. [email protected]
Member-at-Large and Webmaster: Sylvia Helmer is a founding mem-ber of the ESL PSA and has held various positions on the executive. Sylvia 'retired' from the VSB recently, but remains a sessional instructor at UBC preparing new teachers to work with English as an Additional Language Learners. [email protected]
Member-at-Large Debbie Gomes has been teaching ELL and English in Vancouver for 17 years and loves all of the different challenges it brings each day. She is department head of ELL at Eric Hamber Secondary and is International Student Advisor for VSB as well. [email protected]
Member-at-Large Liz Seitz is a Kelowna middle school teacher who has enjoyed extensive traveling and plans to continue teaching, learning, mentoring and enjoying the diverse cultures of the world. [email protected]
Member-at-Large Ian Weniger Hey teach! I got my "licence" from UBC in 1994, but I was helping new Canadians with their English before that. I work in a Vancouver high school these days, trying to do a lot with a little. My wife also teaches at the same school, my older son is a graduate and my younger son just started grade eight here.
Newsletter Editor Ross Powell was a District Helping Teacher in LST with the Surrey School District. He now works as a faculty associate with the SFU PDP. He has taught for 25 years, mostly in English and ELL at secondary schools. [email protected]
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President’s Message continued from p. 2 Here is a list of most of the workshops I attended at the TESOL conference: 1. Innovations in Family Engagement in Student Language Development, presented by Lorena Mandilla. 2. National Geographic Learning Promotes Rich Discussion in ESL Grades K-12, presented by Roslyn Wall. This session explored how guiding questions create rich discussions throughout the year. Focus was on how using age appropriate topics help form compelling small-group activities and thoughtful debates using National Geographic’s rich literature, literacy materials, and media. 3. Inquiry-Based ESL Grammar: Discovering a Better Way of Learning, presented by Darrin Divers, University of Oregon. This presentation explored ways to teach students how to find recurring patterns and analyze sentence structure to figure out grammar conventions on their own while at the same time developing problem-solving skills. 4. Practical Strategies for Developing Well-Organized Lessons for ELLs, presented by Francisco Ramos, Loyola Marymount University. Both novice as well as experienced teachers of ELLs must be able to develop well-organized lessons. This presentation described how the Language Experience Approach, marginal notes, and charts can be integrated into a framework providing teachers with the sense of direction they need to create well-sequenced lessons. 5. Strategies for Building Academic Vocabulary in Every Content Classroom, presented by Katie Brown, Shuksan Middle School, USA. Let’s get students talking like scholars! This session gives you specific instructional strategies to use in your classroom for teaching, practising, reviewing, and assessing academic vocabulary with your students. These strategies can be used in any content classroom - from math to technology – and can be used immediately!
Editor’s Introduction - Literacy floats on a sea of talk… James Britton It is the responsibility of every classroom teacher to support every student in his or her class; the last edition of Notes for ESL focused on supporting those students who have arrived in our schools as refugees. Their needs are complex and broad. This edition focuses on another group of very needy students: preliterate ones. These students may be preliterate because they are young, or it may be because they have not yet become literate in their first language. Either way, they are at risk and require specialist support. That’s us (despite what CC thinks…). Preparing for this edition I expected to include articles about the principles of early learning, TPR, the 5 pillars of reading instruction (and yes, Hello Dr. Allington, we meet again) the notion of catching up (Double the Work, http://carnegie.org/fileadmin/Media/Publications/PDF/DoubletheWork.pdf that’s Deborah Short, and she’ll be speaking at our fall Conference!), a principle that ELL support should be ‘aligned with and in addition to’ classroom instruction, and of course, Vygotsky’s zone of proximal learning also comes to mind. But then the newsletter filled up with other articles, and there aren’t many on our theme. Some good stuff though. Read on. As usual, some great articles follow… Also, weigh in on a few proposed upcoming changes. At our recent board meeting, the Executive passed a motion to change the name of our PSA to TESOL PSA. (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). The motion will be discussed and voted on at out October AGM. Ross Powell [email protected]
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6. Beginning Writing Students and the Vocabulary-Grammar Continuum, presented by Colin Ward and Alice Savage from Lone Star College – North Harris, USA. Research has demonstrated that putting greater focus on vocabulary improves student writing. However, vocabulary is now seen as far more than single word units. Presenters, seeing grammar and vocabulary as a continuum, shared materials for beginning-level writers that scaffold new vocabulary using collocations and repeated, contextualized exposure. 7. Second Language Writing Assessment – Exploring the Future, presented by Sarah Snyder, Northern Arizona University and Deborah Crusan, Wright State University. Writing Assessment – Embrace it! Use it to everyone’s advantage! Make writing work for you by incorporating it into your class routine and empowering your students to learn how to assess the others’ writing as well as their own. This session provided practical tips for learning to love writing assessment. 8. Seeing the Forest and Choosing the Trees: Exploring Learner Autonomy, presented by Kia DeCou, William Little, and Amilee Roberge, English Language Fellow Program, USA. Focusing on routinized individual exercises and tasks in the classroom often leads to unmotivated and ill-prepared students. Presenters led a workshop on developing an autonomous learning environment where students and teachers are encouraged to explore choices and be creative by using layered curriculum, flipped classes, and computer gaming. 9. Scaffolding Academic Writing for Beginner English Language Learners, presented by Allison Balter, Lawrence Public Schools and Lindsay Mayer, Revere Public Schools, USA. Often, we assume ELLs do not acquire academic language until intermediate proficiency. However, as Common Core increases language demands for all students, it magnifies the urgency for ELLs. Using classroom examples, this session presented an instructional framework for scaffolding academic writing, proving the beginners are more capable than we often think. [email protected] [email protected] 10. Focused Phonics – A Grammatical Approach to Pronunciation, presented by Heidi Laidemitt, ESL Language Centers, USA. By teaching phonics and grammar simultaneously, students are able to practice their pronunciation in a meaningful way that informs different language skills. This workshop focused on word endings – a semantically rich part of English words that is often omitted, mispronounced, and misspelled. www.phonetics.ucla.edu/course/chapter2/amerenglishvowels.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participle https://owl.english.purdues.edu/owl/resource/627/02/ http://www.pronuncian.com/Lessons/default.aspx?Lesson=129 11. Teaching Key Grammar with Key Vocabulary, presented by Keith Folse, University of Central Florida, USA. Both grammar and vocabulary are essential for English language teaching. This session explained a research-based method for integrating vocabulary with key grammar points, emphasizing options for (1) presenting grammar with vocabulary, (2) practicing grammar (activities), and (3) answering students’ questions (especially when you don’t know the answer). www.press.umich.edu/elt/ 12. Scaffolding for Success: Increasing ELL’s Access to Content Area Curriculum, presented by Carla Huck and Beth Amaral, Danbury Public Schools, USA. This interactive workshop engaged participants in practical application of a variety of scaffolds. Participants explored and practiced effective strategies to support ELLs in meeting the academic and language demands of rigorous, standards-based curriculum. Participants took home a toolkit of
Spring at High Knoll
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research-based ideas, tools, and templates for immediate use. SIOP Instructional Coaches, Elizabeth B Amaral [email protected] and Carla B Huck [email protected] 13. Caught Between ESL And Special Education, presented by Paul Abraham, Simmons College and Lindy Forrester, Marlborough Public Schools, USA. This session addressed ESL and Special Education by presenting participants with case studies of two ELLs at the high school level. Participants discussed the cases in groups and suggested next steps. Presenters shared what actually happened with these students. Participants left with practical ideas about ESLs with Special Needs. 14. L2 Writing in Elementary School: Challenges for Teachers and Learners, presented by Ditlev Larsen, Winona State University and a group of teachers. Elementary teachers must deal with diverse writing competencies of their ELLs and find ways to effectively teach them writing. This colloquium addressed a variety of L2 writing issues for elementary age learners, including teacher preparation, student writing characteristics, and challenges presented by the Common Core State Standards. 15.Using Think-Alouds to Explore and Sustain Strategic Reading, presented by Julia Schulte, San Francisco State University, USA. ESL students at all proficiency levels often struggle in using reading strategies effectively or appropriately. The presenter demonstrated how she uses think-alouds to teach reading strategies and skills such as annotation and peer review, and discusses how this approach develops students’ strategic reading behavior. As we move rapidly to the close of another school year, I would like to thank all members of the executive for their effort, time, dedication and positive energy. To all of you, dear members, thank you for contributing to our newsletter, for sharing your views, concerns and suggestions. On behalf of the hardworking ESL PSA executive, I wish you all a happy, healthy and sunny summer! Marc Tremblay Comprehensible Input: A conversation with Victoria LSA for ESL [by S. Helmer]
Comprehensible input: when a student is able to understand the essence of what is being said, read or presented.
An energetic and enthusiastic group gathered after school on March 31st at Spectrum Community School in Victoria to talk about some of their challenges working with the increasing numbers of additional language learners in their classrooms and schools [with less than ideal ESL Support time to match this growth in numbers]. The session discussed how to better make ‘input’ comprehensible for ELLs and finished with questions. There is never enough time to really delve into the complexities of some questions, so I agreed to respond to the questions in more depth on the ESL PSA Blog http://supportingtall.wordpress.com So far I have only responded to a few but it has been a great way to review my own learning and share tips and ideas. Check it out on the blog. You may find some of your own questions answered and, of course, you can submit both questions and suggested answers as well. The first question response began April 5.
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ESL PSA Conference 2014: UPDATES Now that we have an excellent flyer –check it out on the last page of the newsletter - thanks to Sean Wu, student at Eric Hamber Secondary in Vancouver – what else is happening? Invitations to Present has been sent out to everyone on the membership list and the deadline for submission was at the end of May. If you feel you want to present something but have not yet submitted, do email the conference chair – [email protected]. Your idea may be just what we need to fill a particular niche of interest. It may not be too late! On October 24th, aside from the chance to hear from our panel of experts at the start of the day, there will be an opportunity to have some more in-depth time with our featured speakers as well. They have agreed to provide additional sessions for those of you lucky enough to get signed up. Signing up early may be more important than ever this year. In addition there will be a range of concurrent sessions to choose from, the usual publishers displays, lots of beverages and snacks, lunch and of course our fabulous Chocolate Fountain event at the end of the day. Celebrating 25 Years of Our PSA A special feature of the Chocolate Fountain Event will be to meet and celebrate the folk who were our very first ESL PSA Executive. The organization was formed in October of 1989 and October 1990 saw us gather for our first annual conference. The executive from that time has been invited to attend and be honoured by us. We are still trying to track some of them down. If you know how to contact anyone on the list, please contact Sylvia Helmer [ [email protected] ]. The FIRST ESL PSA Executive, Twenty-Five Years ago:
Maureen Seesahai – president Hafeez Mian – vice-president Lee Coulter – treasurer Sylvia Helmer – newsletter editor Secretary – Henrietta Langran Membership – Yonnie Yonemoto
The Members at large: - Beryl Botham ] Prince George] - Tony Carrigan [ Richmond] - Arlene Churchill [Vancouver] - Siggy Dawson [Vancouver] - Sandy Jewell [ Burnaby] - Gerry Morriseau [Victoria] - Colleen Tsoukalas, [Vancouver]
An International Survey about Bilingualism and Children with and without Disabilities You are invited to take part in a research study looking at services provided to children with and without disabilities that support the development of bilingualism. You do NOT need to be a bilingual specialist or a disabilities specialist to participate. You can participate in the study if: 1. You are an administrator or a professional (e.g., early educator, teacher, speech-language pathologist, psychologist, etc). 2. You work with children and youth of any age (birth through high school graduation). 3. You work in British Columbia or your work impacts children or youth in British Columbia. This study is being conducted by Stefka Marinova-Todd (Principal Investigator) and Pat Mirenda at the University of British Columbia. For more information and to access the survey please click on this link: https://surveys.dal.ca/opinio/s?s=20668
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TESOL 2014 in Portland, Oregon [Sylvia Helmer, Member-at-Large/ Webmaster] I feel very blessed and honoured to have received par-tial funding from the ESL PSA to go to the TESOL International Conference 2014 in Portland Oregon. It has been a few years since I have been able to go and though I knew what was coming, I still felt over-whelmed at the sheer size of this professional develop-ment ‘feast’. The TESOL program book includes well over 200 pages, some 800 concurrent sessions and five keynote addresses. Sessions run from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and some business meetings for special interest groups run even later in the day. It is so daunting that special sessions are offered to newcomers to this conference offering tips to maximize what you can get out of such an event. For me, the primary event to attend from dawn to dusk, so to speak, was the K-12 Dream Day. This was created a number of years ago and is specific to the sometimes quite different needs of K-12 teachers. [The majority membership of TESOL, work with adults and/or work with English as a foreign language [EFL], teaching overseas.] It is a stellar idea and was extremely well attended. It is, in fact the only day that you must have your ticket for each and every event in order to gain access. During the rest of the conference it is a matter of first come, first served – that often means, first to grab an available chair in the session. One of the things delegates are also on the lookout for is the publisher sessions that are offered. The publisher is showcasing a new product but often this means copies of the new text or resource materials are given to session attendees. These sessions in particular, always are full to overflowing. I guess this says something about both interest in good resources and tighter and tighter budgets. - I did attend some of these and the lucky folk who formed the PSA Chapter in
Victoria are the lucky beneficiaries as I ‘raffled off’ all the books I was given at the conference. Over the years TESOL Conferences have incorporated the use of technology more and more so that you can review what is available ahead of time – a good plan when there are from 30-40 sessions to try to navigate within a time frame. For example, after a keynote at 8:00, sessions begin at 9:30. However, there are sessions that run 9:30-10:15; 9:30-11:15; 10:00-10:45; 10:30-11:15; 10:30-12:15; 11:00-11:45; 11:30-11:50; 11:30-12:15; 11:30-1:15. Oh, and don’t forget the poster sessions over lunch – 12:30 – 1:15. Are you confused yet? The problem is sometimes the shorter sessions are quite excellent but you are also intrigued by the description of a longer session. You end up making decisions based on the sheer distance between sessions in such a huge convention centre. AND that only gets your through the morning! I attended quite a number of sessions some of which are described briefly below. I have handouts for some that I can send you on request but for many there is a link to access the handouts and information. Happy browsing. To begin with I thought I would post on the ESL PSA Blog [Supporting Teachers of Additional Language Learners] daily but quickly found I was too mentally exhausted by the end of the day to make much sense so will continue to share some of my learning on the blog as time goes on. Do watch for these and ask for specifics on the blog at: http://suppportingtall.wordpress.com Two posts are:
- March 27, 2014: Working collaboratively - April 4, 2014: Valuing home languages
Summary of key sessions [more details available upon request] with links included where possible:
- Advocating for English Learners: Sharing the Responsibility and the Joy This session by Diane Staehr Fenner included a powerpoint [available on request], a workshop through key points of the book, co-published by TESOL and Corwin Press. She mentioned the document below, which is very worth checking out.
- Changing Role of ESL Teachers [available at: http://www.tesol.org/docs/default-source/advocacy/ccss_convening_final-5-7-13.pdf?sfvrsn=8
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- Beginning Literacy in English while honoring children’s home languages. Nancy Cloud presented and
reviewed best practices. The blog post above talks about this as well. Of particular note is the website of various resources and materials, especially the brochures that help parents understand the value of maintaining the home language and not see this as a detriment to their children learning and doing well in English. The site for these is: http://www.ryerson.ca/mylanguage/hold_on.html
- Co-Teaching: You? Me? Us? Bonnie Baer-Simahk and Patrica Aube presented the evolution of their
collaborative efforts in a middle school setting. The collaboration led to the creation of two books: Language Central Math and Language Central Science published by Pearson Education. Both books focus on the academic language needed to access the content for the subject area in grades 3-8. They were thrilled to be asked to create these, especially since Jim Cummins was on the advisory committee. A comment in response to the challenges of working collaboratively was one that really stuck: When you’re collaborating, put a child between you and the person you are collaborating with. [In other words, it is not about you, it is about the kids]. The workshop reviewed the norms of collaboration outlined in Collaboration and Co-teaching strategies for English Learners by Honigsfeld and Dove. This book has been making the rounds in the Lower Mainland and is being studied by some schools as a communal book study for school wide implementation.
- Eye of the Storm: Academic Vocabulary for Secondary ELLs Diane Carter and Eric Dwyer put us through several cloze exercises and then editorialized how well we did in light of the background knowledge we did or did not have. We discussed what made each harder/easier and what strategies we employed to help us figure them out. Their handout/powerpoint is available on request.
- Activities for the new edition of Great Writing [National Geographic] Keith Folse, April Muchmore-Vokoun and Elena Vestri Solomon Goal is to teach writing, not teach grammar – grammar is taught only as needed/relevant. From what I saw of the series, this has much potential at the secondary level. The series is: Foundations to Great Writing [basic level for very low level of English] Book 1 = Great Sentences Book 2 = Great Paragraphs Book 3 = Paragraphs to Essays [what I received and gave away at Victoria session] Book 4 = Great Essays Book 5 = Greater Essays New versions also include online ‘book tools’ so you can display colour photos on screen, and gives you all kinds of ideas how to teach each unit of study.
- Strategies to Scaffold Rigor and Create Relevance for ELLs Linda Lukens, Linda New Levine, Betty Ansin Smallwood To go with this session they gave out GO TO Strategies package, a101-page package,which is available for downloading online at: www.cal.org/excell [it takes a little clicking around to get the actual package but it is worth it] The package is particularly well done as it is organized in terms of different categories of skill sets needed and/or your teaching focus. It is a good reference and a place to get inspiration for yet another way to teach or introduce something.
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- Reading Informational Text in Secondary Schools: Depth vs Breadth Linda New Levine [Handout available; downloaded] While the focus was different to some extend, it ended up pointing to the same handout as the session above.
- Cat got your tongue? Patrick T. Randolph and Paul McPherron [email protected] and [email protected] Book by same name in process [TESOL PRESS] – will be out in June
o idioms comment on the world rather than describe it o idioms as a gateway into the language
This was a lot of fun and I did check out the pre-sale event of the book but even with a conference discount it was not cheap. However, if this is an area where you would like more support materials, you may want to investigate further.
- Scaffolding writing with Beginners Allison Balter; Lindsay Mayer [powerpoint available] This session seemed rather like several others, focusing on academic language at
the word, sentence and discourse levels. If not, their handout is a valuable overview. If you have read Building Academic Language by Jeff Zwiers, you will recognize their approach.
- Strategies for Building Vocabulary Katie Brown – teacher of the year for Washington State. Her lessons and ideas are on her website, including the powerpoints www.mycoachkatie.com There are a lot of excellent lessons and ideas here.
- Building BRIDGES: Pre 9th grade literacy project Deborah Short and others. http://bridges.ws.gc.cuny.edu/ [Handout about the project available on request] This is a fascinating project, worth exploring on their excellent website. I particularly love the drawing on the home page – apparently created to illustrate the concept by one of the literacy students.
- Preparing Teachers for ELLs: One Pedagogical Tool for Shifting Dispositions Amy Markos [ppt available] She made many good points relating her experiences of teaching preservice teachers about ELLs. She created a safe space to talk about their current conceptions about ELLs, then had them find someone outside education to interview about that person’s perceptions about ELLs. Meanwhile they are reading and learning in their TESOL [required] course. There is frequent stopping to see how their initial perceptions are shifting or not and why. The slides do a good job of tracking her process. Her bottom line: teaching is a political act –reminds me of what Mary Ashworth said lo these many years ago.
- Scaffolding for Success: Increasing ELLs Access to Content Area Curriculum Beth Amaral, Carla Huck
[SIOP instructional coaches]. A folder of handouts, powerpoint and tips was given out. Copy of ppt and workshop elements available from TESOL Conference archives or from me. Try this link to see if it will work for you: http://precis.preciscentral.com/UploadFiles/634/attachments/293807/25eba3aae1007eb/525.pdf
Poster Sessions These poster displays – on a rolling bulletin board - are a feature of TESOL that I personally feel are worth all efforts to get there and get there on time to get the brief handouts –which these days are often just a link to their blog or website for the details of their presentation. I have gleaned some of my very best teaching and thinking ideas from these displays. This year I did not find as many that fit into my schedule and fit into the topics I was relentlessly pursuing throughout the conference. Still these are worth checking out.
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- Alter Egos: Comics and Student Identity Lora Yasen, Melanie Jipping This poster talked about how students [young adult international] were assisted with their writing skills through the use of various online sites. IT looked like it could work well for secondary students. Links used for students to complete ‘comic books’ included:
o Set your goals: http://www.pixton.com/ o Create a paragraph definition of a hero and her/his attributes then put into wordle
http://wordle.net o Create an animated movie http://goanimate.com/ o comic portrait: http://www.heromachine.com/heromachine-2-5-character-portrait-creator/
- Understanding Chinese Language and Culture: A Guidebook for Teachers of English in China Copy
available from: http://austinpack.wordpress.com/teaching-english-in-china/ OR http://linguistics.byu.edu/faculty/henrichsenl/UnderstandingChineseLanguage&Culture/index.html
- The Places You’ll Go: Putting Cooperative Language Learning into Action [Ellen Sherriffs Hall] harness the power of students learning from each other. [brief handout available] This session is focused on ‘contact’ assignments where ELLs go into the community to learn, interview, document etc.
- Global Issues and World Organizations. S. Moore [handout available] Focus is on increasing knowledge
of what is ‘out there’, what can be done worldwide and to inspire service learning projects in institutions and the community. I particularly enjoyed the 100 People Project depicted in this 3.5 minute video clip: http://www.100people.org .At the site there is an interactive map that allows you to click on an area of the world and see a video clip of the nominated person from that area. It is fabulous and worth spending some time to explore.
I hope you enjoyed browsing through these materials and if you have questions or want copies of particular handouts, feel free to contact me [email protected]
Skunk Cabbage at High Knoll
Your Idea Here!!
Submit your article for the Fall 2014 newsletter
The there will be supporting ELL’s who are highly
literate in their first language.
If you’ve got resources, strategies, games that fit
these students’ needs, please send them along.
Of course, any other news from your area will be considered if there is room.
We need a recipe too!
Send it to [email protected]
before October 30, 2014
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At our PSA meeting in April, made a presentation to the executive. He is one of
the project coordinators with the group that put together the Fresh Voices Report on immigrant and refugee youth. This is something we all should read, and the group is definitely an ally in our efforts to support these students. The link to the report is here
http://make-it-count.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/FreshVoices-Web-report-2013.pdf and page 1 is here…
Fresh Voices: Report 2013 Fresh Voices Youth Advisory Team A partnership of Vancouver Foundation and B.C.’s Representative for Children and Youth Message from Vancouver Foundation and the Representative for Children and Youth Vancouver Foundation, in partnership with B.C.’s Representative for Children and Youth, is pleased to support the release of the 2013 Fresh Voices Report, offering insights drawn from a series of community dialogues and conversations between immigrant and refugee youth. Fresh Voices is the product of countless hours of hard work and dedication by the 18 immigrant and refugee youth volunteers who make up the Fresh Voices Youth Advisory Team. These young leaders have engaged peers and allies from across the Province in meetings and conversations that captured the opportunities and challenges facing newcomers to Canada. The level of youth engagement in this project speaks to their pursuit of a stronger Canada, one where they can help contribute gifts and values to the school, community and immigration systems that are of such importance to all of us. Their work has culminated in the release of this report and the 16 recommendations it contains, and the launch of their Make-it-Count campaign (www.make-it-count.ca). Recommendations in this report provide thoughtful, sometimes tough, direction on proposed changes for policies and practices that would ease the barriers to settlement experienced by many newcomer children, youth and their families. If implemented, these recommendations will go a long way towards strengthening our communities by eliminating forms of discrimination, enhancing our sense of belonging and building cross-cultural awareness and understanding. The young people who have contributed to this report have provided a valuable road map to create communities that are welcoming, inclusive and supportive of the diverse cultures that make up today’s modern society. Their work speaks to the importance of creating opportunities for young people to work together, to articulate their own visions for change. We hope this report leads to a better understanding of the challenges facing immigrant and refugee youth in British Columbia and leads to positive, constructive policy decisions on how we can build a better society for everyone, no matter what their country of origin. Sincerely, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond Representative for Children and Youth Kevin McCort President and CEO, Vancouver Foundation
Jorge Salazar
Jorge Salazar and Marc Tremblay
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Looking for some Local Support?
Form an LSA of the ESL PSA
A LSA (local specialist association) is a local affiliate of the PSA (Provincial Specialist Associ-ation). Groups of teachers from any district can get together and form a local specialist association. Administrative and financial support are available. The details are in the April 2012 Newsletter and the PSA Guide-book which is accessible online at: http://bctf.ca/uploadedFiles/ Public/PSAs/ Guidebook/PSAGuideBook.pdf It's an easy process, and will set up a rewarding professional experience for you and your colleagues. New (Dinner) Feature:
Multicultural Recipe This edition’s recipe has been submitted by our me, the newsletter editor, and http://www.epicurious.com
Tabbouleh ½ cup fine bulgur 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 cup boiling water 2 cups finely chopped flat-leaf parsley ½ cup finely chopped fresh mint 3 medium tomatoes cut into 1 cm pieces 5 table spoons fresh lemon juice ¾ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon black pepper 1 small red onion Stir together bulgur and 1 tablespoon oil in a heatproof bowl. Pour boiling water over, then cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let stand 15 minutes. Drain in a sieve, pressing on bulgur to remove any excess liquid.
Transfer bulgur to a bowl and toss with remaining ingredients, including 2 tablespoons oil, until combined well.
A Name Change?
As you likely know, the B.C. Ministry of Education (and most other jurisdictions) has changed the label of our learners from English as a Second Language (ESL) to English Language Learners (ELLs). At our recent board meeting, the Executive passed a motion to change the name of our PSA to TESOL PSA. (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). It’s been checked out, and TESOL international would allow it. The motion will be discussed and voted on at out October AGM.
Mmmmm! And good for you too.
The theme of the next Newsletter will be : English learners who are well educated and
highly literate in their first language(s). If you’ve got some theory, practice, stories or questions, please send them along. Who knows something about ELLs who are highly literate in L1 and who have lots of background knowledge? Send along your ideas to: [email protected]
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Friday, October 24, 2014 is the Provincial Professional Development Day. Tell a few friends about this fabulous line up of internationally renowned
experts in the field of English Language instruction.
Registration will be through the website: visit http://ellpsa.ca/
Our AGM is at lunch. There will be lots of opportunities to get involved.