Day Three (Friday, Mar 17) - Flagging a bit
Couldn't rally for the 7:30 session (won't tell you what it was because it sounded good), but got out of bed in time for "Designing Web-based Integrated Tests" at 8:30. It was unmemorable but I'll get the handout if I can (none were available at the session. In fact, it seemed that the presenter was standing in for the one scheduled).
At 12:30 I went over to catch the 6 or 8 poster sessions I was interested in that were all on during a 45 minute period. The exhibit area was very crowded and only one presenter had any handouts left by the time I got around to their presentation. Titles of some of the posters I tried to see were: "Corrective Feedback During Synchronous Online Tandem Conversations;" "Blogs for Fluency, Pragmatic, and Rhetorical Skills;" "Using Web-based Authentic Texts for EFL Reading Classes;"
"Literature Circles for Cooperative Reading, Creative Response;" "Concept Maps in Content-based Language Instruction" (for Tony Wilson!); "Five Minute Student Music Videos A-Z;" "Analyzing, Designing, and Implementing Rubrics in the Language Classroom."
I had heard from Karen Fernandez by email that Catherine Haras (formally one of Highline's reference librarians before she left for a job at Cal State LA) was going to be presenting at the conference so wanted to be sure to catch her. As it happens, I ran into her before her session. She seems to be doing great. She and her partners gave a good presentation at 2 PM called "Preparing ESL Students to be Information Literate." It was built upon parts I'd seen presented at Highline, but had lots of good new stuff. It inspired me to create more substantive units for my course in each quarter over the year. Sessions I had to miss at 2 PM to see this were "Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Advice" (sounded like a novel approach for authentic interaction) and "Daring to Enter the Blogoshere."
The next two sessions, at 3 and 4, were in the same room, so I just stayed put. They were: "Weblogs and ESL Writing Development" and "Reconstructing Peer Review for Today's Universities." The blogs session was good. The key point for me was the notion that it's good to avoid the "turn-in, grade, hand-back" cycle. The presenter cited Marcy Bauman (1997) who posits that grading every writing assignment sends the message that students should write for the sake of evaluation. The presenter said that having students write with the expectation that everything they produce will be corrected and graded defeats the real purpose of writing, which is for communication. He mentioned having taught previously using "The Silent Way," a method developed by Caleb Gattegno more than 40 years ago that requires that the teacher does not speak at all. The Silent Way and this presenter's method of allowing students to write without marking any but a random 4 essays facilitate deductive learning. The presenter reports that his students become engaged in the communicative task and that they improve through negotiating meaning with readers out of interest to present the best work they can.
The following session, "Reconstructing Peer Review for Today's Universities," reported the presenter's study that compared 2 adult ed writing classes in Germany. The presenter wanted to improve results in classes that traditionally required students to produce only two essays, at midterm and final. For her study over one semester, she taught one class the traditional way, with only 2 essays written, both marked, and with a second class, increased the number of required essays to 6, but, like with the other class, marked only 2. Results showed that students preferred to have the extra writing practice and that they showed improvement compared to students who didn't have the extra writing, though they received no additional teacher feedback. This presenter's conclusion was similar to the previous one's: students learned better when they took responsibility for their own work, and paid attention to the communicative interactive with their peers. The two sessions paired very nicely back-to-back.
Well, there were a couple of colloquia I had wanted to attend, but didn't because they were 2 hours long. "Nonnative Teachers, Race, and the Postcolonial World" sounded particularly interesting. Another one I would have loved to attend was "Teaching Language and Culture Through Hip Hop." You can see the range of topics that were covered at this conference!
In the evening I met up with an old acquaintance from Kuwait University. I had known her in the 80's. She came to Amal's and my presentation and introduced herself. We strolled down the street away from the hotel to a little shopping/restaurant mall, looking with trepidation at some of the places that were already overflowing with St. Paddy's Day celebrants. But we found a very pleasant Tapas place with a patio, and had a nice meal while talking of Kuwait as it was and how it has changed. I hope that she and I will keep in touch!
Couldn't rally for the 7:30 session (won't tell you what it was because it sounded good), but got out of bed in time for "Designing Web-based Integrated Tests" at 8:30. It was unmemorable but I'll get the handout if I can (none were available at the session. In fact, it seemed that the presenter was standing in for the one scheduled).
At 12:30 I went over to catch the 6 or 8 poster sessions I was interested in that were all on during a 45 minute period. The exhibit area was very crowded and only one presenter had any handouts left by the time I got around to their presentation. Titles of some of the posters I tried to see were: "Corrective Feedback During Synchronous Online Tandem Conversations;" "Blogs for Fluency, Pragmatic, and Rhetorical Skills;" "Using Web-based Authentic Texts for EFL Reading Classes;"
"Literature Circles for Cooperative Reading, Creative Response;" "Concept Maps in Content-based Language Instruction" (for Tony Wilson!); "Five Minute Student Music Videos A-Z;" "Analyzing, Designing, and Implementing Rubrics in the Language Classroom."
I had heard from Karen Fernandez by email that Catherine Haras (formally one of Highline's reference librarians before she left for a job at Cal State LA) was going to be presenting at the conference so wanted to be sure to catch her. As it happens, I ran into her before her session. She seems to be doing great. She and her partners gave a good presentation at 2 PM called "Preparing ESL Students to be Information Literate." It was built upon parts I'd seen presented at Highline, but had lots of good new stuff. It inspired me to create more substantive units for my course in each quarter over the year. Sessions I had to miss at 2 PM to see this were "Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Advice" (sounded like a novel approach for authentic interaction) and "Daring to Enter the Blogoshere."
The next two sessions, at 3 and 4, were in the same room, so I just stayed put. They were: "Weblogs and ESL Writing Development" and "Reconstructing Peer Review for Today's Universities." The blogs session was good. The key point for me was the notion that it's good to avoid the "turn-in, grade, hand-back" cycle. The presenter cited Marcy Bauman (1997) who posits that grading every writing assignment sends the message that students should write for the sake of evaluation. The presenter said that having students write with the expectation that everything they produce will be corrected and graded defeats the real purpose of writing, which is for communication. He mentioned having taught previously using "The Silent Way," a method developed by Caleb Gattegno more than 40 years ago that requires that the teacher does not speak at all. The Silent Way and this presenter's method of allowing students to write without marking any but a random 4 essays facilitate deductive learning. The presenter reports that his students become engaged in the communicative task and that they improve through negotiating meaning with readers out of interest to present the best work they can.
The following session, "Reconstructing Peer Review for Today's Universities," reported the presenter's study that compared 2 adult ed writing classes in Germany. The presenter wanted to improve results in classes that traditionally required students to produce only two essays, at midterm and final. For her study over one semester, she taught one class the traditional way, with only 2 essays written, both marked, and with a second class, increased the number of required essays to 6, but, like with the other class, marked only 2. Results showed that students preferred to have the extra writing practice and that they showed improvement compared to students who didn't have the extra writing, though they received no additional teacher feedback. This presenter's conclusion was similar to the previous one's: students learned better when they took responsibility for their own work, and paid attention to the communicative interactive with their peers. The two sessions paired very nicely back-to-back.
Well, there were a couple of colloquia I had wanted to attend, but didn't because they were 2 hours long. "Nonnative Teachers, Race, and the Postcolonial World" sounded particularly interesting. Another one I would have loved to attend was "Teaching Language and Culture Through Hip Hop." You can see the range of topics that were covered at this conference!
In the evening I met up with an old acquaintance from Kuwait University. I had known her in the 80's. She came to Amal's and my presentation and introduced herself. We strolled down the street away from the hotel to a little shopping/restaurant mall, looking with trepidation at some of the places that were already overflowing with St. Paddy's Day celebrants. But we found a very pleasant Tapas place with a patio, and had a nice meal while talking of Kuwait as it was and how it has changed. I hope that she and I will keep in touch!
posted by Janiasea at 7:52 PM
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